Chapter 533
“Practice!”
“It begins!”
At Simon’s signal, his ghoul lunged furiously at the modified skeleton.
The skeleton also tilted its axe and assumed a ready stance.
‘If I rush in recklessly, I’ll get hit.’
Simon forced his ghoul to lower its posture even further and then drove it forward with the hand that wasn’t holding the axe.
Whoosh!
The axe swung in a brutal arc. The ghoul barely ducked under it and slipped behind the modified skeleton.
Creak—
The modified skeleton couldn’t turn its head back immediately. Its waist twisted first, then its legs followed.
‘Its turning speed is slower than I thought. And…’
Compared to its armor-protected front, its rear defense was pitiful.
‘The key to this practice is using the ghoul’s mobility to strike from behind!’
By the time the modified skeleton turned to face the ghoul, the creature had already darted ahead and cut back in from the opposite side.
The timing was stolen perfectly.
‘Now!’
Thud!
The ghoul kicked off the ground and leapt upward. Its fangs aimed for the unprotected neck—the skeleton’s most obvious weak point.
At the very moment the ghoul opened its jaws to bite down—
CRACK!
‘!’
The axe blade whipped around in an instant and split into the ghoul’s head.
It was a clean counter.
The ghoul collapsed with a thud, and the modified skeleton triumphantly brought its axe down, shattering it to pieces.
“First attempt failed. Student Simon Follentia now has 11 ghouls remaining.”
From behind, the head teaching assistant’s flat voice echoed.
Simon grimaced and held his head.
When a summoned creature was completely destroyed, the necromancer connected to its thoughts also suffered mental shock.
Looking around, several students already had dazed expressions or had fallen to one knee.
Hector was the same.
Everyone had suffered defeat.
“Then, next.”
The head teaching assistant spoke coldly.
“Please summon your second ghoul.”
“……”
The other assistants repeated the same words. The students clenched their teeth, opened their subspace, and pulled out another ghoul.
Simon lowered the hand clutching his head and summoned as well.
‘I didn’t even have time to cast the Funeral Dirge.’
He had intended to score the diagonal line on the summoning magic circle at the moment the ghoul bit the skeleton’s neck, severing it with the Funeral effect.
But his move had been read.
And more than anything, the ghoul’s speed had been lacking.
‘Change of plan.’
Simon’s mind whirled swiftly.
‘With my current skill, Berserk will only last about a minute, but that’s enough. No matter how the opponent reacts, I’ll force Funeral first, then attack.’
The head teaching assistant, hands behind his back, lifted his right arm.
“Enter whenever you are ready.”
His voice brimmed with ease.
Simon also raised his right arm sharply, lips curling into a smile.
The ghoul lowered its body, then stomped the dirt floor roughly and dashed forward.
‘I’ll play the long game—warming up first.’
To cast Funeral, the Darkness circulation flowing through the summoning circle must be complete.
Only when all runes and formulas were functioning perfectly could one draw Lino’s Golden Line, transmitting the full force.
‘Warm-up. I just need to warm it up.’
Simon’s ghoul circled the modified skeleton, never quite stepping beyond the ring’s boundary.
At the same time, Simon poured Darkness into the circle, preparing to draw the line.
—Ttak!
Finally, the skeleton raised its axe and charged.
‘Dodge!’
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The ghoul narrowly evaded the axe swings, and in that instant, its magic circle glowed clearer.
The entire circle, the ecosystem forming the ghoul itself, roared to life at 100% capacity, with no slack, radiating will to win.
Simon realized—this was the timing.
—When you draw the line, do it decisively!
Professor Lin and Rune’s voices echoed in his head.
If the line was drawn slowly, it would only sever the circle itself. To trick Darkness into thinking it was a new circuit, it had to be drawn in an instant.
‘Hrrgh!’
Simon moved the Darkness, slicing through the ghoul’s summoning circle with a line. The power circulating through the circle like an ecosystem now flowed into the new circuit.
‘Did it work?’
The effect came immediately.
The ghoul’s eyes changed.
He could feel Darkness flooding the undead’s whole body.
Boom!
With explosive Darkness, the ghoul shot behind the modified skeleton. It leapt up, fangs sinking into the vertebrae, hind legs locking the waist, forelegs clamping the arms.
“Got it!”
“Simon caught one!”
“Hector too!”
Waaaaaaah!
The watching students roared.
While five others had already lost their ghouls and sat down, Simon and Hector had both succeeded in mounting their ghouls onto the backs of the modified skeletons.
The skeletons thrashed violently.
“As expected of the aces!”
“Just a little more!”
Simon and Hector, sweating heavily, locked eyes. Then both snapped their heads back toward their targets.
‘I’ll be faster!’
Both boys’ concentration reached its peak.
Boom!
But the Funeral Chant’s duration ended first. Simon’s ghoul, unable to withstand the skeleton’s furious struggle, was slammed into the ground. The axe followed, thwack!—splitting its head.
Crunch!
Immediately after, Hector’s ghoul was subdued and met the same fate. Both boys winced and staggered.
Once again, the head teaching assistant’s cold voice rang out.
“Second attempt failed. Student Simon Follentia now has 9 ghouls remaini—”
That’s when it happened.
Boom!
The ghoul that had been smashed in the head suddenly burst apart like a balloon. Even the assistant flinched in surprise, and small screams sounded from all around.
‘An explosion?’
Of course, the blast wasn’t powerful. The skeleton was only splattered with scraps of the ghoul.
Simon steadied himself, panting.
“One more try, please.”
“……”
The head teaching assistant’s eyes narrowed.
‘What exactly was he attempting?’
While the students murmured, Professors Lin and Rune bounded forward.
“Well done, well done! Those two kiddos showed some promising results just now.”
“Shall we all find out together why they failed?”
The twin professors spread a magic circle into the air.
“The five kiddos who failed earlier—”
“All drew their lines vaguely, and that’s why they failed.”
To slash across the painstakingly crafted summoning magic circle as though cutting it in half required far more courage and decisiveness than it looked.
All the other students had failed because they either drew the line too slowly or hesitated.
“The two kiddos who managed to at least imitate the Funeral Dirge succeeded because they drew boldly! But!”
The twin professors projected Simon and Hector’s magic circles at once.
Both lines were perfectly straight.
“That was the problem—they were too bold!”
“You weren’t supposed to draw a straight line. You had to connect the inner organs! A slightly curved S-shape!”
Simon nodded, while Hector clicked his tongue.
‘Easy to say, but in practice, it’s nothing like that.’
The head teaching assistant spoke with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Prepare your next ghouls.”
All seven once again summoned ghouls.
Their faces were pale, expressions strained. To cast Funeral, their thought-connection with the summoned creature had to be strengthened—and that also meant the necromancer felt every sensation as their summon was cut down by the axe.
The mental strain was immense.
The watching students could only click their tongues.
“……Well, everyone has at least nine rounds of live ammo, so they can try nine times.”
“But I wonder if their minds can withstand it.”
Amid this atmosphere, Simon clenched his fist with burning determination.
It was already the third round.
His goal: pass the assignment here and enter the real trial with at least 9 ghouls intact.
‘Let’s do it.’
The third attempt began. Simon again had his ghoul circle around, dodging attacks.
Compared to the previous tries, everything had improved.
Reading the attack patterns allowed him to evade the modified skeleton’s swings more boldly, and he could more quickly raise the ghoul’s magic circle circulation rate and condition.
‘Now!’
The instant Simon felt the timing, he drew the line across the circle without a shred of hesitation.
Rumble!
Massive Darkness erupted from the ghoul’s body, propelling it forward like a shell. The head teaching assistant was visibly startled.
‘Head-on?’
Instead of circling, the ghoul charged straight in. The skeleton swung its axe downward with both hands, but the ghoul’s body streaked by like a trail of black ink.
Snap!
Gasps erupted from the students. The skeleton’s axe-wielding arm was clamped firmly in the ghoul’s jaws.
“Whoa! So fast!”
“When did it bite the arm…?”
The ghoul spat the arm out and dropped its posture.
The skeleton drew its secondary weapon, a dagger, and slashed.
Clang!
But the ghoul, properly infused with Funeral, simply knocked it aside with raw arm strength.
Waaaaah!
The students erupted in cheers at Simon’s performance. The ghoul no longer needed to strike from behind—it crushed the skeleton head-on with sheer force.
‘Even if he succeeded with Funeral… to charge in from the front despite knowing the rear is the weak spot?’
The head teaching assistant bit his lip.
‘Time to teach you the cost of arrogance.’
Thump! Thump!
The arm the ghoul had spat to the ground suddenly reattached to the skeleton’s shoulder. With both arms, it clamped down on the ghoul tightly.
‘Simon’s circle is once again nearly a straight line, not an S-shape. In a few seconds, the Funeral will expire.’
And yet—
Not just a few seconds, but nearly a full minute passed, and the ghoul’s power did not wane.
Its eyes blazed with deep blue Darkness, its body constantly rippling with waves of black ink-like energy.
‘What is going on…?’
CRASH!!
The ghoul smashed its head into the skeleton’s skull.
The cranium shattered completely, and the skeleton’s summoning circle was stomped on and broken.
The victorious ghoul threw its head back to the sky and howled ferociously.
The first successful finisher of this practice.
The students cheered loudly in congratulations. Hector, who had clung stubbornly only to fail this round, pounded his fist on the floor in frustration.
“……Impressive.”
Even the head teaching assistant, clutching his forehead as the thought-link forcibly severed, could not deny it.
“Student Simon Follentia, you pa—”
But then.
Simon’s concentration hadn’t broken.
His pupils trembled, focused on something beyond merely defeating the opponent.
‘What is he doing…?’
“Assistant.”
Simon, still dazed, opened his mouth.
“Be careful.”
The head teaching assistant felt a chill and instantly raised a Darkness Shield. At that exact moment—BOOM!—a large cloud of dust erupted around the ghoul.
Rumble—
“Haaaah.”
Simon finally exhaled and checked the time.
‘One minute, fifteen seconds.’
He had confirmed the Funeral’s duration.
“Wait, Simon!”
“What did you do?!”
Professors Rune and Lin hurried over. Simon answered clearly.
“I was attempting to extend the duration of chant.”
“How?”
Simon explained without pause.
“Like when Zombies use Corpse Explosion—I overloaded the magic circle from the beginning before drawing the line. Then I recycled the surging Darkness running through the ghoul’s body back into the circle to maintain the state.”
The assistants’ eyes widened.
Even students who couldn’t fully grasp the theory instantly understood.
This was far too dangerous. The twin professors thought the same.
“The idea is good, but the risks far outweigh the merits.”
“From now on, such dangerous techniques are forbidden.”
“Yes, I apologize.”
Still, Simon had passed—heading into the real trial with a full 9 ghouls left.
His spot was immediately filled by another student.
“Simon! Good job!”
As Simon returned to his seat, Toto approached.
Simon immediately pulled a ghoul from subspace.
“Toto.”
“What?”
“Me.”
Simon’s eyes grew serious.
At first, it had only been an experiment to extend the Funeral’s duration.
“But… I think I can make the ghouls explode.”
“…Huh?”
Toto looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters