Chapter 812
In the western region of Roke Island, a desolate wasteland stretched out.
It was originally a place thick with vegetation, but after a professor’s black magic experiment failed here in the past, nothing had grown for hundreds of years, turning it into barren land.
On the tallest, steep hill of this wasteland, where only sandstorms blew, various training devices were scattered chaotically.
Someone was training here.
His upper body, stripped bare, revealed a healthy, solid abdomen and muscles, parts of his body covered in scales. One of his eyes had transformed, its pupil narrowed to a reptilian slit.
It was Hector Moore, ranked 3rd overall, and the representative of the Summonology Department.
This hill on the wasteland was a place he often visited for personal training. Especially during this mission evaluation period, he had shut himself in here, sweating hard in endless training.
“So, in my opinion, we should join forces to deal with our common enemy.”
And right now, an uninvited guest had entered this place and was speaking.
It was Aseraz Mikel.
“I believe you understood what I said, rep.”
Thud!
Hector dropped the dragon-serpent wings attached to his back. He strode forward, grabbed a water bottle lying on a rock, opened it, and gulped it down.
Gulp, gulp, his throat moved, water dripping down from under his jaw and flowing along his neck.
Thunk.
Placing the bottle back on the rock, Hector wiped the sweat on his forehead with the towel slung around his neck.
“You looked like a corpse all class long, were you that conscious of Simon Follentia?”
Aseraz sneered.
“You’re just as conscious, aren’t you?”
“......”
“You and I are the same kind. We can’t stand having someone above us. Between us, rankings may rise and fall back and forth, but the one above us is different. That’s not just a ‘wall’. You’ve watched him since first year, so you know better, don’t you?”
She opened her palm.
“That the difference in talent itself is unfair.”
An opponent no effort could overcome.
Sitting in the same seat, taking the same class for the same amount of time, yet producing completely different results, a monster.
Especially in the recent class, Aseraz had felt that vast difference.
“No matter how hard you try to climb a wall that was never meant to be surpassed, your knees just scrape, your body just breaks. Such a wall isn’t to be crossed, but smashed apart with a hammer.”
She walked around the training equipment scattered about as she spoke.
“I’m going to drag Simon down. This school has systems set up for that, and it encourages it. Isn’t it foolish not to make use of them?”
Hector, who had been quietly listening, let out a long breath.
“That’s true.”
Aseraz’s lips curled.
‘As expected.’
From the first time she had seen him in the department, she felt it—this guy was the same as her.
The kind who would do anything to win, to stand at the top.
“I need your cooperation. In this exam, let’s join hands and drive Simon out of the school. What do you say?”
Hector slowly closed his eyes.
“......Judging by how you say it, this isn’t the first time you’ve made this offer. How many have joined this plan?”
“Almost all of the Top 10.”
Aseraz smiled.
“Others may see him as an idol, but we at least see Simon as a rival we must crush, right? To face a common enemy, we should—”
“A common enemy, huh.”
Suddenly, the air changed.
Seeing the contempt, close to derision, twist Hector’s lips, Aseraz realized belatedly that something had gone wrong.
“No, that guy is my enemy.”
From Hector’s voice, thick killing intent oozed out. It was that notorious Dragon Fear. Aseraz felt a cold chill rake through her entire body.
“Defeating Simon Follentia must be done by me. Until I crush him with my own hands, I won’t let him leave school because of some ridiculous trick.”
Thud! Thud!
His heavy footsteps resounded as Hector strode toward Aseraz.
“An insurmountable wall, you said? Smash it with a hammer, you said?”
He added, sneering.
“Loser trash.”
“......!”
Aseraz shuddered.
And thought.
‘I planned to bring Simon Follentia down in this exam, but before that, I’ll have to deal with you nuisances first.’
They weren’t the same kind.
This guy was even more insane.
* * *
That afternoon.
Aseraz and Meridiana walked together, exchanging updates on what had happened.
“I didn’t expect Hector Moore to respond like that.”
Meridiana smacked her lips in disappointment, her leaf-brown hair, sharply waved, swaying as she moved.
“With that level of grudge, I thought he’d surely cooperate. Still, we managed to secure the cooperation of Elisa the Ghost Ship, so that’s fine.”
This time, Aseraz asked.
“What about Jule from the Magical Combat Department, and Elishia from the Haematology Department?”
“Jule agreed on the goal of taking down Simon Follentia, but he seems to want to act separately. As for Elishia, she keeps going in circles.”
“?”
Meridiana closed her eyes, as though just thinking about it gave her a headache.
“I was stuck in teatime for three hours straight, but the conversation didn’t progress at all. She’s strange. Like she’s got butterflies in her head.”
Aseraz had heard such rumors about Elishia too.
Bloodmew Clan.
And a girl who peered into the future.
Though she was in the Top 10, she was a person whose true thoughts could never be read. No, maybe she didn’t even have any thoughts of her own to begin with.
“But.”
Meridiana’s eyes flashed.
“It doesn’t matter what happens with the others. The one we’re about to meet is the most important.”
This was the northern region of Roke Island, the Kolob Mountains.
They were climbing the mountain late in the day.
“We’re here.”
At the ridge, a huge thatched house appeared.
It looked like the long-standing dwelling of a naturalist. For an ordinary person’s home, it was unusually huge—the door, the windows, even the shoes and jars laid on the floor were all large.
“According to my research, the half-giant Shatel Maer lived here as a child with her human father in the mountains.”
Meridiana swept her eyes around as she continued.
“This house was probably built as a memento of that time.”
“No one’s inside.”
Uninterested in such stories, Aseraz peeked inside through a window. Soon, she spread a magic circle and began a wide-range scan.
After a moment, she pointed with her hand.
“This way.”
They went a bit farther down from the house, and found a massive cave halfway up the mountain, into which they entered.
“This isn’t a natural cave. Shatel must have dug into the mountain.”
Meridiana, leading the way, said so, but soon had to stop walking.
They couldn’t advance any farther, blocked by magic.
Aseraz immediately deployed several magic circles.
“I’ll try hacking the spell formation.”
“Oh, as expected.”
Aseraz’s fingers moved like playing a piano, she linked her magic circle to Shatel’s formation, then began neutralizing the security formulas one by one.
Watching her from the side, Meridiana shrugged her shoulders.
“Do you regret, going into the Summonology Department?”
“........”
“You had talent in every field.”
Aseraz lowered her eyelids slightly, then opened them again.
“I don’t regret it.”
“Then that’s good.”
Wooooong!
At last, when she inserted a new rune into the circle, all the security formulas were released, and the magic circle vanished.
The two of them could now go deeper into the cave.
“Be careful.”
Not long after walking, at the end of the cave, a steep cliff revealed itself.
Aseraz carefully knelt, gazing into the darkness beyond.
The inside of the mountain had been hollowed out to form a vast artificial cavern.
From the outside, the mountain looked intact. To create such an unrealistic spectacle without affecting the mountain at all, only Shatel, the specialist in Darkness Dynamics, could have done it.
At that moment—
“Ah!”
The cave floor beneath them suddenly gave way, their bodies instantly plummeting under the force of gravity.
“What the—?”
Meridiana grimaced, pulling out “bees” from her uniform sleeves, while Aseraz prepared black magic. But suddenly, one side of the ground rose like a pillar, catching the two of them and moving them.
They stopped in front of a colossal “statue” at the center of the space.
Crack.
Tuk.
A kind smile cracked across the statue’s face, splitting apart, and its eye socket shattered, revealing a living human eye beneath.
Aseraz almost screamed.
[You broke, the barrier.]
As expected, inside was Shatel Maer.
[During training, what business do you have here.]
“I have a proposal.”
Meridiana spoke with a calm smile.
“What do you think, about an Anti–Simon Follentia Alliance?”
[.......]
Shatel Maer’s pupils narrowed.
* * *
“Huuuk! Haaah!”
During the mission evaluation period, the place Simon chose as his training ground was the “Forbidden Forest”.
There was no special reason. It was an extremely dangerous place for other students, but for Simon, it was familiar.
Except for patrol wardens at certain hours, there were no people, and it was nice not having to worry about anyone watching.
Simon ran through the Forbidden Forest with all his strength, until his throat burned and his lungs screamed. Weaving freely through the terrain of the forest, he picked up more and more speed. His training clothes quickly became dirtied with soil, and sweat dripped heavily from his brow.
‘Good, good.’
His condition was excellent. The leg he injured on the grasslands, the wound from Leight’s slash, both were steadily healing.
—Krrrrrrr.
The cry of a monster dwelling in the forest echoed.
A monster often appearing in the Forbidden Forest, the Werewolf.
‘Here we go!’
Simon increased his running speed, clasping his hands together as if locking his fingers, then mimicked grasping tightly.
The instant he spread his hands wide, a glowing emerald Darkness stretched out like liquid.
Simon brought both hands behind his head, then swung them downward with all his might.
<Simon’s Original – Royal Guard>
From the trees, from beside the rocks, from behind him—
The skeletons running alongside Simon flared with emerald light, transforming into Royal Guard. Cloaked in turquoise mantles, they burst forth like bullets, swinging their swords.
Chraang!
Chaaak!
The werewolves charging Simon were all sliced apart, scattering across the ground.
“Nice!”
This time, Simon focused particularly on polishing his fundamentals.
He also shortened the preparation time for the Royal Guard, working so he could use it as readily as a basic technique. Now, without relying on Blood Golem magic, he could summon it more swiftly.
Thooong!
Breaking through the dense forest, Simon leapt off a cliff.
—Kkeeeeee!
This time, forest harpies, alerted by the commotion, swooped in. As Simon stretched out his arm, a Skeleton Bird he had prepared as a Summoned Undead flew toward him.
Tong!
Simon mounted the Skeleton Bird. Then, just like before, he swung his hand downward, emerald flashes descended from the sky, merging with the Skeleton Bird.
<Royal Guard>
Wooooong!
The Skeleton Bird’s bone wings sharpened into blade-like edges. It tore through the air, slicing harpy torsos apart.
“Well done!”
Simon leapt off the Skeleton Bird and kept running.
Deeper into the Forbidden Forest, here, medium and large monsters would appear.
—Grrraaaaah!
A hobgoblin, one and a half times larger than a man, came charging. Simon calmly opened subspace.
Clank! Clank!
From subspace, thick, heavy bones erupted. They immediately shifted form, taking the shape of armor.
<Simon’s Original – Bone Heavy Armor>
Simon boarded the massive armor. At his finger’s downward motion, emerald flashes struck from the sky, transforming it into “Royal Guard”.
The sight of the enormous bone armor engulfing Simon, charging ferociously, was like a moving fortress.
Kuuuuung!
Kwoooom!
Bone Heavy Armor rushed into the hobgoblin horde.
Overwhelming strength, sheer destruction. Just by charging, the hobgoblins in its path were crushed into pulp, scattered across the ground.
Simon slipped out between the armor plates, thrusting his hand backward.
‘Open Gate!’
He tried to raise Overlord to finish the monsters, but realized too late.
Habits are scary. He’d forgotten that Overlord was entrusted to the Vanilla Group.
<Bone Spear>
So he switched to another spell. The massive Bone Armor rose into the air, transforming into a giant spear, impaling monsters one after another, crushing them.
Soon after, Simon collected the necessary materials from the fallen monsters, dusting his palms as he walked out.
[Kheh-heh! Impressive!]
Feer smiled, having observed Simon’s new technique.
[Not only can you summon Royal Guard at the needed moment and timing, you’ve focused even more on the form change at the instant it’s bestowed!]
“Yes. This way, I’ll be able to buy time, to connect seamlessly into Chaos Magic, Death Knight, and Bone Dragon.”
The closer he got to obtaining powerful techniques like Bone Dragon and Death Knight, the more crucial fundamentals became. For Simon, this training was absolutely essential.
“Huuuh.”
Simon thus broke straight through the Forbidden Forest, and in the distance, the city appeared.
It was the student city, Rochest.
“Let’s go.”
And today was the long-awaited meeting with Benya Vanilla.
At last, it seemed he would be able to receive what he needed.
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