Chapter 552
Roke Island Outer Region.
Keyzen Outdoor Pool.
Inside the academy pool, an unusual scene was unfolding.
Students of Keyzen, dressed in swimsuits, held out fishing rods with terrified faces. Each and every one of them had cast an enchantment onto their fishing lines.
And inside the pool—
Splaaaaaash!
Hundreds of crustacean monsters, resembling shrimp or lobsters, thrashed about, cutting through the currents. Their speed was so great that the waters within the confined pool surged violently, drenching the students to the bone.
Twannng—
At the edge, Eshu’s lips curled up into a sly grin as she focused ahead.
“Gotchaaaaaa!”
With a loud shout, she yanked on her rod. Water exploded upward as a crustacean monster was dragged out. Students around her gasped in awe.
“Don’t get careless!”
The booming voice of Professor Grerion, teacher of Summon Materials Science, echoed.
Eshu stuck her tongue out and deployed a Darkness Shield. The moment the monster was pulled onto land, it spewed ink-like fluid, but it splattered uselessly against her shield.
“Fire the curse I taught you!”
“Okaaay!”
She stretched her hand forward.
<Remade Paralyze>
The curse shot out. The monster, which had been thrashing violently enough to crack the pool tiles, suddenly stiffened and fell still.
“Caught it!”
Eshu jumped up and down in delight. Grerion immediately barked at her.
“What are you doing?! If you caught it, take it to Stage 2!”
“Yes, sir~”
Eshu hoisted the shrimp monster with a heave.
But the creature wasn’t completely immobilized. It flailed wildly in her arms, its tail slapping her cheek over and over.
“Quit it! Ow! Ouch!”
Blushing from the blows, Eshu sprinted toward Stage 2.
The disassembly station.
Thud!
Thwack!
Other Keyzen students had already laid their freshly caught crustacean monsters on the chopping blocks, straining as they shoved knives into the shells.
“The preparation method for crustacean-type undead is almost always the same!”
Professor Grerion, having followed, shouted over the noise.
“Once you master Kammaforce, it’s as good as mastering half the crustacean monsters out there! Put your will into it!”
“Yes, sir!”
The students groaned and struggled as they tried to wedge their knives into the hard shells, but it was no easy feat. Bruised hands and even bleeding fingers appeared here and there.
The assistants, looking all too familiar with such injuries, moved around with medical kits, treating the wounded.
“Khrrr.”
Simon was there too.
He slit open Kammaforce’s belly, removed the unnecessary innards for undead conversion, then performed the basic setup for the magic circle. After that, he poked holes in the shell and inserted Dark Threads.
“I don’t get this.”
Plop.
Eshu slammed her Kammaforce down next to Simon, grumbling.
“You’re here, Eshu.”
“Hey, you know what, President? They say Kammaforce is a super high-class delicacy, the kind of dish only served at the banquets of top nobles! And instead of eating it, they dump these pricey things in the pool? Totally insane. Honestly, forget this whole ‘Pass or Fail’ test, I just wanna set up a campfire and grill it up—”
“You, the orange-haired one! Quiet!”
“Yessir, sorry!”
This girl…
She was great as a mood maker during tense exams, but in class, her antics made things unbearably noisy.
Still, since Grerion had just scolded her and she’d finally gone quiet, Simon seized the moment to focus.
‘Here.’
He tapped the upper part of the shell.
‘If I push the tool in here…’
But the moment his tool touched it—crack! The entire top of the shell shattered.
Simon let out a groan of regret.
An assistant passing by shook their head.
“Simon Follentia. Failure. Return to the pool.”
“Yes, sir!”
‘Damn it. I feel like I could succeed with just one more try.’
Simon hurried back toward the pool to catch another Kammaforce.
“You fool! Wasting valuable materials again!”
Grerion roared after him.
“Next time you’d better succeed! Understood?!”
“Yes, sir! I’m sorry!”
It was Grerion’s own form of encouragement. Though students knew him as a terrifying professor, Simon rather liked him.
At any rate, he returned to the pool.
“Uwaaaaaaah!”
Just then, Toto Amoriya, who had cast his line, lost his tug-of-war with a Kammaforce and was yanked straight into the pool.
Splash!
He flailed helplessly.
“H-Help! Glub! I can’t swim—!”
The moment a human fell in, the Kammaforce swarmed him eagerly. Shrimp-like they might be, but they were still dangerous monsters.
Whish.
An assistant watching threw out a line. The hook snagged the hem of Toto’s swimsuit and reeled him out just in time.
“Cough! Gah!”
“Are you alright, student?”
“Y-Yeah, I’m… cough! I’m fine!”
Thankfully, Toto seemed okay. Simon sighed in relief and picked up his fishing rod again.
“Monster fishing where you risk your life. This academy sure has some crazy classes, huh?”
A gentle voice fluttered behind him. Simon stiffened just hearing it and cast his line with tense focus.
“Serne. Were you slacking again?”
“I was just resting~ Got a little tired.”
She softly placed her fingertips on Simon’s shoulder.
Her playful chuckle rang as she seemed to delight in his flinching reaction. Her slender fingers drifted across his shoulder like waves.
“I’m talking to you, you know. Can’t you at least look back at me?”
Simon clenched his teeth and kept his eyes forward.
“I’m focusing on class. If I want to pass, I need to put in more effort.”
“Heeeh.”
Hovering mischievously behind him, she suddenly leaned in close, her breath tickling his ear.
“Your face is red.”
The warm breath on his ear made him squirm. Unable to endure it, Simon’s face flushed as he turned back.
“Serne! Stop messing ar—oh.”
Simon’s face burned even hotter.
At just eighteen years old, she was clad in a starkly revealing black bikini.
Her moist eyes locked on his, her head tilted slightly with a faint blush like a sly fox.
“Finally looked, huh? I picked this out just to show you.”
“......!”
Not only Simon—every nearby male student was dazed out of their minds.
They all knew full well that if Serne noticed, she’d kill them, but still, they risked death to sneak glances.
“Eyes front!”
The assistants barked furiously, forcing their heads back toward the pool.
“...You.”
Simon also turned his head back, focusing on his rod again.
“Didn’t you hear before class that we were supposed to bring modest swimsuits?”
“Hm? This is the most modest one I own, though?”
‘Yeah, figures. Talking sense to her was pointless.’
After today, Simon figured the academy would probably issue much stricter rules about what kinds of swimsuits were allowed.
“Don’t you wanna see how strong I can really get them to be?”
“…Please, just focus on class.”
Simon was about to scold her when Serne pouted her lips and then stepped forward beside him.
‘Ugh!’
Simon’s face flushed crimson as he quickly turned away. Serne infused her fishing rod with Darkness and prepared.
“Fine. I’ll focus on class, alright?”
“…Y-Yeah.”
But beside him, she kept fussing about with her setup for a long while.
Wondering if maybe she couldn’t even hook bait properly, Simon glanced over—only to see her attaching not the school-provided bait, but a feather onto her hook.
“Yahp!”
She swung the rod with a flourish.
For a moment, Simon lost his words. Sunlight reflected off her platinum-blonde hair as it whipped in the air, her figure lithe and elegant as she cast her line. The sight looked like a masterpiece painting.
Plop!
The hook dropped into the water—
And then—
Ruuuuumble!
All across the pool, every Kammaforce surged, cutting through the water and converging on her hook.
“W-What the heck?!”
“Kyaaaa!”
Students stumbled back in shock. Serne gave Simon a playful wink before hoisting her rod with a cheery shout.
Swaaash!
Kammaforce after Kammaforce flew skyward, clumped together. Soon a rain of monsters poured down, thudding onto the ground as dozens of them flailed madly.
‘…Hah, just how many did she catch at once?’
Satisfied, Serne waved her hand.
“Let’s use this one.”
She wrapped a feather around one thrashing Kammaforce and floated it into the air, while neatly sweeping the rest back into the pool.
Finishing the cleanup tidily, she started toward the disassembly station, waving her hand.
“See you in a bit.”
“Yeah.”
“And Simon.”
Her lips parted, tongue flicking as though she wanted to say something. She hesitated, then instead flashed him a sly smile.
“Something fun is about to happen.”
“Something fun? What is it?”
“Telling you ahead of time would spoil it.”
With a teasing glint in her eyes, she walked away.
“Simon!”
From the disassembly station, Loraine came running, black hair whipping behind her.
Her eyes flicked in displeasure at Serne’s outfit as she passed, but she didn’t stop. Instead she went straight to Simon.
“Did anything happen while I was gone?”
‘…Plenty of things had happened.’
With both Loraine and Professor Grerion absent, there had been no one to keep Serne in check.
“Don’t worry. It’s all handled now.”
“Haaah. Leave for just a moment and she causes trouble…”
Simon glanced at her for a moment.
In her swimsuit, Loraine was beautiful too—though in a completely different, less shocking way than Serne.
“?”
She tilted her head at him. Simon quickly snapped his gaze back forward.
“What’s wrong?”
“…N-Nothing. Just…”
Simon’s cheeks reddened.
“Pink…”
He meant: how could she come to class in a pink swimsuit?
Loraine coughed softly, straightening her rod.
“It’s all I had at home. I thought of buying another in Rochest, but it was too late. So I went with the most modest one I had…”
It was exactly the same excuse Serne had given.
The two of them seemed like total opposites, yet sometimes, strangely, they were alike.
‘Do opposites really attract?’
“What were you just thinking?”
Loraine narrowed her eyes. Simon forced a smile and yanked his line.
“Sorry, I’m going first!”
Swaaaash!
Simon reeled up his rod, hauling a large Kammaforce out of the pool.
* * *
When the club season ended, life at Keyzen moved at a breakneck pace.
After the Ghoul Evaluation, Simon went through the two undead-construction steps meant as practice for formula studies. He also completed his duel evaluation—winning without trouble and moving straight into a higher squad.
Now it was time to prepare for the upcoming midterm exams.
Currently, the Summonology department’s curriculum had reached the construction of the undead Night Terror. As a magical-type undead, it was a particularly difficult one.
Using materials from the Kammaforce he’d caught during Summon Materials Science, Simon was assembling a miniature Night Terror. A tail of Darkness writhed like a living appendage.
“This is fascinating.”
At first, it had been nothing but a shrimp-like crustacean monster. But with its upper body retained and its tail replaced by Darkness, it now moved like a fluid, black serpent.
Ssshhhrk—
It looked almost like a sea snake swinging a black tail.
Of course, a real Night Terror was much larger and more grotesque, but for class, the point was to learn new runes. So they built a smaller, safer version.
“By using the Vibro Rune to synchronize the flow of Darkness outward, this is the kind of result you get.”
Aron Deia explained as he paced the room.
Ever since White had joined, his face had grown steadily more gaunt.
“At the very least, you need to master the Vibro Rune if you want to construct higher-tier undead. If the tails aren’t moving properly, check your summoning circles.”
“Professor! Mine’s not working!”
Hands shot up across the classroom. Aron and the assistants moved tirelessly, helping students troubleshoot.
“That’s enough for today. We’ll finish in the next class.”
Aron walked to the podium.
He unfolded a freshly delivered document, gave a thoughtful nod, then looked at the students.
“Attention, everyone. I have an important announcement.”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters