Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

"Watch out, Jamie! Here they come!"

"Th-They??"

Bwoooosh!

A fruit came flying out of nowhere from the jungle. Simon quickly ducked to dodge it, and the fruit flew past him and smashed into the tree on the opposite side.

Crack!

Splinters flew and a sizable crater was left in the tree from the impact.

"…Woah."

Exclaimed Jamie.

"Even the barrier won't protect me fully if one of those hits me in the head…"

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

There were monsters with long arms reminiscent of a monkey's throwing the fruits.

They pulled fruits out from a pouch on their abdomen, throwing indiscriminately.

"Hah!"

Familiar with combat dark magic, Simon was slipping between each individual fruit with a suave confidence. Jamie tried following Simon, but after taking a few hits, she didn't dare to try again and conjured jet-black barriers on both arms.

Thud!

Thud!!

But the barriers wore out after only a few hits from the fruits.

As Jamie's face turned pale, Simon looked back at her.

"Do you think you can keep this up?"

"S-Simon! The front!"

A large boulder protruded from the rapids, perfectly placed by a malicious god to turn their raft to rubble.

Simon scrambled to his feet, fastened himself on the raft, and stretched his right arm behind him.

"Everyone, come out!"

His subspace opened, and the skeletons came out like lightning. As the skeletons moved, they disassembled themselves, connecting bone-to-bone to form one very long pole.

Simon grabbed it, placed it against the rock, and pushed it hard.

Creeeaaak!

Simon's strength plus the skeletons' self-magnetism barely stopped the rod from snapping in half as the raft narrowly turned and passed the rock by a hair.

"Amazing!"

While Simon was distracted with saving the raft, Jamie had at some point come up beside him, conjuring another shield to protect him.

They were working together quite well.

However, the moment didn't last long as a flying fruit disintegrated the already cracking barrier.

"Choose, Miss President!"

Shouted Simon as he dodged the ongoing volley of fruits.

"Do you want to hold on like this? Or do you want to do it my way?"

"I'm not Group 7, you know! What do you mean by your way?!"

"Overdoing it!"

The raft wasn't making any headway on the monkeys swarming around them, going too slowly to outrun them. Even now, the swarm of monkeys was still growing.

"Kugh!"

Jamie specialized in Curses. But unless you've focussed very specifically on area curses, it was hard for cursers to do much in situations like these.

"O-Okay! I don't know what you're after, but hurry up!"

A grin formed on Simon's face as he opened his subspace once more.

"Come forth, deimos!"

"What??!"

Splaaash!

The subspace opened, and the undead creature made of whalebones came out and entered the valley.

'So that's the summon that got Simon 1st place in the third BDMAT!'

Of course, Jamie knew about the deimos. Everyone was talking about it for a long while after the test.

Simon stretched his finger out.

'Cloud.'

Turquoise smoke flew out like a rope, one end wrapping around the swimming deimos, and the other tied itself to the raft.

'Every last detail matters…!'

Simon's fingers, directing the Cloud with even the slightest twitch, moved delicately as if playing a piano. The turquoise rope, now wrapped around the deimos and tightly coiled around the raft, then returned to Simon's hand.

"Excuse me, President."

Simon threw it toward Jamie, and immediately the turquoise smoke began to wrap around her.

"W-Wait! Why are you tying me up?!"

Shouted Jamie with a slight blush.

"I'm fixing you on the raft."

Simon moved the Cloud, sticking Jamie on the raft as if she were one with it.

He then also wrapped the Cloud around himself to make sure he wouldn't fly off, either.

Finally, getting as low as he could next to Jamie, Simon cheered,

"Let's do it, deimos!"

[Kieeeeeeeeeeee!]

The deimos started plunging forward, guiding the raft through the intense rapids. The world around them began to change at a tremendous speed.

Swaaaaaaash!

It quickly overtook the money monsters that were after them, jets of water forming either side of them as they carved through the comparatively slow currents.

"Faster! Swim faster, deimos!"

Shouted Simon.

"I-I-It's too fasssssssssssst!"

Jamie, lying next to him, was wishing she was back home as tears filled her eyes.

Simon was beyond the pace of this 'game'. The deimos charging forward was far faster than the monkey monsters that were meant to be an ongoing threat.

'To the right, left, right again.'

Simon kept his guard up and focused on the deimos' thoughts. He easily dodged the rocks along the way, and he didn't even have to worry about attacks from the monkeys anymore.

'We'll get to the goal at once with this!'

Simon also thought that he had shortened the long travel in no time.

Just then, a new screen popped up.

[Objective high score confirmed.]

[Additional objective: Hunt the boss monster.]

'What?'

Simon's eyes immediately snapped to the trees he had previously been ignoring.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

As the deimos sped down the current, something bipedal was chasing after them from the jungle.

He couldn't see it clearly, but trees were being uprooted every time the creature moved.

'An additional objective?'

He knew from the rulebook that there was only one main objective to complete to end the game, but that extra objectives could appear when certain conditions were met.

That moment, he saw the monster leap into the valley where he and Jamie was…

"Simon! Above us!"

Simon was also looking up.

'I don't think I can block this.'

* * *

* * *

Without a moment to think, Simon simply acted on instinct.

He immediately disconnected the Cloud from the raft, then stomped on his jet-black and jumped up. Jamie, who was still connected to him, was dragged along in the air with a scream.

Crush!

Not even a second later, a gargantuan gorilla came crashing down, its fist smashing the raft to pieces. Shards of wood flew in all directions.

Tap.

Dodging in the nick of time, Simon landed on the ground, with Jamie tumbling down right after.

"You're crazy! Crazy!"

Shouted Jamie, horrified.

"I can see how much trouble Meilyn and Cami are going through!"

"I'm merely doing what's best for the team."

Just then, the gorilla monster scrambled up the riverbank, charging toward them with its fur soaking wet.

The two quickly took up fighting stances.

[Kroooooough!]

The gorilla monster threw a punch.

'Open!'

Two tentacle blades rose from Simon's feet and crossed in front of him to form an instant shield.

Slaaam!

The tentacle blades swayed and bent. It was an unbelievable amount of strength.

"Kugh!"

Simon, connected to the thought of Overlord, groaned in pain. But he wasn't the type to let an opportunity slip by, commanding the four other blades to slice through the gorilla's body.

Blood spurted from the four wounds, making the gorilla enraged.

"Well done!"

Jamie, who had climbed a tree before Simon knew it, leaped onto the gorilla's back. She then quickly slid down, running her hands all the way down its back.

Flowers bloomed wherever her palms touched.

{Curse of Daisies}

It was super effective. The gorilla squirmed in what had to be pain, scratching furiously at its back.

"As expected from a curser!"

As Jamie leaped off and ran away, the gorilla monster started chasing after her instead.

That was when Simon boldly lunged in, sliding between the gorilla's legs as he swung his arm horizontally. His fist was laced with jet-black.

{Hong Feng Original - Bayonet}

Slaaaaaaash!

The sword strike of jet-black sliced through the gorilla's Achilles' tendon. Immediately, the leg gave out, and the gorilla crashed down to the ground.

"Phew."

Simon jumped up and stood in front of Jamie to protect her. She also stopped running and was preparing another curse.

[Kuwoaaaaaaaaa!]

However, the enraged gorilla wasn't done. Using its arms to accommodate for the injured leg, the monster clambered forward still with the speed of a charging chariot.

Then, Simon lowered his arm and came near Jamie's side.

"Simon?"

"Duck!"

Simon placed his hand on her shoulder, pushing her to the ground.

"Wh-What's wrong?! The monster is right in front of u—!"

Simon snapped his fingers.

"Tidal Cannon."

"!"

Ka-toooooooooosh!

A beam of water exploded out from the rapids and caught the charging gorilla right in the chest, slamming the beast into a wall of rock behind it.

Rrrrrrrrrrrumble!

The impact was strong enough not just to crack bone, but even the rock as pebbles, stones, and boulders broke off from the cliff and descended upon the bloodied beast.

Crush!

A splatter of blood washed over the nearby trees, bones and sinew alike being remolded like a gruesome putty. The creature was still alive, but the damage had been done.

It was losing a lot of blood, and all it was able to do was groan in agony.

"Woah…!"

Jamie's jaw dropped at the sheer display of power.

Simon stood up, drew his short sword, and finished the gorilla off.

[Additional objective accomplished.]

[Please claim your reward.]

The monster scattered into thin air, leaving two pairs of glasses in its place.

"Is this the reward?"

The two of them decided to take one each. When Simon tried his on and looked around, there was not much change.

"I don't know what kind of artifact this is."

"Let's just keep them. There must be some use for them."

The two started walking and returned to the valley.

"Aha."

Next to the remains of the raft that had just been smashed, there was a brand new raft. Apparently, new rafts were given when the monsters were hunted.

The two of them rode on the new raft, and the deimos pulled it.

"By the way…"

Jamie crossed her arms.

"From the books that my mom used to read me as a kid, there's usually a waterfall at the end of these kinds of currents."

"…You should be careful of what you wish for."

Swaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Sure enough, there was a waterfall right in front of them, dropping down into a sheer cliff. Jamie let out a scream of horror.

"Wh-What are you doing?! Stop the deimos!"

"Wait."

Simon pointed ahead.

"Isn't that the way out?"

A portal could be seen beyond the waterfall, hundreds of meters in the air. It was definitely the exit.

"A-Are we supposed to go through there to end the game? It's literally in the air!!"

"Looks like it."

Simon thought it was doable. He immediately returned the deimos to his subspace and pulled out some skeletons.

"Bone Armor."

The skeletons began to attach to his body. He put armor on Jamie next to him, as well.

"I've got something for you, too."

She drew a curse magic circle around both her and Simon.

"It's something to increase your opponent's weight, but I tuned it to do the opposite, so you should feel lighter instead."

"Okay. On my signal, I want you to stomp on your jet-black and jump up as high as you can."

"Got it."

Jamie nodded with a nervous face. The cliff was right in front of them now.

"Go!"

The two of them jumped into the air, their feet practically exploding with jet-black.

The raft plunged downward along with the waves, but they soared up higher. They could now see the portal to the outside directly in front of them.

'The distance is a bit far, but…!'

Simon gave an absolute order to the skeletons forming the Bone Armor.

Using the skeletons' natural pull, he created an upward lift for Jamie and himself, acting like a sort of gliding effect.

"I've now activated the curse!"

He definitely felt lighter. With their arms outstretched to further slow their falls, they safely made their way to the portal.

"It worked!"

Simon exclaimed in delight. Jamie winked.

"I got carried all the way by Mr. S.A.1. Thanks, I'll see you in class tomorrow!"

"You did well, too. I hope you find your next card soon."

They had gotten their first card.

* * *

Swaaaaah!

When Simon passed through the portal, he was back in the same valley as before. The walls of Kizen could be seen in the distance.

He had made it back safe.

"That was pretty fun."

Simon was happy to see the dark blue card in his hand. And the glasses as well.

First, Simon got out of the valley and climbed up onto dry ground.

Two hours had passed already. After checking the time, he put his glasses on and looked around.

"!"

He could not withhold his excitement.

'…This is crazy.'

——