Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

On the way to the 'Mutant' club room.

For Simon, Toto was a good friend he could always freely talk to.

Since they were both aspirants in the same subject and had a lot of things clearly in common, there was plenty to discuss.

"I think the final Summoning performance assessment is too hard!"

Said Toto, fidgeting with his clothes from the nerves as they walked side by side.

"It was already hard for me to make the skeleton mage spark a small flame, and now he wants us to create—I'll say it again—create one! It sounds like he won't give any points if we don't come up with something new!"

Toto, who had been ranting about the difficulty of the performance assessment, turned his head slightly to read Simon's thoughts on the matter.

"D-Don't you agree?"

Simon replied with an amicable smile.

"Right, right?"

Toto smiled and his fidgeting leasened, finding relief in having someone agree with him.

"On that topic… Simon! What are you going to make?"

Simon replied with a smile.

"A lich."

Thump! Crash!!

Toto, walking just fine, stumbled and fell forward to the ground.

Not even taking time to process what happened to him, Toto whipped back around on the ground and squeaked,

"A-Are you insane?!!"

A couple of female students walking by heard it and giggled, gently covering their mouths.

Toto's face turned as red as a tomato. He scrambled to his feet, and his fidgeting had only grown worse.

Then, turning to face Simon once more, Toto barely managed to stammer out,

"Are, are, are you serious? I mean, I don't think your Overlord or deimos were normal, but that's too—!"

Simon pulled out the book Aaron had given him from his subspace.

"Look, I have a book for it as well. I'm planning to slowly challenge this before the second-year promotion. You know what they say, shoot for the moon, right?"

"…This is more like throwing yourself into the sun."

Looking at the book Simon was holding, Toto's fidgeting hands suddenly froze.

"Liches and Life Vessels? Where did you get such a book?"

"Professor Aaron lent it to me. He said that, if I could make even the basics of a lich, he'd take a look for me."

Toto's eyes lit up, first with passion, and then longing and envy.

"…I-I also wanna try going into Professor Aaron's lab. Even once."

At that, Simon smiled.

"Try visiting him once. Professor Aaron may look like he sees the entire world as an obstacle to his sleep, but he actually likes students who want to learn."

"...That's because you're S.A.1, and the class's ace in Summoning. If I go, he'll probably—"

Simon slapped Toto on the back.

"Come on! Have a little courage!"

"Wah!"

It was just a light slap, but Toto staggered forward and he almost fell again.

"If you feel like you really can't go by yourself, I'll take you with me the next time I visit Professor Aaron's lab."

"R-Really?!"

Toto looked up at Simon, looking touched.

"You're really my role model, Simon! You're not only skilled, but you've got the looks and the personality, too! A three-tool player…!"

"…Please, there's no need to give me such praise. It's embarrassing me… Besides, we're friends."

Soon, they reached the door to the Mutant Club room. Like always, Simon flinched a little upon seeing the shabby exterior.

Taped to the door was a fluttering piece of paper that looked like it might fall off at any moment with the word 'Mutant' written on it in crooked handwriting.

Simon pressed down on the loose tape before saying,

"I'll knock."

Toto was staring at a nearby window, using his reflection to diligently check his hair. When he finally finished, he nodded.

Knock knock.

"Hello, this is Simon Polentia! Toto's here with me, too. We'll go in."

The two opened the door and entered the club room. As soon as they entered, they heard a roar of laughter.

"Hahaha! You're here, my comrades!"

She was explaining something enthusiastically on a movable board with a map of the continent pasted on it. A student on the sofa was listening to her.

'It's been a while since I saw this guy.'

The student with scholarly glasses gave off an unsociable, stiff impression.

On his lap were two books, [Why Do Men Need Nipples?] and [How to Explain with a Smile to the World's Idiots].

Simon greeted him with delight.

"Hello, Fitzgerald!"

Fitzgerald, the man with glasses from Class M. Simon almost forgot how his face looked, but he was also one of the members who joined the club at the same time as Simon and Toto.

"Yeah."

Fitzgerald adjusted his glasses and looked at Simon.

"I almost forgot what you looked like."

"…That's exactly what I was thinking. I thought you left the club."

"I show up two or three times a week."

It seemed like they just had bad timing. Fitzgerald set his books aside on the sofa and turned back to Benya.

"Then, please continue your explanation, President."

"Alright! I see that you're passionate about this, Comrade Four-Eyes!"

Simon wondered what the two were doing, but they were just talking about that weird 'world domination' thing again.

Looking at the map, Simon realized that their target was Shahed this time, one of the four kingdoms.

"So you see, you can't do anything in the northern region of Shahed when it's snowing hard!"

Said Benya, slapping the board with the map pasted on it.

"So, we're going to conquer Shahed by creating undead that will pull our snow sleds!"

"What kind?"

"Of course, we're going to turn the reindeer in that region into undead! Wouldn't they be strong against cold weather?"

"If we're looking for cold resistance, don't you think a form of ghoul that can retain its fur would be advantageous?"

The conversation continued like that. It was kind of a strange form of idle chatter.

It seemed like it would take a while before Simon could talk to Benya, so he decided to wait while repairing the Overlord.

Setting Professor Aaron's book down on a nearby shelf, Simon sat down on the floor and took out the Overlord's tentacles from the subspace, then grabbed a rag and some slime lubricant from the shelf.

"I'll help you, too, Simon!"

"Thanks."

As Simon and Toto repaired the Overlord, Benya—in the middle of discussing world domination—looked over toward Simon's book.

* * *

* * *

"Oh! That book!"

Benya rushed over and snatched up the book Simon had set down.

"[Liches and Life Vessels]! This is written by my grandfather!"

Her grandfather was the current president of the Vanilla Group.

"Senior, do you perhaps…"

This was sheer luck, but Simon wasn't one to pass up an opportunity like this.

"Do you perhaps know about the upcoming Summoning assignment for the first-years?"

"I heard it from Comrade Four-Eyes. It's about creating magical undead, am I right?"

"Yes, I wanna try creating a lich!"

The expressionless Fitzgerald widened his eyes in surprise, and Toto shook his head.

"As expected from my comrade!"

On the other hand, Benya was clapping her hands and laughing.

"Aren't you being too eager for world domination?"

"…Haha."

"Alright! Nothing is unconquerable! Let me explain to you… the lich!"

She ripped the map off from the movable board for now, then picked up a piece of chalk.

"In a lich, there's something called the 'three elements'."

She wrote 'life vessel', 'skull', and 'staff' on the board in big, messy letters.

"The hardest ingredient to find is the heart, which will become the life vessel!"

She continued, drawing an adorable heart under the words 'life vessel'.

"Because not just any heart can be the life vessel. You'll need a special heart!"

"Do you think I can get one from Vanilla?"

"You can, but life vessels are mostly custom–made. There's no stock, and if you request one, then we'll have to make it from what we have left. The cost will be extraordinarily high, too."

Simon nodded.

"Next! The skeleton that will become the lich's body! The skull, in particular, needs to be something special to withstand its enormous volume of mana. This one will be a little tricky, too."

Finally, Benya pointed to the staff.

"And third is the staff! Necromancers these days somewhat avoid staffs for their own spells, but many of the older ones still use them, and some people also use staffs for very specific spells."

Her hands were a flurry of motions, changing between numbers, gestures, and mock poses faster than she could speak.

"However, for any kind of magical undead—liches included—the staff is almost a necessity. The spatial perception of an undead is very poor, and this is best balanced by using the staff's magic stones to channel magic into the staff."

"I understand, President."

Fitzgerald nodded, pushing his glasses up. A twinkle of light reflected off of them.

"So, in conclusion, if you want to make a lich, it is practically impossible to gather the ingredients."

"Well, to be honest… I guess so? Besides, even with the ingredients, there's no guarantee of 100% success, either."

Simon pondered for a moment, then said,

"Senior, do you remember the skeleton's skull I entrusted to you last time?"

Simon was referring to the skull of Manus, the Ancient undead he had acquired from Death Land.

"Hm? Ah! I remember!"

"How about that as the lich's skull?"

She was buried in her thoughts for a moment.

"Hmm~ Actually, we've pretty much gotten all the data we could extract. We were preparing to make it a melee skeleton for you, but I'm not so sure about how well it will work as a lich. Do you want me to bring it?"

"Yes! I'd like to finally check it out again. As for life vessel and the staff…"

For these, it seemed like he had to purchase these with money.

After some silent contemplation, Simon spouted out,

"Would Vanilla also be interested in the corpse of a monster duke?"

"Hm?"

Benya blinked.

* * *

Back when they were dispatched to the neutral area, Simon and Rick were having a small break between raiding hideouts with Vengeance.

Rick was the one who started the conversation.

"You know, about that monster duke? Ownership over it must belong to you since you're the one who hunted it. Don't you think it's a waste? I bet it'd be worth a pretty copper."

He was talking about the corpse of the monster duke.

Simon did hunt it during the BDMAT, but he didn't think it would be possible to retrieve the body. After all, it would've sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

"Well, I'm sure you can get professional salvage businesses to pull it out! They can even bring old wrecks up to the surface, so a corpse should be no problem!"

Rick was confident.

"It's been in the sea for over a week. Don't you think the fish would've eaten it by now?"

"I mean, you're going to use it as undead, aren't you? You just have to salvage the bones and special organs."

Simon knew well that Rick had an incredibly good nose for money, if nothing else.

In exchange for a 5% cut of the total income, Rick offered to arrange the contract with the salvage business, as well as managing the preparations to dredge the corpse of the monster duke.

Simon didn't see any problem with this, so he delegated the work to Rick and prepared to sell it to Vanilla or ask them to auction it once it was recovered.

* * *

Back in his dorm, Simon smiled as he unpacked the events of the day.

"That's a good idea! I'll see the condition of the monster duke before deciding on anything!"

Benya's response seemed favorable.

He'd make good money if Vanilla took it or it was placed up for auction. It would probably be enough to buy a good staff and life vessel for his lich.

'Anyway, I need to get this ready.'

[Wooof! Bwooof!]

Simon stroked the head of his teddy bear plushie, which had climbed up his dormitory desk and was acting cute.

The living plushie was called Akalion, and it was actually a divine beast.

However, even in Kizen, it was just another wild animal or monster unless Simon gave it divinity.

'Professor Farahann would be surprised if he heard about this.'

Simon was originally planning to wait until Farahann's next class for his tutoring, but he ended up making an appointment with him for tomorrow morning and was planning to visit him.

He couldn't neglect his divinity, nor his lich crafting.

'One day, if I end up fighting Magnus…'

Simon stayed still and stared at his left fist.

'Divinity might become the biggest key to victory.'

——