Chapter 225
Walter’s offer to become his direct disciple.
It was already the second offer to become a direct disciple in recent days.
But without much hesitation, Simon bowed his head.
"I'm sorry."
It seemed better to clearly express his refusal without leaving room for misunderstanding here.
Walter didn’t ask for a reason. He simply nodded with composure.
“If you ever change your mind, don’t hesitate to come talk to me. If you join forces with me, your haematology will improve far beyond its current level.”
“Yes, thank you for your concern.”
Walter smiled gently.
“You can give your thanks directly to Professor Sillage later. All the research is supervised by him, after all.”
“Of course. Once I return to Keyzen, I’ll definitely go greet him.”
Simon bowed to Walter and left the lab.
* * *
And so, the first class of Haematology ended without incident. Simon headed to the cafeteria with his team members for lunch.
“If you pick up a tree on the road? Wood-uck!”
Dick’s 20th attempt at a joke finally landed.
Kamibarez burst into laughter, and Maelyn, too prideful to laugh, merely twitched the corners of her lips.
Catching that reaction instantly, Dick shouted,
“Yes! Maelyn finally laughed!”
“I-I didn’t laugh!! Why would I laugh at something like that...!”
Flustered, Maelyn tried to make excuses, which only made Dick and Kamibarez laugh louder and more boisterously.
Watching them with a smile, Simon drifted into thought again.
‘A new power.’
He had rejected Walter’s offer to be his direct disciple, but for Sillage’s sake, he had no intention of neglecting this new technique. How could he use it most effectively?
‘Now that I think of it, maybe I should try it again?’
He drew a drop of blood from his index finger and unfolded the magic circle Walter had just taught him. As the blood combined with the circle, smoke with a unique pattern resembling a snail shell began to rise.
It was strange how the fusion of blood and Darkness gave off a vivid emerald hue.
It felt like it had transformed into a completely new, third substance.
Simon flicked his finger up and down, and the smoke moved accordingly. When he stretched his finger sideways, the smoke shot off like a bullet and wrapped around a sauce bottle on a neighboring table.
‘It really feels like grabbing something with my own hand.’
The control of Cloud was as easy as moving his own body.
The smoke returned and handed Simon the sauce bottle. After deactivating Cloud, Simon added some hot pepper sauce to his steaming bowl of noodles to season it.
“.......”
But at some point, his friends had all gone quiet. Looking up, Simon saw the three of them staring in shock, each with their own unique expression.
“W-What the heck was that just now?!”
Maelyn shouted in surprise.
“...Whoa, that was kind of cool, you know? Picking up something without touching it is like... a dream.”
Dick said, clearly impressed.
“That was amazing! Is that Simon’s new skill?”
Kamibarez asked, eyes wide, hands clasped together.
Their reactions were more intense than expected, and Simon gave an awkward laugh as he explained.
“Professor Walter just taught me that earlier. He said it’s a new application of SM-1.”
“That new blood type you have?”
“Yeah.”
Simon turned his focus back to the food and began blowing on his noodles.
Oops, it was really spicy. He’d added too much sauce.
“So that means Simon will be joining us in Haematology class now?”
Kamibarez asked with a bright smile.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“That’s really great! I always felt bad seeing Simon sitting alone during Haematology class!”
Now that she mentioned it, he suddenly felt a rush of happiness. Finally, he could take Haematology properly from now on.
As Maelyn picked at her lentil salad, she suddenly looked up.
“Ah, what’s our next class again?”
“Summonology!”
Dick immediately replied.
“We’ve got it two days in a row, but this week, this’ll be the last Summonology class.”
“Professor Aron really packed the schedule! I hope he’s not heading out on another mission.”
Listening to Dick and Kamibarez’s conversation, Simon paused to think.
‘Ah, come to think of it…….’
* * *
The location for the second Summonology class was the same racetrack as yesterday.
“Today, we’ll review Skeleton Dash, which we learned in the first class.”
Aron stood with his arms crossed and continued.
“Let me be clear, if you still fail this time, points will be deducted from your assessment.”
That one sentence was enough to ramp up the students’ focus and participation to an all-time high.
Hands shot up everywhere asking for help or feedback, and the assistants were busier than ever.
“Maintaining the skeleton is the first priority. Dashing comes after that.”
Aron personally supervised the students’ practice. The first student he assisted was Cindy Vivace, who was at risk of failing all her classes except Spiritology.
“You’re focusing too much on the dash, that’s why only the legs shoot out.”
“But when I focus on maintaining the skeleton, it doesn’t dash at all!”
“Even so, the binding comes first. You’ve got your priorities wrong.”
Taking Aron’s feedback, Cindy shifted her focus to maintaining the skeleton’s binding before ordering it to dash.
The skeleton’s foot slid forward just a few centimeters from the starting point.
“Ugh. I knew it...!”
“Good job. That’s how you build a sense for it.”
“But the others’ skeletons are dashing fast and clean, you know.”
Vroooom!
Just then, behind Aron, Simon was lining up skeletons and ordering them to dash.
Cleanly severed straw targets flew into the air and landed neatly around Aron’s feet.
Aron ignored it, staying focused on giving Cindy feedback.
“If you stick to the basics, the distance will come naturally over time.”
Swish!
“But if you rush and your foundation crumbles, everything falls apart.”
Vroooom!
“No one starts out perfect. You need to invest time and…”
VROOOOOM!
“Simon Follentia!”
Aron turned around and shouted.
Simon, having successfully executed a dash with five skeletons, turned to him with an innocent expression.
‘…What a sly little snake.’
Aron let out a sigh, then closed his eyes and said,
“You stay after class.”
“…Ah!”
Whenever Simon failed to learn something during Aron’s class, the professor would always provide extra lessons.
As if waiting for those words, Simon broke into a wide grin.
“Yes, Professor!”
* * *
After the regular Summonology class ended, Simon and Aron met in the open field behind the track. They exchanged a few updates about how they’d been.
“You learned Corpse Explosion…?”
Aron asked, his face turning serious.
“Yes! Should I show you?”
“Who taught you?”
Simon had been expecting praise for learning a new skill, and was caught completely off guard.
Aron wore a terrifyingly serious expression, with no trace of humor.
“This is an important question. Don’t look away, answer honestly.”
With the Fifth Legion Commander Magnus’ influence spreading, any information linked to him had to be completely suppressed.
Even if his lips were torn apart, he couldn’t say it was Yona. And bringing up the name Richard Follentia was also too risky.
Though it was a bit cliche, Simon decided to make something up.
“A retired necromancer stayed at our home during vacation. From him…”
Naturally, Aron didn’t look convinced.
“Draw the magic circle.”
His voice was so cold that Simon involuntarily shivered.
Reading Aron’s mood, Simon obeyed and drew the Corpse Explosion circle he normally used.
Aron’s eyes scanned every part of the circle, analyzing it thoroughly.
“…Haaa.”
A sigh of relief escaped Aron’s lips after a moment. Simon swallowed nervously.
“Who did you say taught you?”
“Ah, a friend of my father’s. Is something wrong with it?”
After another moment examining the circle with interest, Aron let out a soft exclamation.
“That’s incredible.”
Simon’s eyes widened.
“The formula for Corpse Explosion is optimized for fast casting, but the power hasn’t been compromised much either. There’s a slight risk of mental overload, but in real combat where one misstep means death, this kind of configuration is only natural. This is a thoroughly battle-ready magic circle, built with the insights of someone who’s cast it thousands, tens of thousands of times.”
Was it really that impressive?
When Richard taught Simon the Corpse Explosion circle, he’d said it was a simplified version of the one he actually used.
“You learned from someone excellent.”
Click.
Aron pulled out a cigar, lit it, and took a puff. He turned away, exhaled the smoke, then looked back at Simon.
“As you know, Darkness has the property of ‘memorization’. If you learn flawed or unnecessary formulas, or ones with serious problems, correcting them later becomes a nightmare. This is especially dangerous for students like you, still in the middle of learning. That’s why you mustn’t learn black magic from just anyone.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“No need to be. If you’d learned Corpse Explosion from me, I would’ve taught you a heavier version. But this compact version isn’t bad either. It even leaves space to embed formulas that can increase its power as you grow stronger. Filling that in will be your job from here on.”
Aron crossed his arms.
“Whoever taught you isn’t just anyone. I’d love to meet them one day and have a talk.”
If even a professor at Keyzen was saying that much, it must be surprising. But Simon quickly put up a boundary.
“U-Uh, aside from being my father’s friend and someone I met often as a kid… I don’t know much about him.”
“Right. There are still a lot of reclusive necromancers out there. That’s enough about Corpse Explosion.”
Aron casually flicked the ash off the end of his cigar and continued.
“So, what do you want to learn from me this time?”
“Ah, that is…”
Simon explained everything that had happened in Walter’s lab and even demonstrated Cloud in front of Aron.
But maybe because it was a Haematology technique, Aron looked unimpressed, unlike the reactions of his group members.
“I don’t see why you’re showing this to me. Professor Walter probably knows more about Haematology than I do.”
“Ah, it’s just…”
Simon scratched the side of his head and gave a bitter smile.
“Actually, I recently turned down Professor Walter’s offer to become his direct disciple. Since it’s not in any textbook, I felt kind of bad asking him questions…”
“……”
“So I was wondering if there might be a way to combine this power with Summonology.”
Aron took a long drag on his cigar.
A long one.
He finished it, pulled out a new cigar, and lit it.
“…A completely unknown Haematology technique. And you want to combine it with Summonology.”
Tap tap.
Flicking the ash from the cigar again, Aron looked at Simon.
“When you become a second-year student, you’ll encounter something called ‘Fusion Studies’. It’s for cases where one field of study isn’t enough, so you combine knowledge from different fields to create synergy.”
“Ah! Then that means Haematology and Summonology too!”
“Of course. Teaching it wouldn’t be a problem, but fusing your original Haematology technique with Summonology… that’s a bit tri—…”
Muttering under his breath, Aron suddenly widened his eyes.
“Wait. You said the smoke feels like it’s connected to your body, right?”
“Ah, yes.”
“And you share sensation and nerve input with it?”
“Yep.”
Aron reached for a third cigar… but put it back in.
After thinking deeply, he spoke.
“One week.”
“…Sorry?”
“Come see me after next week’s Summonology class. I’ll have it ready by then.”
Aron’s lifted chin and sharp gaze burned with academic fire.
“The next technique I’ll teach you… is Blood Golem, a third-year-level skill.”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters
Very good story and translation but half the chapter aren't for free and it is wayyyy too expensive will it stat like tjis foreve or will it get free after some time