Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Four days passed faster than light.

The day of the test had arrived.

Murmur murmur.

Once again, a large stage was set up leading from the entrance of Kizen, housing countless visitors to Roke Island. Anyone who could prove their identity was eligible regardless of class or nationality.

Finally, today, the second test of the BDMAT—the Broad Dark Magic Aptitude Test—would begin.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for waiting!"

Shouted the same colorfully dressed MC from the opening ceremony, bringing the loudspeaker crystal ball to his mouth.

"I am Conrad Hayabone, and it is my honor to have you all here again and to be your MC for the second BDMAT exam!"

The crowd cheered enthusiastically, and the MC gave a deep bow.

"The BDMAT is a test of extreme difficulty! But the students of Kizen have been honing their skills and preparing for this day! Will a new star emerge in the test, one who shall shake the entire continent? Stay tuned to find out!"

The MC's gaze moved to the side.

"Now I would like to introduce a Kizen professor, who will be providing live commentary for this test!"

Step. Step.

There were gasps from all across the stands.

A woman walked in, wearing elastic black bandages wrapped from her chest to her legs, wearing only a thin robe over them.

People were surprised to see such an unusual outfit, but brushed it off as another Kizen oddity.

"Hand it over."

She stepped up to the MC's side and snatched away his loudspeaker ball.

The MC, who nonchalantly brought the new crystal ball he had pulled out for her back to his mouth, turned his embarrassment into a smile.

"Now, Professor! Please give us a simple intr—"

"I'm Belya!!"

Her voice was deafening when amplified by the crystal ball, and the crowd had to cover their ears as pain filled their faces.

"I heard that a lot of parents came this time? I'm the one who's in charge of your kids' Poisonous Alchemy, and things are really crazy! Aren't you supposed to send your kids to Kizen after educating them like a person? These little brats keep rebelli—!"

"Ahaha! My sincerest apologies!"

The MC covered Belya's mouth in a panic.

However, he quickly felt a burning pain in the palm of his hand covering her mouth. He yelped and pulled his hand away.

"Hey, who do you think you're touching? You're actually going to die if you touch me wrong."

Glowered Belya.

The MC couldn't even show that he was in pain, having to just swallow back his tears.

The truth was that Jane, the vice-president, was supposed to be in charge of commentary for this test. However, Nefthis suddenly intervened and appointed a new person to take Jane's role.

When he asked why, she answered,

"It's going to be fun!"

'Fun, my ass!'

The MC pulled at his hair.

'Even if I'm a veteran, how am I supposed to co-host with a madwoman like this?'

"Hey, old lady! What are you staring at?"

Now she was trying to fight with the crowd…

Freaking out, the MC stopped her and quickly made a comment.

"My goodness, Professor! Your costume is so beautiful!"

"I guess your eyes aren't just for show, huh?"

Belya grinned, revealing her jagged triangular teeth. She was wearing her new uniform. Originally, she had tried to appear in her famous rags, but the makeup artists dragged her aside.

As a person who could draw poison and acid straight from her own body, whatever she wore would quickly turn to rags anyway. She had to buy new clothes every few days if she wanted something intact, which led to her just sticking with rags instead of going through that effort.

But this bandage artifact was safe because it allowed the poison to seep to the outside, and it would regenerate itself when the bandage spoiled.

The makeup artists also made her wear a black robe with the Kizen mark, which Belya allowed because she respected the effort they had put in. Even if the robe was already riddled with holes.

"Now, follow me! Let me guide you to your seat!"

The MC led her to her seat, desperately trying to keep her from fighting with the crowd.

With a thud, she sat down, then kicked her legs up onto the table in front of her.

"Bwahaha! Your sideburns are so funny! Are they supposed to be lightning bolts?"

Belya giggled and tugged on the MC's sideburns. The MC smiled patiently and took the comment like it was a planned prank, but inside, he was crying.

'My dear Nellie, my darling, this is what I do for a living.'

But still, a professional was a professional. He skillfully controlled his emotions and put on a smile.

"Now, Professor, please tell us about this test!"

"Ah, right!"

Belya raised her arm and snapped her fingers.

"Bring up the screen!"

* * *

* * *

Bzzzzzzzzt!

Countless mana screens unfurled above Belya's head. The mechanism looked simple enough, but dozens of servants were sweating profusely below the stage as they moved mana projectors.

"The theme of this BDMAT exam is dungeon exploration!"

All the screens were projecting images of a dark underground dungeon.

The spectators could see all sorts of traps, some firing arrows when triggered, others making sharp spikes shoot up from the floor, and a few releasing huge boulders.

The last one shown was a spiked log rolling over a fake corpse, making many of the parents shudder in fear for their kids.

"There are all kinds of terrible traps in the dungeon which the students will have to break through by themselves! In total, there are four stages of traps the students will have to face."

The MC quickly added,

"Then this test will be all about critical thinking and judgment to get through the traps safely?"

"Well, yes! At least for the first and second stages. But the traps in this test will almost always end up being triggered."

"What do you mean by that?"

Belya smirked and crossed her arms.

"Show us the third stage!"

The screen changed channels, and an empty room was displayed.

"I-Is this a trap?"

"Of course."

A single skeleton entered the screen, walking stiffly forward. Then, at its necromancer's command, it began to run.

As soon as the skeleton crossed a red line on the floor…

Shing! Slice! Fling! Swoosh!

Hundreds of blades flew out from all directions with such speed and sharpness that the ones that missed dug themselves halfway into the floor. The skeleton ran frantically but eventually got impaled by a spear and fell to the floor. A mountain of blades quickly formed on top of it, breaking it down into less than bones.

The entire stadium could be heard gasping in horror.

"The students are facing this?"

Belya shrugged.

Even the MC was flustered by the difficulty, which was much higher than he was initially informed.

"…You obviously do not mean to say that you will be putting students in traps quite this dangerous, right?"

"Huh? Why else would I be showing you these videos? Of course, they'll also be without their protective Kizen uniforms."

There was an uproar in the crowd. Panicked parents were crying out their children's names at the top of their lungs.

"It's too late! They signed the waiver and are in the waiting room. Just cheer them on."

Having enough of this mess, a noble with a bulging stomach shouted at Belya,

"Th-This isn't education or, or even practice! Get my son out of there right now!"

"That's right! This is too much!"

Some of the nobility protested, but Belya just gave them a middle finger.

"What flavor of bullshit are you all spouting?"

What absolutely stumped the audience the most was Belya's attitude toward all of this.

"I thought that Kizen sent out letters to all the parents before school started? That students will be getting prepared for real war, that it's going to be difficult, blah blah blah. Anyway, we informed you all, so know it within yourselves that you all agreed to this."

The noble who first shouted out his complaints, taking himself to be some form of spokesman for the parents, continued to argue.

"B-But…! I didn't realize it was this bad!"

"You didn't know? You didn't KNOW? My word, so all you can actually do is brag about how your kid is going to Kizen?! Don't you care about what your kids are going through? Damn, you fuckers don't even deserve to be called parents."

The man's fist trembled in anger.

Horrified, the MC ran over to try to interrupt her, but Belya continued,

"Also, we at Kizen aren't any old fools. Safeguards are in place, so just keep your mouth shut and watch. Keep in mind, our students are Kizen's necromancers before they are your kids."

In fact, the experienced parents were just calmly watching the situation from a distance. They knew very well that this was far from the first time Kizen did something like this.

"Our precious time is being wasted."

Belya brought her hands behind her head and leaned back into them.

"Tell them to get on with it."

* * *

Simon had to get up at dawn and was made to follow the instructions of assistant teachers to get to the teleportation magic circle. From there, the entire school teleported as a group.

There were a couple more teleports with increasingly smaller groups after that, the last few done blindfolded.

After a while, he was told to untie his blindfold, so he did. Looking around, he found himself in a dreary basement room with a single light bulb hanging from it. When he ran his hands along the walls, he felt the old paint flaking against his fingers.

In front of him were rows of iron bars resembling the wall of a prison cell. For first-years, they were practically indestructible and they had been enchanted to keep the Necromancy aspirants from phasing through.

'At least they went with the theme everyone expected.'

The place fully felt like a dungeon.

Simon hadn't studied the treasure hunter books Rick had gotten a monopoly on, learning skills such as disarming traps and navigating mazes. Instead, he spent his time perfecting his new skills.

'It's a shame that things have come to this. Should I have studied the general skills instead?'

[Bwahaha! There's no time to learn useless, petty tricks, Boy!]

Pier's voice came from his pocket. It was Pier's new, modified clone made to be undetectable by Magnus.

[In the end, it all comes down to skill! Trust the hard work you've been doing!]

'Yes, Pier. But above that, I'm glad to be with you again!'

[Kuhehehe!]

He'd been feeling a little lonely, so it was nice to have someone to talk to with Pier joining him, if not physically.

Simon sat down and waited, and after a while a broadcast came from the cell's ceiling.

[This is an announcement from the execution headquarters. We will now explain the rules of the second BDMAT.]

Hearing that, Simon jumped to his feet as his ears pricked up to listen. A mana projector on the ceiling activated, bringing up a screen in front of him.

[The object you see on the screen is what you must destroy to finish this test.]

The final objective was a replica of the 'Holy Grail' placed in a lavish display case. The concept seemed to be preparing students to destroy important artifacts like Efnel's Holy Grail in the inevitable war against the priests.

[Of course, the journey to destroy this 'Holy Grail' is long. The test ends when you destroy the Holy Grail after passing through several obstacles. You will be ranked on the time you took to destroy the Holy Grail. These are the buttons to open the doors to the next trial.]

On the screen was a red buzzer attached to a wall.

[Press these buzzer to open the doors between obstacles. That is all, good luck.]

Pier, surprised at how little was said, asked,

[Hmm. Was that it?]

'Seems simple.'

You press the buzzer and the door opens. Keep moving forward, destroy the Holy Grail, and you're done.

As always, the rules may be simple, but it won't be an easy test.

'It's a bit daunting to not have the Kizen uniform.'

All the students, including Simon, wore a single layer of loose-fitting gym clothes with no protective enchantments. The overall risk had definitely increased from the first semester's curriculum.

[We will now begin the test.]

The iron bars rattled upwards.

'Alright.'

Simon steeled himself and stepped toward the rising iron bars.

'Let's do this.'

——