Necromancer Academy and the Genius Summoner-Chapter 268: Episode

At the same time.

Meirin struggled onto a platform after a dive to the seabed. As soon as she was out, she refilled her air magic circle and checked her Tonguepad.

’Six now. I’m picking up two every time I go down.’

The chaotic free-for-all from the beginning of the exam had subsided, and everyone was now focused on finding coins. By now, some students would have already collected their ten and moved on to the open sea to hunt for points.

’I need to get out there quickly before all the monsters in the open sea are gone.’

Having refilled her air magic circle, Meirin dove back into the water.

’Splash!’

A school of colorful fish swam by, their scales scattering the sunlight into a beautiful, shimmering display. If it weren’t for the exam, she would have savored the view, but she had no time for that. Using the flippers Dick had developed, she descended quickly.

Though it was the seabed, the water was thankfully shallow, so she reached it in no time. The real problems were the attacks from other competitors and marine monsters.

’Is anyone there?’

After a quick scan of her surroundings, Meirin swam forward, carefully examining the bottom. Kizen must have treated the water somehow, as visibility was no issue. Still, the coins buried in the sand were ridiculously hard to find. She cursed Kizen under her breath as she dug through the sand.

’Ah.’

Meirin paused. A patch of sand ahead was intermittently stirring.

’That’s a monster.’

She placed her right hand on the magic circle drawn on her thigh and, as if drawing a pistol, transferred it to her hand and activated it.

‘Ice Bolt!’

An ice shard shot from the magic circle and struck the center of the stirring sand. The reaction was immediate. A stingray-shaped monster emerged from the sand, writhing in pain.

’Good.’

One of the symbols on her deployed magic circle vanished, indicating a charge had been used. Nine shots left.

’‘Ice Bolt! Ice Bolt! Ice Bolt!’’

With a series of thuds, the monster, pierced by the ice shards, went limp. Four shots to kill one monster. The efficiency was low, but in the sea, it couldn’t be helped. Everyone was under the same conditions. After confirming her points had increased on her Tonguepad, Meirin thoroughly searched the area where the monster had been.

’Just as I thought!’

She exclaimed in triumph. A coin lay on the bottom where the creature had been hiding. She carefully picked it up and brought it to the Tonguepad on her wrist. A tongue shot out from the device and gobbled it up. Storing coins in a Subspace was grounds for disqualification; they had to be held by the Tonguepad or on her person.

’I got points for the monster, too. On to the next!’

Meirin was making good progress, keeping pace with the top students. When the exam started and the students were in a frenzy, she had conserved her strength on the platform. She set off only when the initial chaos waned and their energy was spent, quickly moving between the platform and the seabed to collect coins. The memory of Jane’s scathing feedback from the last BMAT still made her face flush. ’Pacing. Pacing is important.’ She would not repeat the same mistake.

’Found another one!’

A coin was tangled in some grass-like seaweed. Meirin quickly headed towards it, but another monster was hiding there. A mollusk-type creature suddenly popped out and spewed poisonous smoke at her.

’Ugh! Again?’

A level-three-danger monster, ’Pulpa’. It was the most common monster in this sea, a fearsome creature that spewed poisonous smoke from an anus-like orifice to poison and eat fish or people.

But even with the poison clouding her face, Meirin calmly raised her right arm.

’‘Ice Bolt!’’

’Thwack!’

The ’Pulpa’ was hit squarely by the ice shard and lost its strength. Meirin climbed on top of it, held Ice Bolts in both hands, and plunged them into its body. Green blood spurted out, and the monster went limp. Descending back to the seabed, she let out an internal sigh of relief.

’I’m not affected by the poison. This must be thanks to Professor Byulya’s class.’

There were times when she hadn’t understood the point of eating poison in class, but now, not just Meirin but many students were feeling its benefits. The students who took Byulya’s Venomology class were fine after the ’Pulpa’’s attack, but those from other classes who had a different professor were struggling. Some couldn’t stand it and had to climb onto a platform to make an antidote. Meirin felt a pang of guilt for having resented Byulya.

’If I get a high rank, I should go and thank her.’

The search continued. After a little while, she found one more coin, bringing her total to nine. Just one more and she could advance to the open sea, but a glance at the remaining air in her wetsuit’s magic circle told her it was time to surface.

’Ah, it’s a waste to go up now. Is there one nearby?’

Just as she was making a final push, diligently searching the bottom, a school of colorful fish suddenly darted past her. Meirin turned to see what had startled them.

"Huh!"

Behind the fleeing fish, a monster larger than a person appeared. A level-four-danger shark monster, ’Gamban’. In its mouth, what looked like a Kizen student’s leg was struggling.

"Ahh...!"

Meirin was so shocked she froze on the spot. A moment later, the student’s barrier must have failed, as their body vanished in a flash of teleportation magic from inside the shark’s mouth. The monster, angered that its prey had vanished, rolled its eyes and spotted the petrified Meirin. It charged.

’Ugh!’

She quickly swam to escape, but there was no way a human could outspeed a ’Gamban’ in the sea.

’I have to fight!’

Having made her decision, she checked her remaining Ice Bolts. Only two shots left. She spun around and aimed her right arm. The ’Gamban’ was coming straight for her, its mouth wide open.

‘Ice Bolt!’

Two ice shards shot forward and hit the ’Gamban’’s body with a ’thwack, thwack!’ sound, but they only drew a little blood and enraged the creature even more.

’Agh!’

The ’Gamban’’s sharp teeth bit down on her right arm. Her barrier gauge decreased at an unbelievable rate, changing from green to yellow.

’I-I’m going to be done for!’

She pounded the ’Gamban’’s face with her fists, but it didn’t budge. Her lifeline, the barrier gauge, had now dropped below half. She couldn’t lose all her coins and points like this.

’Some... someone!’

’Slither!’

’Slither!’

In her moment of crisis, a strange green whip descended from above and wrapped around the ’Gamban’’s body like a snake. A surprised Meirin looked up to see a female student with her hands outstretched, activating black magic. It was none other than...

’Claudia!’

The ’Gamban’, caught by the whip, writhed in pain as if poisoned, and the force of its bite on Meirin weakened. Claudia caught her eye and gave a sharp nod.

’I don’t know what’s going on, but...!’

Meirin gathered her courage. It was a chance to pull her arm out, but instead, she pushed her arm deeper into the ’Gamban’’s mouth and activated her black magic.

<Freezing>

The shark’s insides began to freeze. A species that lives in such warm seas is sensitive to sudden changes in temperature, let alone having its insides flash-frozen.

’Let alone if its insides freeze!’

Poisoned and flash-frozen from the inside out, the ’Gamban’ finally lost its strength and went limp.

’We got it!’

At the same time, her points on the Tonguepad went up. The 1,000 points were split between them, giving each 500. They had safely defeated the ’Gamban’, but it wasn’t time to let their guard down. Meirin looked up and stared at Claudia with a wary gaze.

’What’s her plan? If she’s after my coins...’

But Claudia didn’t make any aggressive moves. Instead, she gave a slight smile and pointed her finger upwards.

’Gurgle!’

She was out of air. With no other choice, Meirin swam upwards, and Claudia followed.

"Puhaaaaaa!" Meirin broke the surface, taking a huge, desperate breath. She had almost died. Claudia surfaced next to her, also gasping for air.

An awkward silence hung between the two girls. Meirin kept her mouth shut, looking away, before finally breaking the awkward silence.

"Hey, thanks for sav—"

"I’m sorry about before, Meirin," Claudia cut in.

Meirin’s eyes widened.

"...Th-that thing I said about your grades. I don’t know if you’ll accept it, but I’m sorry. I apologize." Claudia’s expression was one of relief. Meirin, realizing the tense girl from before had changed, gave a small, quiet laugh.

"Forget it! Why are you being so cringey? Acting out of character will get you killed."

"You’re still making a fuss even when I apologize!" Claudia retorted, blushing, then tilted her head back with a serious expression. "I’ve decided to stop the boycott."

"After running around so hard for student rights and all that."

"Ah, I don’t know. I think I was crazy for a moment. I’m so embarrassed. And..." Claudia opened her palm, the Venom Whip magic circle she had just used still shimmering. "I think I was misunderstanding Professor Byulya."

"Hmm."

As Meirin was smirking, a male student snuck up behind them, preparing a curse. Just as he was about to cast it, the two girls spun around in perfect sync and extended their right arms.

<Ice Bolt>

<Venom Whip>

A barrage of poison and ice hammered the male student’s barrier. In an instant, his gauge hit zero, and he was teleported away without ever getting to cast his curse.

"Don’t get cocky," Meirin laughed.

Claudia laughed along with her. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she gathered her courage and made the first move. "Meirin, want to form an alliance? Just for this exam?"

After a moment of thought, Meirin swept her hair back and gave a small nod. She had received an apology and they had reconciled. There was no reason to refuse. The two girls shook hands.

---

’Over there, over there!’

’There’s another coin!’

A group of three Kizen students in wetsuits were searching the seabed together.

’Finally, I get a coin too...!’

’Swissssh!’

With a sudden rush of bubbles, something shot past, and the coin on the bottom vanished. The students’ gazes snapped in that direction.

’Wh-what is that?’

’He’s riding a skeleton? In the sea?’

While other students were painstakingly swimming to find coins and then returning to their platforms, Simon alone was traversing the sea at an insane speed, scooping up coins.

’Are we even taking the same test?’

’He’s in a different genre entirely.’

Simon, who had paused to search the seabed, soon picked up his tenth coin. He had met the minimum requirement.

’Deimos. To the surface.’

Deimos’s head turned upwards, and it shot toward the surface like an arrow. The students swimming on foot watched with envy.

’Swoooosh!’

In an instant, he reached the surface. Simon pointed to a nearby platform, and Deimos immediately guided him there.

"Good boy," Simon said, stroking Deimos’s head after landing on the platform. The creature seemed pleased, gently rubbing its head against his palm. When Simon turned around, he saw two male students standing there, stiff as boards.

He smiled. "Are you going to fight?"

The students looked back and forth between Deimos and Simon, then shook their heads in fright and dove into the water as if fleeing.

"Huh? I wasn’t trying to chase them away. I feel kind of bad."

Simon sat down with a thud, charging his air magic circle for a moment while he checked his points.

1st - Elisa: 2,500 Points

(10 coins)

2nd - Aun: 1,540 Points

(0 coins)

3rd - Hector: 1,100 Points

(10 coins)

4th - Chatel: 980 Points

(10 coins)

While he had been taking it easy, the point gap had already widened considerably. They were all students who had gone to the open sea. The second-place student, Aun, had probably given up on the coins and gone straight to the open sea to rack up points.

[Kuhaha! Are you going to be okay? First place already has 2,500 points.]

’It’s fine.’ Simon folded a few fingers as if calculating. ’I can catch up in ten minutes.’

[What?] Pier’s disbelieving voice echoed in his mind. [Kuhaha! You crazy bastard. What kind of insane stunt are you planning now?]