Chapter 532
Next up was Professor Lin & Rune’s class on Summon Funerology.
The students were all lined up in formation at the outdoor training ground. In front of them stood the assistants and the twin professors.
“Today, we’re going to learn the Funeral Chant of the Ghoul!”
“We already talked about this in the theory class, but since there might be some babies with clogged ears—”
“We’ll explain it again. You should be thankful to Lin!”
“No, you should be thankful to Rune!”
The twins bickered for a moment, then clasped their palms together and raised black magic. A summoning magic circle spread out in midair.
“This is the Ghoul magic circle you’ve learned.”
“Pretty amazing, right?”
Because it could be adjusted in size as if it were a hologram, every student could see it clearly.
When Lin gestured, detailed explanations of the main runes and formulas appeared on different parts of the circle. Simon too focused intently on the lecture.
Ooooh—!
There was someone making an unnecessary fuss from behind.
“Th-this is really an Ancient Undead teaching us! I thought it was just a prank to mess with transfer students!”
Benz popped out from Simon’s right shoulder.
“Wow! The circle keeps getting bigger! How are they doing that?”
This time he darted left.
“Does Keyzen always provide this many assistants? Our school only had like two or three…”
“Student.”
One of the assistants, unable to endure it any longer, pressed his lips and put a finger over them.
Benz shut his mouth immediately, and Simon was once again able to focus on the twins’ explanation.
“As you all know, Funerology is black magic that temporarily strengthens the undead.”
“And there’s only one type of funeral chant that works on Ghouls.”
The twin professor on the right, Rune, spread her fingers and slashed diagonally from top to bottom.
Screee—
A long line of Darkness ran through the magic circle.
“W-what are you doing?”
The students’ eyes widened. The summoning magic circle they had worked so hard to construct had just been split apart by a line.
“Ghouls are a bit unusual among the undead—they’re undead whose main attribute is actually biological ability!”
“This is the only funeral chant that can be placed on a Ghoul’s magic circle!”
“The necromancer who first developed this technique was named Lino, so it’s called ‘Lino’s Golden Line’.”
The students looked baffled.
So… funeral chanting meant ruining the circle with a line?
At that moment, Lin and Rune stepped forward with graceful strides and stood on opposite sides of the circle.
“If you look closely, you’ll see this line isn’t perfectly straight.”
“It starts at ‘Om (OM)’, grazes the border of the main rune, and exits at ‘Lex’.”
“It’s not a straight line—it’s more like a gently curved S-shape.”
Then a curious student raised his hand.
“Coiter Fizen, ma’am! Wouldn’t doing that destroy the magic circle so you couldn’t even use the Ghoul?”
“That’s right. It does destroy it.”
The students grew even more confused.
“You kids really should let me finish explaining!”
Rune snapped her fingers with a grin, and the magic circle instantly returned to its original form.
“Now watch closely. If you draw a line of Darkness starting from ‘Om’—”
On the left, Lin traced her finger. Each movement she made was mirrored on the projected circle.
“Ah!”
“The Darkness!”
The Darkness, which had been maintaining a perfect balance within the ecosystem of the circle, started flowing into the path of the line she had drawn.
It wasn’t just a line, it was a circuit.
“Om, Lir, Bold, Lex. Just like rivers flowing into the sea, all the Darkness will eventually pass through this line.”
The twins extended the line further.
The moment their line passed through the last point, ‘Lex’, and exited the boundary of the circle—
Roooooar—!
A torrent of Darkness burst out, surging into the Ghoul’s entire body.
“This is the forced rampage of a Ghoul using Lino’s Golden Line.”
“A Ghoul that receives this funeral chant will unleash three to four times its usual strength.”
They demonstrated with a Ghoul they had prepared in advance.
The Ghoul, which had been hopping around innocently a moment before—
The instant Darkness was sent through and the line was drawn across the rune on its skull, it howled madly and darted across the clearing so fast it left afterimages behind.
Ooooh—!
The Ghoul swung its arm, and with a crack, a tree was split apart and shattered. The rampaging Ghoul tore the area to pieces, while the assistants, used to this, rushed to prop up trees and protect the facilities.
The students erupted in excited voices.
“That’s what a real Ghoul moves like?”
“Insane.”
The twin professors clapped their hands and shouted “Stop!”—and the Ghoul finally halted. But it couldn’t fully control its power; even standing still, its body twitched! Twitched! uncontrollably.
“Aseraz Mikel here!”
Ranked 5th, even Aseraz was shocked enough to raise a hand.
“But if you pour Darkness into its entire body like that… the Ghoul will—”
“That’s right.”
The students’ eyes turned back toward the floating magic circle.
The Darkness, which should have been circulating, had flowed away in one direction. The circle withered like a dried flower, losing vitality. First the formulas, and then even the main rune shriveled up and died, until the whole circle scattered into nothingness.
The Ghoul itself, which had just been rampaging, froze up in place and moved no more.
Even as an undead, it was utterly destroyed.
“As you can all see!”
“Lino’s Golden Line is a rampage spell that sacrifices the Ghoul.”
Simon folded his arms with a serious face.
‘So it’s basically the Ghoul-version of Corpse Explosion.’
A Ghoul is the next tier up from a Zombie. You could even say they’re the same family of undead.
And while a Zombie’s Corpse Explosion overloads its summoning circle and detonates it like a bomb, a Ghoul’s funeral chant instead dries out its circle and greatly boosts its power for a short while.
“Since Ghouls aren’t as common as Zombies, it’s true that Lino’s Golden Line is controversial among necromancers.”
Lin spoke.
“But when facing foes stronger than a Ghoul, or large numbers of enemies, it’s better to strengthen your Ghoul and take down the threat, even if it means losing it than to have it die pointlessly under an enemy’s blade.”
Rune added.
It was a very necromancer-like way of thinking, and the students nodded in agreement.
“Then, right away!”
“Let’s move to practice!”
The sudden declaration of practice from the twins made protests erupt all around.
“W-wait! Don’t we get any practice runs?”
“At least let us draw it on paper first!”
“There’s no such thing as practice in Keyzen!”
The twin professors cackled mischievously.
“Straight into—”
“Actual combat!”
No sooner had they spoken, seven assistants stepped forward with grave faces. The students flinched and stepped back.
“Explain it, Head Assistant!”
“Yes, Professors.”
The head assistant bowed respectfully to the twins, then looked at the students with stern eyes.
“I’ll now explain the rules of practice.”
The seven assistants opened subspaces and each pulled out a skeleton.
But these weren’t ordinary skeletons. Their bones were tinged faintly purple, they wore armor, and each wielded an axe.
“You must face Keyzen’s modified skeletons using only the Ghouls you secured in your previous classes.”
A battle of Ghouls versus Skeletons.
The students’ attention sharpened. Some crouched, others tiptoed to get a better view.
“Practice will only allow one-on-one combat between your Ghoul and a Modified Skeleton. If your ghoul destroys the skeleton, the practice ends. If your ghoul is destroyed first, you must summon another ghoul and continue. This repeats until the modified skeleton is destroyed.”
The students buzzed in shock.
‘We have to keep going until that thing’s destroyed?’
At that moment, the twin professors jumped forward hand in hand.
“Pass or Fail! The pass condition of this class is simple: Destroy the Modified Skeleton with your Ghoul!”
Lin shouted.
“Pass or Fail! The fail condition is also simple: When you can no longer pull out any Ghouls from subspace!”
Rune shouted.
Finally understanding all the rules, Simon smirked.
‘...Aha. So it all ties together with the previous lessons.’
The more ghouls a student had secured during Summon Materials Science, the more “ammunition” they had, making it easier to pass this class.
Of course, the only ghouls students could use in this class were the ones they had secured in the previous lesson. To distinguish them, each ghoul had been marked with a mana seal.
But Keyzen took it one step further.
“And with the ghouls you have left after passing this class, you’ll face the final exam—an actual combat performance evaluation.”
“Ah…!”
In short, the more ghouls you secured in Summon Materials Science, and the fewer you lost in Summon Funerology, the more favorable your chances in the final exam.
“And one last tip—”
The Head Assistant’s lips curled.
“These Modified Skeletons are built so that ordinary Ghouls cannot defeat them. That is all.”
A bead of sweat rolled down Simon’s forehead.
Which meant—
‘So they want us to win by using the Funeral Chant…’
And they had to figure it out during actual practice, without any rehearsal.
Transfer student Benz, listening to the explanation, trembled and muttered:
“K-Keyzen… is it always this brutal with classes…?”
“Everyone, sit where you are!”
“From now on, no black magic or Darkness allowed!”
At the twin professors’ command, the students had no choice but to sit down. With their black magic suppressed, they resorted to desperately tracing diagonal lines in midair, practicing the movements of the chant.
It was a bizarre sight—dozens of students slashing their fingers through empty air like blind people, trying to etch invisible patterns.
Driven by the pressure to do something, they all knew it was useless; this kind of mimicry wouldn’t truly help them grasp the technique.
“Then, we’ll now call students forward one by one.”
The head assistant raised the attendance book and began calling names.
“Not first… don’t let me be first… please not first…”
Toto muttered as he shook. Meanwhile, Simon and Loraine were discussing the practice ahead.
“Simon Follentia.”
The assistant’s voice called.
Simon was among the first seven. He rose without hesitation.
“Ugh! Simon!”
Toto trembled, while—
“Stay calm and do well.”
Loraine smiled warmly.
Simon thanked them and stepped out.
While others were crumbling under tension, Serne yawned, waved lazily at him with sleepy eyes—true to her “my way” attitude.
“Hector Moore.”
The last name called was Hector’s. From among the huddled students, a massive figure rose like a hill.
Thus, seven students stood in line before the assistants. Being the first group, the rest of the class focused all their attention on them.
‘Hm.’
Tension rippled in Simon’s gaze.
By sheer luck, he had drawn the most intimidating of the assistants as his opponent: the head assistant himself.
And before the head assistant stood his Modified Skeleton.
It had a peculiar appearance. Sharp spikes jutted from its bones, as if it had been made from some unknown undead. Its armored plating looked solid, and the axe in its hand radiated menace.
‘They said a normal ghoul can’t beat that thing…’
As Simon thought, a few spots down Hector raised his hand.
The twin professors noticed.
“Yes, you there.”
“Do you have a question?”
Hector lowered his arm.
“This is Hector Moore. I’d like to know: is it absolutely necessary to use the Funeral Chant to win?”
The students at the starting line looked at him with puzzled faces.
What kind of question was that? Against an undead that supposedly required a Funeral Chant to defeat, he was asking if it was okay not to use it?
“Hmm—”
But the professors smiled, intrigued.
“The pass condition is simple: destroy the modified skeleton with your ghoul.”
“If you can destroy it without using the Funeral Chant, we’ll count it as a pass. It would mean your undead control is extraordinary enough not to need it.”
“Yes, understood.”
Though Hector had tossed it out lightly, chaos erupted among the students in the back.
“Hey, did you hear that? We don’t have to use the chant!”
“There’s still hope, then.”
“Maybe we should test the waters with one or two.”
While the others whispered hopefully, Simon smirked bitterly.
‘A trap.’
Until now, the students believed they had to use Lino’s Golden Line. But now, doubt had been planted: maybe they didn’t need it.
But realistically, mastering the Golden Line in the heat of practice seemed impossible. Everyone wanted to avoid it.
Simon was sure of it: Hector would raise everyone’s hopes, then immediately use the chant himself on his first attempt.
‘Tch.’
At the same time, Hector clicked his tongue at Simon’s unwavering composure. Other students were the only ones nervously darting their eyes around.
“Summon your ghouls, all of you.”
The head assistant gave the order.
The students all raised their arms, opening their subspaces to pull out their ghouls. Simon did the same.
‘You first. I’m counting on you.’
Snap—
Simon’s first ghoul stepped forward, growling at the skeleton.
The head assistant flicked his finger.
A rectangle traced itself on the ground around the combatants, forming a makeshift arena.
“Within this ring, you may command your ghouls however you wish. But if they step outside the line, I will bind them with a curse and execute them.”
So stepping out meant immediate elimination.
Simon nodded, lowering his stance.
“First group!”
“Are you ready?”
The twin professors lowered their clasped hands together and shouted:
“Practice!”
“Begin!”
The students at the starting line roared as one. Seven ghouls lunged forward, charging furiously at the assistants’ modified skeletons.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters