Chapter 365
Simon followed Benya into a small tavern in Rochest.
Inside the old wooden building, darkened here and there with age, the smell of dark beer filled the air.
A place that reeked of people, the kind of atmosphere where village residents would enjoy a drink, rather than a spot Keyzen students would frequent.
However, as soon as Simon entered, one table suddenly became lively.
“Welcome, Simon!”
A bearded man lifted his beer mug and greeted him cheerfully. The two sitting at the same table also waved warmly.
“Ah!”
They were familiar faces to Simon.
When he had visited the fish market with Benya, they were the undead craftsmen from Vanilla who had made Deimos, the marine undead Simon possessed.
“Sir Diego! Sir Marco! Sir Rodrion!”
The memory of being scolded by these three while drawing magic circles was still vivid.
Simon ran up with a broad smile. Diego, the leader, stood and spread his arms, and Simon stepped into them, the two of them embracing tightly.
“Hahaha! It’s been a while! Have you gotten taller?”
“Have I?”
“It’s been a while, Simon.”
“Hey, friend, don’t forget about us.”
Meeting in such an unexpected place made the joy even greater. The four of them chatted boisterously.
“Am I invisible to you old men?”
When Benya approached from behind, the craftsmen greeted her politely with “Young lady”, bowing slightly. Then Simon asked,
“You surprised me! What brings you to Roke Island?”
“We dropped by on some business for Keyzen, just as a side trip. And,”
Diego pointed his thumb behind him.
“The person who has business with you is right over there.”
A man was walking between the tables toward them.
A middle-aged man in an outdated, autumn-leaf–colored coat and a fedora. He removed the fedora and greeted politely.
“It’s been a while, Student Simon. You remember me, right?”
“Of course! It’s been a while!”
It was Gellen Eclipse, the subspace craftsman.
The man who had created Simon’s “Overlord-exclusive subspace”.
Simon looked at them with a slightly puzzled expression.
To think everyone’s gathered here like this.
Whether it was subspace, or Deimos, everyone here was an engineer who had helped Simon in a technical capacity.
“I came to deliver this to you, Student Simon.”
Gellen Eclipse placed a small box on the table.
It was about the size of a ring case, but when Gellen tapped the case lightly with his finger—
Pop!
The box opened, and a subspace unfolded in midair.
Inside was a heart, emitting a bluish glow as if to emphasize its magical effect.
“This is the Heart of Herseba, as you ordered.”
“Ah!”
Simon’s eyes sparkled.
A product worth no less than twenty-five thousand gold was right before him.
“The Life Vessel heart requires extreme caution in storage and transport, so we move it in a subspace that can regulate temperature and humidity. And one more thing,”
Gellen handed the heart—still in its subspace—to Simon, and then pointed to the item next to it.
“This is the skull of Herseba. Since it’s meaningless without being linked to the heart, the seller seems to have thrown it in for free.”
“Ah! Thank you.”
Gellen smiled faintly.
“Of course, once the work is done, you’ll have to return the subspace.”
“Of course.”
“You’ve been using the Overlord subspace I made, right?”
Simon grinned, raising the ring on his left hand.
“Yes, thanks to this guy, I’ve gotten through countless crises.”
This time, Diego, the leader of the Vanilla craftsmen, stepped forward.
“This is on the house.”
He began laying down boards inscribed with magic circles, making Simon’s eyes go wide.
“Wh-what is all this?”
“You said you were making a Lich, right? I heard about it and prepared the setting magic circles. All you have to do is infuse your Darkness.”
Simon’s eyes glistened with gratitude.
“Thank you so much for the consideration!”
“Eh~ it’s nothing big.”
Diego scratched his head shyly, then spoke in a deliberately serious tone.
“Honestly, we’d all like to pitch in and help, but you know, right? With Lich creation—”
“That you can’t have someone else’s Darkness mixed in. Yes, of course I know.”
He had learned from Aron.
The reason why there were no assembly-type Liches sold in necromancer shops.
A Life Vessel had to be worked entirely with a single type of Darkness. If other impurities were mixed in, the Darkness conversion value would drop drastically later on.
It was an undead one had to create alone, without anyone’s help.
‘I’m nervous.’
In the past, he had received help from the craftsmen here, but now Simon would have to do it all on his own.
“Thank you! I’ll give it my all!”
Still, Simon felt himself leaving the tavern with a great deal of energy from the meeting.
The craftsmen clapped their hands and cheered him on.
* * *
“Then, I’ll be off first!”
Simon bowed politely and left the tavern. The necromancer craftsmen settled back around the table with a cheerful grunt.
“The beer’s gone cold, hasn’t it?”
“Order a fresh one!”
“Master Gellen, why don’t you join us?”
“Ah, would that be alright?”
The four old men chatted noisily.
At that moment, Benya, who had been sipping beer at the next table, cheeks flushed, approached.
“What a surprising turn of events.”
“What do you mean, young lady?”
Diego asked.
“Making up a lie about having business for Keyzen just to come see Simon.”
“Ahem.”
Diego cleared his throat awkwardly, face slightly red, while the others burst into hearty laughter.
Though he had handed the magic circle boards to Simon as if it were nothing, the truth was, Diego had stayed up almost all night making them.
“Why go that far for Simon? Could it be… one of those things? An investment in future power since he’s Keyzen’s special admission number one?”
“Hahaha! Young lady!”
Diego laughed loudly and waved his hand dismissively.
“You may not seem like it, but sometimes you really show the bloodline you inherited from Vanilla. We necromancers are eccentrics. That sort of thing doesn’t matter to us.”
“Then…?”
“There’s a saying that a famous sword chooses its master. And the person who makes that sword? We’re no different. There’s nothing better than having someone you like use your creation. It’s not about expecting something in return.”
Simon had a power to draw people in.
Wanting to help him wasn’t out of kindness, nor was it because of calculations.
“If it’s not about wanting something in return, then… what is it?”
Diego spread his arms wide.
“It’s self-satisfaction, what else?”
“Hahaha!”
“Look at you, already drunk!”
Clink!
Benya laughed along and slipped herself into the middle of the men’s drinking circle.
“Good, good! I’m going all out tonight too!”
Lifting her beer mug high above her head, she shouted,
“To our proud junior, Simon Follentia!”
“Cheers!”
Five mugs clinked together.
* * *
Simon, having completed all preparations, entered the Ruins of Feer.
Tonight, in a place where no one could interfere, he planned to make a Lich.
[Legion Commander~]
Erzebet was the first to run up.
[Welcome, young master.]
Akemius bowed deeply in greeting. Prince, who had been playing cards, snapped, [What took you so long!] in irritation.
[Keuhuhuhu! You’ve come, boy!]
Feer swept his cloak dramatically as he approached. Simon smiled back and followed him toward the central altar.
“This reminds me of the old days.”
Placing the subspace he’d received from Gellen, along with the prepared setting magic circles, on the altar, Simon spoke.
“When I had just entered Keyzen, I assembled you here, Feer.”
[Keuhuhu! You did indeed!]
Simon set down the items, took a light breath, and focused his mind.
[Are you fully prepared?]
“Yes. I can form three rings now, even if it was just with a test heart.”
[Good!]
The four Ancient Undeads stood at a slight distance, surrounding Simon.
“I’ll begin.”
There was no need to drag out the time any longer. First, he unwrapped the Crystal Mage he had obtained from after-school BMAT.
Chak!
Snap!
He took out the components inside and began assembling the skeleton like stacking up a tower. Skeleton assembly was Simon’s specialty, and in no time, he had it completed.
[Legion Commander! Will you use a Crystal Skeleton for the skull as well?]
Asked Erzebet, assisting closely from the side.
“No, not that.”
Simon took out Herseba’s skull, which had been placed beside the heart inside the subspace.
“Let’s use this.”
Originally, he had planned to make the entire body a Crystal Skeleton, but with better material available, he decided to change course.
Placing the ordinary-looking skull atop the sparkling crystal-grown skeleton body gave it a slightly unbalanced appearance.
‘Now for the summoning magic circle work.’
Simon drew a large magic circle on a sheet, then took out all the magic circle boards he had received from the seniors.
Looking over the designs on the boards, Simon was a little moved. They had told him it was just a few simple magic circles, but even some highly advanced ones were included.
‘Truly, thank you, seniors!’
With deep gratitude in his heart, Simon poured Darkness into the circles on the boards. Thanks to the craftsmen’s help, he could complete the summoning magic circle in no time, without having to heavily ration his focus or Darkness.
“Alright, now prepare yourselves!”
However, the core of a Lich was, above all, the Life Vessel. Even if the body existed, even if the summoning magic circle was ready, it was meaningless without this.
Only by completing this Life Vessel could he truly raise an undead known as a Lich.
Simon took the ordered heart out of his subspace ring.
[Oh!]
[Looks impressive.]
The Ancient Undeads murmured amongst themselves.
Simply removing the heart from the subspace brightened the entire ruin, and the air felt saturated with mana.
‘Just what kind of result would come from making a Lich with this?’
Simon flexed his fingers, heart pounding with anticipation.
“I’ll begin!”
The making of a Lich’s Life Vessel could receive help from no one.
It was a battle with oneself.
Not only was the crafting difficulty extremely high, but even with costly materials, the chances of failure were high enough that most summoners didn’t attempt it.
However—
[Legion Commander! I’ve stitched this part of the magic circle!]
The Ancient Undeads were assisting Simon from the sides.
Ancient Undeads shared their Darkness with the Legion Commander. All four of them were working while raising Simon’s deep-blue Darkness.
It was a kind of trick only the Legion Commander could use. The Ancient Undeads had also honed their specialties specifically for this Lich-making process.
On top of the magic circle Simon engraved on the heart, Erzebet was fixing certain formulas in place by coating spider silk with Darkness, a high-level process called “stocking”. which she was accomplishing with her own abilities.
[How long do we have to keep this up?]
[Take your time, young master.]
Prince and Akemius maintained the floating magic circle in its entirety.
[Let me refine the circuits.]
Feer interfered with the magic circle, adjusting the Darkness circuits. Then Simon continued, engraving runes and connecting formulas.
‘I can do this!’
He had reached this point thanks to the help of many people.
Even now, making this Lich, he was not alone.
Sweat dripped from Simon’s face as he drew miniature magic circles.
Hours passed in the blink of an eye.
‘Now to link the heart’s magic circle with the summoning magic circle.’
Pop!
Pop!
Both circles lit up simultaneously.
‘First ring!’
The magic circle rippled, emitting Darkness, which took the form of a “ring” and wrapped around the heart.
‘Second ring!’
Soon, two rings encircled the heart. Cheers erupted from the Ancient Undeads.
[You’re doing great!]
[Keep it going like this!]
When Prince and Erzebet’s figures wavered in his vision, Simon briefly wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
He felt a brief dizziness, but there was no time to rest.
Thump—thump—
The heart was beating. Once the heart was removed from subspace, everything had to be done quickly. The longer it took to turn the heart into a Life Vessel, the more its performance would decline.
‘Now for the third ring!’
He gathered all his consciousness into a single point. His mind expanded, his emotions heightened.
Before he knew it, his vision had turned gray.
The Heart of Herseba before his eyes began to beat slowly, and as if sinking deep into the ocean, all sounds dulled and were swallowed in the silence of the unconscious.
A state of perfect immersion.
Through the effects of black magic, the rhythm of the heartbeats and the differing movements of the two existing rings were perfectly visible to him.
‘Now! I have to do it now!’
Simon’s arms moved. Perhaps because of his extreme focus, Aron’s instructions on how to make the third ring no longer lingered in his head.
But he knew exactly what to do. His hands moved on their own.
Keeping in mind the pace of the two rings and the heartbeats, he repeatedly drew and stopped the third, smaller ring, matching it perfectly to the heartbeat’s pattern.
An unbroken contest of concentration, enough to make him lose all sense of time.
‘Hoo.’
After several hours of this, Simon finally withdrew his hands.
The three rings were rippling, complete. Exactly the form Aron had once shown him.
‘Now for the last step!’
Simon drew a simple magic circle before the heart. It was simple—this magic circle was merely a “button”.
He spoke the incantation.
<Summon Lich>
Then, he activated the magic circle.
Fwoooosh!
Everything began to turn like cogs in a wheel. The heart beat, the rings rotated.
Then, the skeleton he had prepared earlier moved on its own, lifting the heart.
Prince stepped back in surprise.
[Wha—what is that?]
[Keuhuhuhu. Just watch!]
The skeleton opened its own ribcage and carefully placed the heart in its center.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The heart’s beating sounded like a drum. Mana was drawn into the two rotating rings.
Flowing along the rings like blood vessels, the mana turned black the moment it passed through the third ring and the heart.
‘It worked!’
The mana’s conversion into Darkness was complete.
As the transformed Darkness wrapped around the Crystal Skeleton’s entire body, it rose to its feet and moved its arms more freely.
At last, when the Darkness reached the magic circle engraved on the skull—
Pa-at!
“Mind” descended into the Lich.
[Hmm.]
A human voice came from the magic circle on the skull.
[Ah?]
The skeleton, creaking, moved its crystal-covered body. Then it tilted its skull and looked at Simon.
‘…!’
Simon was trembling with tension, staring straight ahead. Then, the Lich’s jawbone opened.
[So, you are my creator, aren’t you?]
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