Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

The Summoning performance assessment began right away.

The students rushed to pick out their 'rune shard' and 'staff'.

"I've never had a class as interesting as this before!"

Said Meilyn, her cheeks red with embarrassment as she fiddled with the rune shard. Simon nodded in agreement.

The 'Magiste system'.

It is a system for storing magic circles so that they may be repeatedly activated with the right technique.

When a student places a rune shard on the magic circle prepared at the front of their desk and supports the shard with the appropriate formula, the other magic circles within the shard will interlock, working to maximize its functionality.

While the summoning magic circle that this is all based on top of is far more complex than this, the Magiste system was created for the purpose of testing and developing the best summoning magic circle once the framework had been made.

"Simon! Simon! Look at this!"

"The rune of internal blood! I heard that we're learning about this in the third year! We can even use these difficult runes!!"

"Really? That's rather interesting."

Simon also slowly rummaged through the runes.

But the problem was…

"Give it to me!"

"I called dibs on it first!"

Because the students all rushed in, competition was fierce.

The runes quickly started to run out as Simon hesitated. Students like Rick, blindly grabbing the rune shards, started to appear one by one.

"Now, now. Don't fight!"

Said an assistant teacher as she approached.

"There are plenty of rune shards. If you can't find the rune shard that you want, please come to the lab next door."

Simon and a few other students took that advice and followed the assistant.

"Wooooaaaah!"

The shelves were lined with rune shards, and underneath them were detailed descriptions of the runes and examples of appropriate formulas for them.

Meilyn's face was awash with childlike joy and wonder.

"What's with them? Why are they going this far for us?"

It was natural for Meilyn to be this excited.

It takes a considerable amount of time to learn dark spells, after all. You have to understand its magic circle, get the flow just right, engrave the sequence into your memory, and tame the jet-black through repetition.

But here, you could just replicate the effect by simply swapping out the rune shard.

Meilyn grabbed a bunch of rune shards she liked.

'Mm.'

Simon didn't rashly grab any shards, instead taking his time and looked around like browsing a library.

[Rune of Frequency]: Used as the core for an Arrow of Communication.

'I wanna get a hang of the process for now. Let me start with this.'

Simon also picked up a rune shard and returned to the lecture room. The assistant teachers were shouting,

"Okay, first-timers, don't mess around with the equipment on your own. Call for an assistant teacher first to get an explanation before doing anything!"

Nonetheless, there were always those people who got impatient, tossing aside the manual and trying things out first.

Just then, the assistant teacher added,

"If you happen to break any of these, you'll have to pay 50 thousand gold for a replacement!"

Several students flinched, freezing in place as they were about to haphazardly stick the shards into their magic circles. One of the students let out a feigned laugh.

"Nah, 50 thousand gold for breaking one of these is…"

"The Magiste system is one connected whole. If even a single element is defective, the whole thing is rendered useless."

Just then, several students raised their hands with guilty faces. Simon also raised his hand, calling for an assistant teacher's attention.

"Rune of Frequency? Is this really what you picked?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, focus."

She inserted the rune shard into the center of the magic circle. Then, the rune shard sunk into the magic circle, seemingly melting into it. It was beginning to connect with the formulas.

"Just draw on the jet-black for the essentials such as important formulas, circuits, and the like. The system will fill in the rest."

As she sketched out the formula and pressed the activation point at the bottom of the circle, the magic circle's panels started working, completing the calculations and stacking the formulas to quickly complete the circle.

Beep! Beep!

At that moment, the magic circle suddenly turned red and malfunctioned. Startled, Simon looked at his assistant.

"What went wrong?"

"Ah! In this case, that just means it is 'overcapacity'."

"Overcapacity?"

"Yes."

The assistant teacher explained, holding up a finger.

"It means that it's a dark spell that exceeds the limits of what this 'Skeleton Mage' can use. Either too heavy, too powerful, or too complex. Basically, it is high-level dark magic."

"Aha."

It occurred to Simon that, if a skeleton mage could use even the highest levels of dark magic with ease, then there would be no need to major in Mechanics of Jet-Black in this era.

"For this situation, you can make it a little lighter."

The assistant teacher changed the number of projectiles from five to one.

Simon let out a bitter smile, only now realizing that the spell would have that many projectiles. It would obviously malfunction when the skeleton mage was designed to only fire a single, simple spell at a time.

"Actually, I did that intentionally to show you the error."

The assistant teacher laughed it off.

As the number was decreased to one, the magic circle hummed with energy as the overlaying circuits melted away. The circle flashed blue and then reverted to its original color.

What was left was far more streamlined.

"With that, it's ready! Try it out."

"Okay."

Simon placed his palm on the circle and commanded the skeleton mage to move using the mental link. The mage's staff pointed toward the barrier.

'Fire!'

As Simon's command was given, tiny beads shot out of the magic circle at the end of the staff, converging into a single point. Then, that point slammed into the barrier with a loud thud.

Simon let out a disappointed groan.

When he checked the barrier's gauge, it displayed 60% remaining. Soon, the magic circle repaired itself and returned to 100%.

"That was a close one!"

Said the assistant teacher, clapping her hands.

"Do you understand the process now? Just do what I taught again to tweak the circle further. If you want to break the barrier, you will need to change the formula or the circuit to make it more efficient or change the rune. Or, better yet, having the skeleton use a different dark spell would be another solution, too."

"Yes, I understood it perfectly. Thank you so much!"

It was certainly an interesting class.

The sound of magic circles being activated could be heard across the room, each soon accompanied with the sound of a barrier absorbing yet another blow.

"Ugh, this doesn't work, either?"

"I streamlined the efficiency as much as possible, though…"

However, most of the students hadn't even gotten that far. Their magic circles were turning red: they were 'overcapacity'.

It was because they got too greedy, ending up customizing the settings to the spell they wanted to see, not making it a spell that a skeleton mage could use.

"I understand your excitement, but this isn't a game. It's a performance assessment."

Said Aaron, looking at his wristwatch.

"You only have half of the class time left. Consider realistic specifications."

Hearing that, the students came to their senses and scrambled to change their rune shards, focusing on runes of the spells they were confident in or changing to easier ones.

"Ah~ This is difficult."

Rick was preparing three shots of the high-level dark spell {Atomic Blast}.

"…Wake up, Rick."

"Let me try just one more time!"

* * *

* * *

"Jamie Victoria, succeeded! Spell used: {Scratch}."

With only 15 minutes left in the class, more and more students were succeeding. The successful students had their names written on the board by the assistant teachers, with the spell they used written next to it.

"Jamie Victoria, succeeded! Spell used: {Scratch}."

"Pierre Berkeley, succeeded! Spell used: {Impaler}."

"Kathryn Theurel, succeeded! Spell used: {Chain Lightning}."

Now, only ten minutes left, Meilyn smacked her lips and raised her hand with a serious face. The skeleton mage's staff moved.

"Please!"

A sharp pike flew in and stabbed into the barrier. For half a second, nothing happened, but then…

Shatter!

"Meilyn Villenne, succeeded! Spell used: {Ice pike}."

"It worked!"

Meilyn threw her hands in the air in celebration.

"…Could you be quiet?"

Said Cindy Vivace, sitting right behind Meilyn as she prepared her own spell. Meilyn looked at her curiously.

"J-Jet-Black Arrow?"

The most basic of the basics. A Jet-Black Arrow flew out and hit the barrier.

It was large and spun like a drill, chipping away the barrier until it finally shattered it completely.

"C-Cindy Vivace, succeeded! Spell used: {Jet-Black Arrow}."

Cindy straightened her back with a sense of pride and confidence as she watched the assistant teacher writing her name on the board.

Meilyn let out a bitter smile.

"…You're a little freaky, I see."

"Thanks for the compliment."

Currently, about 60% of the students had passed.

And the remaining 40% were frantically attacking their barrier with last-minute spurts.

'Now that I think of it…'

Meilyn's head moved.

'How strange. What's with that naturally-talented bastard?'

For some reason, Simon still hadn't finished, even though she herself and Camibarez had both already passed.

Meilyn clasped her hands together behind her back and mischievously stepped toward Simon.

"Hey, you need some help if you're stu—"

Her eyes widened as she looked at the magic circle.

"Wah!! What are you doing??"

Several students turned around, frowning at Meilyn's scream.

She blushed and muttered a few apologies, then turned back to Simon.

"A-Are you sure you understand what we're supposed to do? What? A [Rune of Transmission]??"

It was just a rune language used in communication magic. No matter how much she thought about it, it didn't seem to have anything to do with breaking the barrier.

"…"

But Simon seemed a little bit odd. It was like he couldn't even hear Meilyn's voice.

Muttering strange words and immersed in the magic circle, Simon's eyes were those of a madman. Saliva was pooling in his mouth.

'What enormous concentration…'

Slightly feeling creeped-out, Meilyn shivered slightly.

'But still, is he sure he got it right? Is he really set on using a rune of transmission?'

She did admit that Simon's focus was out of this world, but this time, she was worried that his focus was going in the wrong direction.

Poooooooow!

Just then, a loud bang drew everyone's attention.

"H-Hector Moore, succeeded! Spell used: {Dragon Breath}."

The barrier was quite literally shattered to pieces. Aaron walked over and took a closer look at his magic circle.

'I see.'

A dark spell unique to the family, used by the skeleton mage.

Of course, it wasn't the real Dragon Breath.

Hector had rounded off the runes and formulas according to the requirements to mimic the Dragon Breath. The mere fact that he was able to recreate some of his family's dark magic using an undead was a success that set him apart.

'I don't like using this expression, but he does live up to his family's name.'

Hector sighed lightly and looked at the board.

"?"

He looked at Simon, too, realizing that Simon's name wasn't on the board yet. Simon was still concentrating, fiddling with something.

Aaron spoke up.

"Three minutes left."

The students were attempting anything and everything now, and assistant teachers were quite busy writing the names of the successful students on the board.

"Simon…!"

Meilyn was biting her lips nervously.

"One minute left."

The eyes of Meilyn, Hector, and quite a few other students were fixed on Simon.

Because the Summoning ace of Class A hadn't succeeded in the performance assessment yet.

"20 seconds."

It was over. Most of the students had made their final attempts, then lowered their hands dyed with jet-black and accepted the results.

Simon was the only one who kept his hands on the magic circle.

At that moment…

Simon's skeleton mage's staff moved.

"It used magic!"

"Hm? Nothing happened, though."

While everyone was looking at Simon's skeleton…

Tap!

The changes started happening from somewhere else.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

In the lecture room, the staff of every skeleton mage that the students weren't controlling moved simultaneously.

"Ah!"

And the direction they all pointed was toward Simon's barrier.

Soon, the staffs fired.

Ka–toooosh!

Rrrrumble!

Dozens of spells were shot simultaneously, each flashing with a different color light and emitting a unique sound, creating a collage of spells fired from all directions.

And every single one of them was aimed at Simon's barrier.

The students still next to their skeletons let out a startled shriek, falling to the ground or ducking for cover.

And…

Riiiiiing!

The bell rang, signaling the end of the class.

When everyone raised their heads, Simon's magic circle had been shattered. Not even a trace of it remained.

"H-He controlled my skeleton mage?"

"My chain lightning…!"

Simon opened his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. The assistant teacher in charge of his area was still shaking before belatedly calling out,

"S-S-Simon Polentia, succeeded! Spells used: {Impaler], {Dragon Breath}, {Scratch}, {Chain Lightning}… and 30 more."

Hearing that, Aaron made a wry smile.

'What a crazy bastard.'

Soon, half the board was filled with Simon's name and the spells he used.

"H-Hey! What in the world was that?"

Asked Meilyn, approaching Simon.

"Hive magic."

Replied Simon, gasping for breath.

"I tried recreating Professor Aaron's magic."

——