Chapter 255
Toxicology class had begun.
By now, Simon even felt guilty about making eye contact with the assistants who brought poison sets to each student’s desk.
He quietly tossed the antibody chunk into his mouth.
‘Tastes like hair today.’
Humans were creatures of adaptation, they said. After repeating this for several weeks, his body had grown accustomed. He no longer needed to keep time, he could feel when the antidote had fully spread through his system.
He immediately picked up the poison and swallowed it.
The revulsion and discomfort had dulled.
All that remained was the wish that this painful time would pass quickly.
‘Ughhhhh.’
Simon raised his quill, feeling the poison spread inside him.
By now, Belya made everyone fill out a checklist after ingesting poison.
What flavor the poison had, what kind of pain and symptoms it caused, what type of poison it seemed to be, and which poison from the textbook it resembled.
And finally, they were to define the poison they just swallowed in a single word of their own choosing.
Simon wrote down “hair”. His mind was so hazy that the thoughts spilled onto the page without passing through his brain.
Now, unlike the first class, there were fewer students vomiting from taking the poison. The pain, too, was significantly more tolerable compared to that first session.
Someone had joked that adapting to this made them feel like a monster, and Simon agreed.
Finishing one dose of poison quickly, Simon moved on to the next.
‘This one tastes like fingernails.’
Of course, he’d never eaten hair or nails, but the flavor sparked such vivid images in his head.
Looking to the side, Dick was writing down fruit names, Maelyn wrote lipstick brands, and Kamibarez listed colors.
By the time they reached the third poison, Maelyn instinctively flipped a paper bag over her head.
Kamibarez started sniffing, and Dick stood up immediately after downing the third poison and declared he’d finished.
Among Group 7, Dick was the fastest to adapt to the poisons.
Simon, too, endured the pain and raised his hand to inform the assistant that he was feeling better.
After submitting his checklist, he was about to head into the adjacent lecture room for the theory class when—
“Hold on.”
Belya called out to him.
She was sprawled out in the very back seat instead of standing at the lectern, claiming she was monitoring the students. Of course, the students were too busy grappling with poison to notice she was even there.
As Simon approached, she let out a long yawn and tapped her shoulder with a fist.
“Sorry, but give me a massage.”
The assistant flinched and quickly offered to do it instead.
“It’s fine.”
Simon gave a gentle smile and walked behind Belya, placing his hands on her shoulders.
Belya, usually expressionless, flinched slightly, then sat up straighter and relaxed into the touch.
Suddenly, silence. She looked like a stiff cat whose nape had been grabbed, it was hard not to laugh.
“Wow, you’re good at this.”
Her voice was filled with genuine admiration.
“Did you learn massage somewhere?”
“I just got used to it from massaging my mom’s shoulders often.”
“Oho~ What a dutiful son.”
After a moment of wordless massage, Simon spoke quietly.
“Professor Hongpeng must be worried about you.”
Belya snorted.
“That woman? The one who cut all ties after I got kicked out of the grasslands?”
“Professor Hongpeng has been planting detoxifying herbs all around Roke Island and making drinks from them for the students. Regularly. Probably.”
Simon added in a very soft voice,
“Because of you, Professor.”
“………”
She didn’t respond. Since Simon stood behind her, he couldn’t see her expression.
Then suddenly—whap!—her hand darted back and grabbed Simon’s cheek.
“P-Professor?”
“You little brat. You think you know everything and try to meddle in adults’ business?”
She tugged on his cheek with a playful grin.
‘Ow, ow!’
It hurt enough to bring tears to his eyes. Simon squatted down in resistance.
“You little~”
She bared her sharp shark-like teeth and finally let go.
Simon rubbed his cheek and glared at her in silent resentment.
“Are you preparing well for the BMAT?”
Simon blinked at the sudden question.
“Ah, yes. I’m working hard.”
“If you get stuck on something, come find me.”
She lightly tapped Simon’s shoulder.
“No matter what kind of favor, this big sis will help you out. Once, at least, hardcore style.”
‘!’
Simon wasn’t sure why, but it felt like a huge gain for just giving a shoulder massage.
He definitely decided to keep that in mind.
“Thank you, Professor!”
“So stiff. When it’s just us talking, call me ‘Noona’.”
“Yes, Professor!”
“Kyahaha! You’re so uptight, brat!”
* * *
Though Belya offered to help, Simon couldn’t just barge in and demand she come up with countermeasures for underwater combat.
First, he needed to decide how he’d fight in the sea, what spells he’d use, and sketch out his overall combat style. Only then would it make sense to ask her for advice about what was lacking.
As he sat through classes, Simon’s concerns only deepened.
The professors clearly avoided teaching black magic that could be used in the ocean. That would’ve been no different from handing out the answers directly.
The most they did was offer indirect hints—like Professor Jane teaching spell-circle binding or Professor Bahil introducing non-projectile curse formulas.
The faculty seemed to be saying, “How you fight at sea is something you must figure out on your own.”
And so, classes continued in succession as time flew by.
Everyone was gradually forming an outline of how they’d fight at sea, but Simon still hadn’t found anything solid, aside from the ability to breathe underwater.
“Undead usable in the ocean…?”
"Yep."
Simon stopped by the Mutant Club room for the first time in a while.
While performing maintenance on Overlord with Benya, he casually brought up a topic.
“Hmmmm……”
Benya, carefully polishing Overlord’s leg with a cloth, thought for a moment before speaking.
“Underworld Whale!”
“……Wouldn’t that kind of high-grade undead be beyond my control? Not to mention, I have no way to obtain one.”
Apparently, the background context was lacking. After Simon explained the theme of the 3rd BMAT in detail, Benya finally seemed to understand and nodded.
“Right! So, you’re looking for an undead to fight alongside you in the sea?”
She stood up with a grunt after finishing one of Overlord’s legs.
As her school uniform skirt fluttered without caution, she walked over to the bookshelf and began flipping through books.
“Basically, you know that undead are fundamentally unsuitable for use in the sea, right?”
“Yes! Of course, I know.”
“But if world domination is your grand goal, then it’s true you can’t just overlook the vast stage that is the ocean.”
As always, some filtering was necessary when listening to this eccentric undead engineer speak.
“If you make undead from sea-dwelling monsters, it gets a little better. How about this image?”
She opened to a page showing an illustration. It was an undead made of massive whale bones.
“That looks awesome! Do you think I could actually get something like that?”
“If you’re lucky?”
The premise was pretty unstable. As Simon wavered, Benya set the book down and said,
“Rather than staring at pictures a hundred times, it’s better to go see for yourself!”
“Huh?”
“Got time this weekend? I’ll take you somewhere interesting.”
* * *
Since his weekdays had been consumed by mission evaluations, the weekend arrived quickly.
Benya told Simon to come to Rochest, so he assumed the “interesting place” she mentioned was somewhere on Roke Island.
But when he got to the meeting spot, he found that the Vanilla side had prepared an actual teleportation magic circle.
‘……Just like with Serne, the rich really are different.’
They had even submitted the teleportation notice to Keyzen, so there would be no issues.
Benya ran so many of her own undead businesses that even Keyzen offered her convenience in such matters.
With a nervous face, Simon stepped onto the magic circle. Soon, his feet lifted off the ground, and the location changed.
“Welcome to the port city of Ballot, cadet!”
As Simon opened his eyes, an endless expanse of ocean spread out before him.
Countless fishing boats were coming and going. It was his first time visiting a harbor of this scale.
“To get a good undead, you need to secure good materials first.”
Benya pointed her finger. A massive fish market came into view, swarming with people from the entrance alone.
“Ballot Port’s fish market is the largest in the Dresden Kingdom. Let’s go conquer it and see if anything good came in!”
“Yes!”
The two marched into the market with energy. The distinctive smells of seawater salt and fishiness welcomed them.
Simon’s eyes darted everywhere at the completely new sights.
‘It’s all fish!’
He was overwhelmed by the sheer number and size of the stalls. It felt like every fish on the continent was on display here.
Behind the colorful stalls, fishermen and merchants shouted loudly about today’s fresh catch. When their eyes met his, they gestured wildly for him to come over. It felt like he had stepped into the heart of a fierce struggle for survival.
“!”
There were even monsters that lived in the sea.
One fish, buried in ice, had teeth so long it was hard to believe it was a fish. It was still opening and closing its mouth as if alive.
A sign read: “Caught yesterday, Hazard Class 4, Gerontos.”
“Hey there! You’ve got a good eye for our Gerontos! Want a sample?”
A merchant with a prickly beard drew his filleting knife and immediately sliced into the Gerontos, placing a piece of sashimi on a cutting board.
‘It’s still alive, this is too much!’
Even a necromancer who dealt with corpses could be shocked by what went on in this fish market.
“Don’t be shy, give it a try!”
“I-I’m fine, thank you!”
Simon raised both palms, refusing with his whole body, but Benya reached in, grabbed a slice, and popped it into her mouth.
“Mmm~”
Chewing, Benya nodded.
“Delicious! How long ago was this caught?”
“Came in just last night. Super fresh.”
When Simon still looked reluctant, Benya pointed to a more normal sashimi sample made from the flesh of a dead monster nearby.
“Never had monster sashimi before? Give it a try.”
‘...Ugh.’
Simon clenched his eyes shut and took a bite. The sashimi entered his mouth, and thick flesh met his teeth.
“!”
Thick, with a slightly tangy aftertaste. It didn’t feel like sashimi, it was more like eating meat. The rich, fatty texture was packed with umami.
Born in mountainous terrain, Simon had rarely had the chance to eat sashimi, but this was easily the best he’d ever tasted.
“Monster meat from land creatures is known for being awful, right? But sea-type monsters? They’re top-tier sashimi material.”
“......I didn’t know that.”
Benya turned to the merchant.
“We’re necromancers, do you happen to have anything that could be used as undead?”
“Oh? You young folks are necromancers? Sorry, we already used everything from today’s haul for sashimi.”
“Then we’ll come back again later!”
“Sure, sure. Come by anytime.”
The two delved deeper into the fish market. Benya continued her explanation.
“Ballot is located right between Keyzen, the necromancers’ holy ground, and the capital, Langerstine. Thanks to that location, you get a mix of fish and various sea monster corpses. Necromancers often come here for materials.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.”
Simon felt like he’d be visiting here often to get materials.
Eventually, they reached the very back of the market.
“There it is!”
A narrow alley decorated with the bones of a fearsome shark monster came into view, exuding an ominous atmosphere.
Even the fish market vendors didn’t look that way. When they had to pass by, they quickened their pace.
“Hehe! That earlier part was just the normal market. Now we’re entering the true world of necromancers! Ready?”
Simon gulped nervously and nodded.
“I’m ready.”
A new undead!
With a vow to find the key to underwater combat here no matter what, Simon stepped forward.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters