Chapter 236
-Keeeeeek!
-Kugh!
A horde of kobolds, drawn by the noise, began to charge in, shrieking wildly.
Simon raised his right arm, sharpening his focus. Like bullets being loaded, the skeletons with emerald capes bent their knees.
Chpak!
The royal guard shot forward, drawing teal arcs through the air. With one dash, they sliced the head off the leading kobold, twisted their bodies, and decapitated the second.
A kill with every strike. With each flutter of the emerald cloaks behind them, monster heads tumbled to the ground. Their swordplay was so fluid and refined, it was hard to believe they were rigid skeletons.
[Boy! A kobold pack is approaching from the 4 o’clock direction!]
At Feer’s voice, Simon turned his gaze.
The skeleton archers nocked three arrows each and dashed forward, releasing them right in front of the kobolds. Three fell at once with each volley.
“Keeek!”
Other kobolds rushed in, swinging hammers and scraps of metal, but the skeleton archers swiftly dashed out of reach, reloaded, and before the enemies could close the distance, all the kobolds collapsed from arrows.
Simon simply walked forward. The royal guard danced around him, tracing dazzling teal trails as they guarded him.
From afar, the teal flashes looked like a shield, protecting Simon. Despite the kobolds pouring in like waves, just 23 skeletons were overwhelming them.
* * *
Waaaaaaaah!
The audience watching through the screen in Keyzen’s training grounds gasped in shock.
“Amazing!”
“What are those skeletons?!”
“He cast black magic on skeletons!”
The crowd’s excited cheers drowned the island.
No one was watching the screens of the other students. Arms raised high, they chanted Simon’s name. Those who bet money on Simon looked as if they were greeting a god, flipping out with joy.
“Of course, Special Admission No.1 is on another level! He’s had a plan from beginning to end!!”
The commentator, equally fired up, couldn’t stay seated and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Did you see that?! He’s granted the power of the Blood Golem to the skeletons!! 23 undead simultaneously controlled! And they’ve grown even stronger! Have you ever seen a summoner like this?!”
“Well, a freak’s a freak.”
Belya chuckled with her arms crossed.
“Professor! Is it really possible for a first-year to control 23 undead at once?”
“It’s nearly impossible under normal circumstances. But that’s not being controlled through ordinary thought.”
Belya laced her fingers together, her tone turning serious.
“I’ve traveled the world and fought all kinds of powerful people. But coating skeletons with Blood Golem’s essence to make them stronger? I’ve never even heard of that kind of ability.”
* * *
Shff! Shff! Shff! Shff!
The royal guard showed no signs of fatigue as they swung their swords. Corpses piled up in Simon’s wake.
But as he approached the Holy Grail, monsters other than kobolds began to appear.
A Grimmander. A medium-class monster raised by kobolds. It looked like a cross between a reptile and a chimpanzee, its body covered in tough-looking scales.
Whoosh!
Its belly glowed red, and it opened its gaping mouth to unleash a breath attack.
Simon didn’t dodge or defend. He just kept walking straight ahead. Two of his royal guard dashed forward.
Shing!
Their teal sword slashes crossed in an X, slicing the fire clean in two, dispersing the flames.
Fwoosh.
Simon pointed his finger. Two zombies shot out of subspace, and two other royal guards rushed over, grabbed the zombies, and launched into a dash.
The skeletons instantly closed the distance and hurled the zombies.
The zombies clung to the monster, biting into it, and from afar, Simon clenched his fist.
<Corpse Explosion>
Kwaaaaaaaang!
Two massive explosions erupted. The reptilian monster’s heavy frame crashed to the ground. All of that control had taken less than five seconds.
“And just like that, a tough monster is dealt with! Incredible!!”
As cheers erupted, the commentator passionately narrated.
“A skeleton-zombie combo! And the finishing move was the famous Corpse Explosion! It’s like watching the pinnacle of undead control! Is this really the level of a first-year?!”
“Hey! Move it! You’re blocking the screen!”
Belya, standing and grumbling in irritation, suddenly narrowed her eyes.
“Oh, this next one might be tough.”
“Huh? Ah! A new monster has appeared!”
Drawn by the recent explosion, a gigantic green monster, incomparable to the kobolds, was charging in.
“The apex predator of this ecosystem, a monster that even eats kobolds! It’s the Timber Troll!”
The massive, Tier-4 monster Timber Troll ignored the royal guard’s attacks and charged straight at Simon.
It swung its massive arms like weapons, and Simon summoned the Overlord.
Two tentacle blades rose to his left and right.
Chong!
The twin tentacle blades blocked the attack, causing the troll to recoil. In that opening, three other blades slashed at its neck and legs. But only shallow cuts formed; the troll remained unharmed.
“Ah! As expected, it’s tough! Even Simon’s prized summon couldn’t pierce that hide!”
“That thing was planted by Keyzen to be avoided.”
Simon calmly summoned another blade from behind him and raised his palm.
Two royal guard units nearby collapsed, and the Cloud flew over, coating the Overlord’s blades.
The silver blades turned a vivid emerald green.
<Flange Blade>
The blade swung, tracing a teal arc.
Slice!
The Timber Troll’s head flew high into the sky. Shrieks of disbelief rang out across the spectator stands.
“One strike! One clean strike took down the Timber Troll! Who knew it could be used like that?!”
While everyone raved about Simon’s performance, a broadcasting assistant was frantically gesturing for the commentator to cut the feed.
Snapping out of it, the commentator came to his senses.
Come to think of it, they’d been talking about Simon the whole time. He had a duty to cover as many students’ performances as possible, fairly.
“Well then, let’s check on the other students now! Ah yes, this is Hector Moore’s performance!”
When another student appeared on the main screen, some of the audience groaned in disappointment and booed.
The commentator, sweating bullets, continued the broadcast as if nothing had happened.
‘......Ssshh! Honey, Nelly, your dad’s working hard to earn this money, seriously.’
* * *
“Huff! Haaah!”
Simon panted heavily, his vision swaying and mental strength nearly depleted.
As expected, ‘Royal Guard’ consumed a significant amount of mental energy.
[Kehahaha! We went too wild! We should’ve just smashed the Holy Grail and bolted, but we’ve already cut down close to a hundred kobolds!]
‘True.’
Off in the distance, the Holy Grail could be seen atop the hill.
But more and more kobolds were swarming in. Their numbers now exceeded several hundred.
With only the royal guard—now down to 21 from 23—it was impossible to break through all that with sheer force. Simon’s mental energy wouldn't last.
For the third time today, he hit a wall. He clung desperately to consciousness, feeling as though his mind might collapse at any moment.
‘At this rate, I’ll burn out before I reach it. I’ve come far enough, the distance is good. Let’s hit the Grail in one strike.’
Simon raised his trembling right arm into the air.
Wuuuuuuung!
The same magic circle that had absorbed the Blood Golem’s Cloud earlier unfolded once more.
All the Clouds that had been moving the royal guard were sucked into the circle, and the undead returned to their standard forms.
‘This is the last one.’
With the magic circle pressed against his palm, Simon stepped on Darkness and leapt into the air.
—Please continue to show such brilliant ingenuity. Of course, that’s not as a professor of Keyzen speaking, but my personal hope.
Bahil’s voice echoed in his head.
—I left room to insert a formula that scales its power with your growth. It’s up to you now to complete the rest.
He also heard Aron’s voice. Those voices felt as though they were pushing him forward.
Just what he needed. Simon carved the additional formula midair and activated it.
Crack-crack-crack!
Originally, the ratio of Cloud’s blood to Darkness was about 6:4.
Now, he twisted that ratio dramatically.
‘I’m going to destroy the Cloud right here!’
Already distorted once, the mixture of Cloud’s blood and Darkness collapsed completely inside the magic circle.
Simon aimed that unstable force at the distant Holy Grail.
Fwaaaaaaaash!
The brilliant emerald power darkened into jet-black, dyeing the sky.
The principle was simple. Before learning Cloud, SM-1 originally had the effect of amplifying Darkness.
The same effect seen when he fired a Bloodshot at the shooting range.
That very same one.
‘Recreating it right now!’
If Cloud is ruptured, it transforms into a massive bomb with the same effect as a Bloodshot.
Simon transformed that bomb into an arrow and drew it on a bowstring of Darkness.
<Remade – Blood Arrow>
With a deafening blast, a pitch-black arrow was launched.
Even the mere release caused a shockwave that sent Simon flying several meters through the air. The deep blue energy consumed his blood, swelling ever larger.
And precisely—
Thunk!
The arrow shattered the Holy Grail, striking into the ground and triggering a massive explosion. Monsters packed in the area were flung high into the sky, and the blast radius spread out in a fan shape for hundreds of meters.
As his vision faded, the voice of the memorization spell echoed in his ear.
—You have cleared the Stage 4 test.
—The exam is now concluded.
As teleportation took hold, Simon lost consciousness.
* * *
“…!”
Simon, who had passed out completely, opened his eyes wide.
It was a hospital room. He was in a patient gown, with tubes inserted in various parts of his body.
He saw his shredded gym uniform, and a mana screen at the end of the room was showing a match.
‘So it’s over. I’ve been in the hospital a lot lately.’
Simon turned his head in relief. Seeing the door tightly closed, he spoke.
“Feer?”
No reply.
Did Feer’s clone fall off my clothes during the transfer?
Startled, Simon tried to sit up—
Wriggle, wriggle.
Suddenly, something bulged under the white blanket. It squirmed slowly like a caterpillar.
“Waugh!”
Simon recoiled in shock, and the blanket was suddenly thrown off as a small girl popped up with a boing.
“Hiiiii!”
“Lady Neftis!”
“I heard you collapsed again, so I came to check on you!”
She was chewing something in her mouth.
When Simon realized what it was, he froze in horror. It was Feer’s clone, shaped like a badge.
She bit down hard with her teeth a few times, then pulled it out of her mouth. It was soaked in spit.
“Bleh, it tastes gross.”
She tossed the badge into Simon’s lap.
The moment it touched him, Feer’s shrill voice rang out furiously in his head.
[I’ll kill her! I’ll kill that woman! How dare sheeee!]
‘……Hahaha.’
“Shouldn’t you at least say hi first?”
Neftis wiped her mouth and gave a cheerful smile.
“Congrats on passing the test, Simon!”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters