Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Simon moved through the opened iron bars to the beginning of the dungeon.

Soon enough, he found himself in a long, narrow passage. There was no sign of humans, nor traces of jet-black.

The only thing he could easily sense was the musty odor of the underground assailing his nostrils. It was so dark he had to strain his eyes to see anything more than an arm's length away.

Simon took a cautious step forward.

Pchunk!

Something could be heard being fired a bit away. He stopped and stared straight ahead.

A pure white arrow was flying toward him.

'A Divine Arrow?'

That was when he heard Pier's voice.

[The power in that arrow is different from a normal Divine Arrow. Don't block it, dodge!]

Simon ducked his head at Pier's instructions.

A pure white flash passed right above Simon, and he could see the arrow clearly from tip to tail.

The arrow flew past Simon and lodged into the wall behind him. Hearing the wall cracking from the impact, it seemed that the arrow packed a serious punch.

'Now I see what it's like.'

[Kuhehe! If your instincts are starting up, then go in!]

Simon smirked and started running straight ahead.

Pshk! Pshk! Pshk!

This time, three shots were fired.

'The first is the same as before!'

He tilted his head back to dodge the arrow high up, continuing the motion to turn sidewards out of the way of an arrow headed straight at his heart. Finally, he dodged the last arrow by lifting his legs.

After standing back up straight, he began to seriously think.

'I didn't even step on a trap but they're firing regardless. Does that mean this test has nothing to do with disarming traps?'

Just as he thought that and took a step forward, he heard the sound of the trap mechanism activating.

Without a moment's hesitation, he launched himself up at the ceiling by detonating jet-black under his feet.

Rows of sharp points stabbed up from the ground, the tip of each spike coated in a purple liquid.

[It's a paralyzing poison! The trap will immobilize you within a minute of being stabbed and leave you vulnerable to arrows!]

'I don't even have a Kaizen uniform, so even getting grazed by that would've meant my end.'

He had spent too long thinking. Even in the air he wasn't safe from triggering traps.

The walls to his left and right flashed with light as if they sensed him descending to the floor, and a magic circle immediately formed on either side.

'Kugh!'

He couldn't afford to step into another trap here.

Simon calmly opened his subspace and pulled out a newly purchased pike for his skeletons. He slammed it into the ground and used it to carry himself forward like a pole vaulter.

Flames erupted from the walls where he was, licking at his heels.

Right as he landed, sweating profusely…

Clunk.

The tile he was stepping on pushed in.

'Just how many traps are there?'

Simon ran non-stop. The path behind him was quickly covered in narrowly avoided spikes and the starting wall was beginning to crumble from the number of arrows that struck it.

Every time he put a foot down, he stepped into yet another trap. There were more trigger points than safe ones.

At this point…

'It'd be faster to dodge them all instead of trying to find a pattern!'

Simon put all his strength into his feet and shot forward like a rocket.

He dodged the traps coming from all angles with ease, being long-gone by the time they fully activated.

[Boy! Above you!]

Not even taking the time to look, Simon immediately flung himself down against the floor and lay as flat as possible. A spiked log swung just above his head, slicing through the air with a murderous sound.

As the log reached the end of its arc and was about to swing back, Simon scrambled to his feet and dashed forward.

Clunk.

Click.

Fwooosh.

Trap after trap triggered over and over.

'Ugh, isn't this too hard?'

Simon dodged the flying divine arrows without consciously processing a single thing going on.

Now, he was crossing red beams of light that activated traps when he touched them. His leg brushed over one.

Pssssssshhhhhhhh!

A poisonous mist sprayed from the ceiling, making the already dim lighting even harder to see in.

Simon immediately stopped walking, conjuring over his mouth the 'Mask' magic circle he'd learned in Poisonous Alchemy.

As the spell turned into a thin film that filtered the air for him, Simon pulled a small cotton ball from his subspace and held it to the mist. The exposed cotton turned brown.

'Spore poison from red mushrooms. The antidote is the summer life herb.'

It was a poison he'd seen over and over in textbooks for Poisonous Alchemy.

He had also eaten plenty of it for practice, so he immediately took two potion vials from his subspace.

'Pier! I have to make an antidote, so please watch the front for me!'

[Alright!]

By now, Simon had gotten to the point where he could dodge the arrows purely from hearing them activate and having Pier tell him what height they were coming from.

As he continued to dodge arrows in place, he placed the potion vial on the floor. Combining the solution with the summer life herb, he removed his mask and gulped down the mixture, pouring the excess over his hands.

Then, he stepped deeper into the noxious mist.

Coated with the potion, his throat and skin tingled, but that was it.

[Kuhehe! I guess you weren't just dozing off in Poisonous Alchemy class!]

'Of course not.'

It felt good to use what he had learned in class.

This also made him consider that, if he mastered all of Belya's poison-eating lessons, he might be able to withstand the red mushrooms without an antidote.

'Almost there!'

The red button that would take him to the next stage was now in sight.

He wanted to clear this entire zone without getting hit.

Simon pulled out two skeletons from his subspace, disassembling them and attaching the bones to his legs. It was the partial Bone Armor transformation known as 'Bone Boots'.

'Okay, take a breather, and…'

He waited for the next arrow to fire and, as soon as he dodged it, broke into a sprint.

The walls flashed to indicate that he was caught in a trap, and the floor began to rattle.

However, Simon pressed forward.

Getting closer to the end, the difficulty seemingly ramped up, and deadly divine disks were flung out in quick succession.

Although he wasn't afraid of the divinity in the slightest, he didn't want the people watching to know that.

So, he calmly watched how the disks spun and dodged them all with the absolute minimum amount of movement required. One got so close, it took a single hair with it.

Taking a single sigh of relief before moving on, Simon took too long and the floor rose up in front of him, creating a wall.

Khhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrg!

The entire room began to shake.

Then, he could hear something rolling. Something big.

A boulder!

[Kuhaha! You're going to get crushed if you don't move fast!]

Low on time, Simon quickly wound his leg back to kick the mud wall in front of him.

Slaaaaaaam!

The wall broke open easily, even if most of the towering structure remained, and he jumped through the gap he made.

[Fire trap right ahead!]

"Got it!"

Simon put his hands on the floor and flipped forward, reaching the apex of his jump right in the middle of the room as fire from the floor, walls, and ceiling all tried to burn him to a crisp but barely didn't reach.

As he kicked his feet forward to safely land, the Bone Boots reassembled into skeletons who were commanded to run.

Ten meters to the button.

Right here, right now.

'Slash!'

Simon gave an absolute order.

Jet-black gathered in the two skeletons, and they both used 'Dash' to break through the traps and slashed the button with their swords.

Piiiiiiiing!!!

He could feel all the traps being disabled as the shaking finally stopped. Even the boulders rolling in behind the wall shattered as if explosives were triggered inside.

Simon picked himself up off the floor as he gasped for air.

Creeeaaak!

The wall cracked apart, opening the door to the next stage.

* * *

* * *

"Wooooooaaaaaah!!"

The crowd cheered enthusiastically as they witnessed Simon's impressive feat.

Most of the other students were either frightened away by the flying divine arrows or took a while to figure out the patterns.

The sight of one boy, the Special Admission No.1, triggering every trap and leaping through them was impossible not to make quite an impact.

"Yeah!! That's my favorite one right there!"

The commentator Belya was also shouting, slamming the table. The MC quickly took the opportunity to take the floor.

"He must have really studied Poisonous Alchemy, seeing how he made an improvised antidote!"

"Pfft! That's impossible! I heard he got a 60 in Poisonous Alchemy on his midterm test. He's an idiot when it comes to studying!"

As Belya burst into laughter, the MC chuckled along and asked a question.

"So, what did you find good about that student, Simon Pollentia?"

"Well, at first, I was just trying to take him as a direct disciple since he's the all-important S.A.1, but I'm growing to like him more and more. He's a similar type to me."

To you?

The MC almost said that out loud, but he held it back like a professional.

"You mean that calm-looking boy is?"

"Yeah! He has that wild sense! And above all…!"

Belya laughed, flashing her jagged teeth.

"He's fucking unique!"

* * *

Simon immediately moved to the second stage of the test.

Compared to the first stage, there was a significant upgrade in difficulty. The path was bigger and wider, and there were more traps.

Most notably, the traps didn't trigger when you stepped on them, but they just popped out and flew at you without any regularity.

Divine arrows, spikes on the floor, fire in the walls.

On top of that, divine whips crackled, divine spears fell from the ceiling, and occasionally the 'Exorcism' spell was triggered.

'They're using such dangerous divinity spells here?'

Simon was amazed at Kizen's viciousness in striking fear into the hearts of necromancers, even in a test like this.

Having taken in what was happening, Simon stepped into the gauntlet.

Frantically, he rolled, cart-wheeled, ran along the ceiling, and more. Once he entered, he could not stop moving.

It was also tough trying to pretend to be hurt by the divinity.

As he weaved through a hail of divine arrows, the crowd watched in real-time as several of them pierced his body.

They commentators showered Simon with praise for his indomitable will for being able to press through regardless, but in reality, he was perfectly fine.

"Huff, huff."

Eventually, he made it through. The lack of rest actually made him go faster than in the first stage.

'…Urk, there were some real arrows.'

Sometimes, normal arrows were shot with a coating of divinity. The one that hit him hurt enough that his bottom lip was trembling as he tried not to show weakness.

Simon squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed at the arrow lodged deep in his thigh.

"Hmmmph!"

Then, he pulled.

His thigh screamed with pain, the scream working all the way up his body until it tore through his mouth.

"Aaaargh!"

It was stuck in much deeper than he thought. The pain radiated up his entire thigh, and his entire leg felt like it was on fire.

Simon let go of it momentarily as he gasped for air.

The pain was so intense that tears formed in the corners of his eyes. He hadn't realized that pulling the arrow out would be more painful than it being stuck in.

[Of course it won't work if you try to forcefully pull it out!]

Pier scolded him.

[You can cast jet-black enchantments, right?]

'Ah, yes. I'm not as good as Rick, but I can do the basics.'

[Coat the entire thing with a small dose of jet-black and then pull the arrow out.]

Simon did as he was told. He coated the arrow with jet-black, and it came out cleanly.

He then poured a potion over the open lesion to stop it from getting infected and to restore some of the tissue.

The fact that it worked was so shocking.

Clatter.

Dropping the arrow, Simon swallowed his frustration at not being able to use divinity to bypass all of this because of the test before pulling out another vial of recovery potion.

Finally, the pain subsided a bit.

He stared at the next obstacle, which could be seen through the broken open wall.

The third stage was an even larger passageway than the previous one, and it was perfectly smooth.

There were no bricks, no tiles, no red lasers. It was just an empty tunnel.

And a red buzzer was at the very end.

But there was no hint of traps…

Simon cautiously pulled out two skeletons from his subspace and sent them in first. The skeletons leisurely walked forward.

Not so many steps after…

Shing! Slice! Swoosh!

Countless weapons came out of the ceiling. The skeletons were instantly buried under a mound of deadly instruments.

[Kuhaha! They're really serious this time!]

'Seems like it.'

Simon nervously opened his subspace again.

This time he pulled out the golem core. Placing it on the ground, Simon rolled up his sleeves.

'I have no choice. I'll use the blood golem here.'

——