Chapter 433
Phantasus gladly accepted Richard’s condition.
Fortunately, Phantasus said there was a week until the next adventure. During that time, he promised to personally pass down the Sleep Curse to Simon.
And the next afternoon.
The lesson began right away. Simon was climbing a mountain path side by side with Phantasus.
‘To think I can inherit President Phantasus’ Original!’
Although his father Richard’s actions yesterday were a bit embarrassing, in the end, it led to him being able to learn Sleep, which was widely rumored to be the strongest. If he said he wasn’t excited, that would be a lie.
“This spot will do! Hm!”
Phantasus looked around as he spoke.
“A very fine mountain! The mana concentration is high, the trees grow tall, and there aren’t any deadly monsters.”
“I’m glad it pleases you.”
After some brief small talk, they moved straight to the lesson.
The period Phantasus could remain in Leshill was one week. To be honest, that was a rather tight schedule to learn his Original.
“From now on, the black magic I’ll teach my successor is Sleep.”
When he stretched his finger and pointed somewhere, something dropped with a thud from a tree.
Looking to see what it was, a squirrel was fast asleep.
“As you know, it is a sleep curse!”
A fast casting time.
Clean and unembellished execution.
Simon turned to him with sparkling eyes. Phantasus let out a hearty laugh and clapped his hands lightly, clap!
Startled!
The sleeping squirrel awoke, panicked, and scurried away.
“I hate to say it myself, but I became Keyzen’s strongest with this one curse alone! Hm!”
Simon blinked.
“Weren’t you an ability user?”
“Haha! That’s what people around me often say. But it’s all a misunderstanding! From beginning to end, I endured only with this one Sleep curse as a student! Hm!”
In Keyzen, a necromancer with an ability naturally has the advantage.
Loraine Arkbold.
Serne Eindark.
Both of them relied primarily on their abilities. Of course, aside from such irregulars, other ability users generally had good records as well.
Just having a weapon others did not possess was already a plus, and most ability users who entered Keyzen had abilities that harmonized with Darkness.
A necromancer’s strength carried over to the strength of their abilities.
So some pessimists would click their tongues, saying ranks were decided not by effort but by innate abilities. Yet Phantasus was the one who shattered such prejudice and presented a new paradigm.
He had entered Keyzen without basic knowledge or prior study, and by honing nothing but a sleep-type curse to its absolute extreme, he knocked down every other ability user and reigned at the top.
“For the next week, I’ll pass on my Original Sleep and my know-how to my successor!”
“Yes!”
Simon nodded vigorously.
“I already look forward to the reaction of the 3rd years! Hm! The very ones who scorned you for being a 2nd year, when they see you wielding my Sleep! Uwahahaha!”
Though it was Richard’s pressure that led to him teaching a curse, Phantasus seemed to have his own reasons for accepting.
Laughing boisterously, he crossed his arms and looked at Simon.
“Then before we begin, let me ask a question! What do you think an Original black magic is?”
Simon answered immediately.
“Black magic that I personally develop!”
“Close, but not quite! In fact, definitions differ from person to person, but the answer Phantasus considers correct is, ‘Black magic that only I can use’!”
He opened his palm.
“Now! Let me first show you the runes and formulas of my Sleep curse.”
Simon’s eyes sharpened with focus.
‘At last, the trump card of Keyzen’s strongest!’
He concentrated, intending not to miss even a single formula.
Fwaaaah!
But that determination collapsed in an instant.
On Phantasus’ palm, unfolded a grotesque three-dimensional magic circle that transcended two dimensions.
“What the…!”
Ping, dizziness struck him.
He could not grasp all of what the magic circle was, but as a necromancer, he could not help but be horrified.
“Is… is such a thing possible?”
Because it contained impossible formula combinations that mocked conventional knowledge, even mysterious equations that should not exist in reality.
There was no way he could master this in just one week.
“Hahahaha! Don’t be too disheartened, successor! Ask me anything you’re curious about! Take your time and examine it carefully.”
“……”
Simon closed his eyes briefly and gathered his concentration. When the dizziness subsided, he widened his eyes again and scrutinized the magic circle.
“Here, why did you make the right-hand circuit coil like a spring? Wouldn’t straight lines be more efficient?”
“Ah! That was during the 2nd semester dueling evaluation in my 1st year!”
Phantasus turned out to be more talkative than he appeared.
The story was long, but in summary, it seemed that because he had to use Sleep while breaking through his opponent’s calculation-debilitating curse during the duel, it ended up like that.
“What about this formula here, why is it cut off as if unfinished?”
“Haha! That was a mistake! I tried to use the Kona Theorem, but it didn’t work out, so I switched to another method. But while my mind wandered for a moment, this broken formula ended up ingrained as a habit!”
“Then what about this part?”
“For this one, I can’t leave out the story of my field evaluation! While I was preparing the magic circle, a monster attacked, and it clawed through my formula! I patched it up roughly and still cast the spell, but surprisingly, it worked quite well….”
The stories were long, but the conclusion was clear.
This curse was the culmination of countless trials, errors, and variables layered together.
“Do you understand now?”
Phantasus spoke seriously.
“Why I said an Original is ‘black magic that only I can use’.”
“Yes. And the reason the magic circle got so tangled up like this is….”
“Because of Darkness’ property of remembering!”
The property of Darkness to remember was also the very essence of a necromancer.
When a magic circle of specific runes and formulas is used repeatedly, Darkness memorizes the process. Later, even if you only recall the name of the magic circle and pay attention to the starting phase, the runes and formulas will complete themselves automatically.
Once this property solidifies, it becomes extremely difficult to revise later, which is why at Keyzen, modifying magic circles is fundamentally forbidden.
“The property of remembering is a double-edged sword!”
Phantasus extinguished the intricate three-dimensional black magic, then once again unfolded it before Simon’s eyes.
Exactly as he had shown earlier.
Twisting circuits like coiled springs, half-finished formulas, even inefficient and messy remnants remained as they were.
“We necromancers make use of this to enable quick casting, but such unnecessary traces also remain.”
He clenched his fist and scattered the magic circle.
“But there’s no need to despair! Think of black magic as the scarred body of a warrior! It constantly adapts and evolves, changing according to situations and conditions.”
“......Oh, that’s quite a romantic metaphor.”
“Hahaha!”
Phantasus laughed heartily, turning his head.
“You too will soon have something like this! Now, let’s start from the basics. From the foundation, steadily build up your craft and add variations until it becomes your own.”
Phantasus closed his eyes, muttering something like a ritual, and then spread his left hand.
The moment he opened it, a magic circle appeared.
“This is the most basic Sleep curse you’ll learn in your 2nd year curriculum. And!”
This time, he opened his right hand.
“This here! Is the Original Sleep curse I propose to my successor!”
Simon widened his eyes and studied the two magic circles.
“Do you see the difference?”
“The textbook Sleep curse, it uses the rune of sleep. And President Phantasus’ curse.......”
Simon’s eyes grew wide.
“......Just the rune of calm?”
“Exactly!”
Simon did not stop his analysis there.
“The Sleep curse that uses the rune of sleep is simple in structure. The formulas employed focus entirely on drawing out the rune’s power 100%.”
Simon turned his head to the right.
“Meanwhile, the one using the rune of calm is several times more complex. Naturally. Because calm alone cannot put someone to sleep. Other auxiliary formulas are working hard to create the effect of sleep.”
“Mm! Very accurately seen!”
Phantasus nodded his head vigorously, clearly satisfied with the answer.
“Then, here’s a question! Why do you think I abandoned the efficient rune of sleep, and instead created my Sleep curse with the rune of calm?”
“.......”
Simon stroked his chin and sank into deep thought.
Phantasus quietly waited, watching his successor’s struggle.
“If you get this right too, it’ll be 1,000 points out of 100.”
“Sleep directly induced by a curse is artificial. But,”
A sharp gleam of intelligence flickered in Simon’s eyes.
“The rune of calm produces an effect identical to natural sleep. That, I think, is the difference.”
A storm of emotion swept across Phantasus’ face. He clenched both fists tightly and lifted his head.
“Perfect!!”
Flutterrrrr!
Startled mountain birds flew up into the sky.
“That’s it! As expected of Phantasus’ successor! The next president of the Keyzen student council!”
He was so excited that spittle sprayed from his mouth.
“Sleep! Sleep! What do you think it is? ‘A physiological loss of consciousness, periodically repeated’!”
“......Ah, yes. That’s true.”
“Humans spend about one-third of their lives in this physiological unconscious state! From the perspective of a curse scholar, most living creatures cast curses on themselves to maintain their life activities! Isn’t that fascinating? Sleep curses must be designed with this awareness in mind! In fact, humans are always ready to fall under the curse of sleep.”
“Y-yes, that makes sense.”
Simon smiled faintly as if to calm him, but Phantasus’ explanation did not stop.
“Of course, using the rune of sleep makes a curse quick! But there will be resistance! Necromancers are wrapped in curse resistance, and clerics wield purification magic! So we don’t need to forcefully put an opponent to sleep! Humans are always prepared to fall asleep, and we only need to gently stroke those parts! Relax the muscles, stabilize blood pressure, slow the rhythm of heartbeat and breathing!”
He gestured through various motions as he explained.
“Sleep must differ in nature from other curses! If other curses focus on maliciously tearing into the target, Sleep depends on how comfortable and restful the target feels!”
A Sleep curse that leaves the opponent tossing and turning, suffering, and dozing lightly is trash.
The true Sleep is the one that helps the enemy fall into satisfying, deep slumber. This was Phantasus’ long-held philosophy.
“Thus, you lull the opponent into a satisfying deep sleep, render them completely defenseless, and then,”
Phantasus mimed slashing a throat with a sword.
“The rest is up to the curse-user.”
“T-terrifying.”
On the battlefield, sleep meant death.
‘Still, this is certainly a beneficial lesson.’
Simon was satisfied. Perhaps because it was a lecture from someone who had devoted himself solely to Sleep, the know-how, the concepts, everything was on a different level.
It was a class he thought he would never learn at school, no, a class even money could not buy.
“You shall begin with this.”
Phantasus pointed to the curse constructed with the rune of calm.
“Memorize the entire magic circle, formulas, and circuits! At first, rote memorization and cramming it into your head is the fastest way!”
“Yes, sir!”
The power that made Phantasus the strongest student of Keyzen.
Simon vowed that he would, without fail, make it his own.
“One hour is all it will take.”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters