Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 165

Simon and Rete stood up.

Having sat on his knees for hours, Simon couldn't even get up at first. When he staggered, his legs stabbed by pins and needles, Rete clicked her tongue as though finding him pathetic.

"Ah, making a huge fuss when you're a guy? Can't you stand up any faster?"

As expected of a priest, every word she said was… conservative. Still, he was her student, so Simon didn't complain and kept smiling.

"The first subject will be Blessings, which is at the core of priests. Light magic strengthens yourself and the others with the Goddess' grace."

Rete put her hand on her waist and explained in an imposing voice,

"The blessing we'll practice first is Strength. It's the most basic blessing: increasing your physical strength."

Rete took out her textbook for Blessings and opened the page with the magic circle for Strength drawn on it. Then she explained the divine formulae one by one and made Simon understand it before closing the book and having Simon draw the circle on the dirt with a twig repeatedly.

Only then did she ask Simon to create the magic circle from divinity.

Simon absorbed all the information like a sponge and then tried.

'I can do anything.'

Whiiirrr!josei

It was now easy to raise up divinity in his fingertips. Next, he drew the magic circle with divinity.

'Ohh.'

The divinity that swayed in Simon's hands reminded him of a good, obedient child.

It was different from jet-black, which felt like it took years to change shape when first commanded. The divinity moved at the speed of Simon's thoughts.

Of course, although it moved well, making a magic circle out of it was a whole other issue.

He could somehow draw the shape of a circle, but it was quite difficult to complete the divine script and the details inside.

"Phew."

This was his 20th attempt.

Again, he failed on the formula after drawing the circle.

"It's because you lack faith."

Rete kept on back-seating from beside him. Before he knew it, she was lying face down on the grass, scribbling something in her textbook.

"What's that?"

"Holiday homework."

"…"

"What, you got a problem?"

"No… Good luck."

Simon was also a student, so he knew how tough vacation homework could be. He let her be and concentrated once more.

'Rete's methods are the typical priests' method. I'll go my own way.'

In Simon's opinion, the biggest problem he was facing right now was his habits. The habits he formed from drawing magic circles in jet-black had been unwittingly impacting his divinity control.

Jet-black would 'remember'. He had reached a point where he could form simple dark spells by only recalling the name and primary runic word.

But divinity wasn't like that. While making the magic circle, if his thoughts drifted for even a moment, the whole thing would fall through.

'So…'

Simon clenched his teeth.

'I'll create the image as a whole.'

Since divinity could be controlled freely and the magic was closely related to the human mind, there was no need to draw elements one by one like jet-black.

'The magic circle in my mind…'

Simon raised his concentration to its maximum and recalled the magic circle before lowering his gaze to his left hand.

'Bring it into reality!'

Whirrr!

The divinity that had been swaying in the palm of his hand spread like dough. In it, the divine letters that Rete taught him embedded themselves one by one.

'It's not enough!'

Simon bit his lip.

'There's a limit with only imagination and concentration! Cover the rest with insight!'

Whether it was mana, jet-black, or divinity.

Magicians, necromancers, or priests.

What could be so different?

They all started from one source, so there was only one truth to arrive at.

The letters on the magic circle drifted into place. Simon used all the knowledge he had learned in Kizen.

Make a path with letters so the divinity can pass through, and burrow a hole to open a way through. Reshape the path where there's resistance.

There was no need to complicate things. Just let divinity flow through the magic circle.

Simon proceeded to correct the magic circle like solving a quiz, and finally…

Whirrrrrrrr!

He completed the magic circle. Rete, doing her holiday homework while lying on her back, looked at Simon with the eyes of a surprised rabbit.

'Who exactly is he?!'

He really completed the magic circle.

He only started learning light magic today!

She could only tremble.

"Time to see if it works."

Said Simon as he carefully placed his palm on the light-magic circle.

"…!"

Simon felt the magic circle get sucked into his body and an unknown energy welled up inside him. A red-white tail then coiled around his body.

'I'm overflowing with strength!'

Simon approached a nearby tree and punched it without Jet-Black Operation.

Thuuuuud!

Simon clenched his fists in celebration as he watched the leaves rustling down.

He could definitely feel the increase in strength.

"I did it, Rete! I made the blessing properly, right?"

"…"

Rete, who was staring blankly, suddenly turned her back. She then started clawing at the ground with her fingertips.

'How does this make sense? It took me a week to do that, but he completed it in a day? That guy who doesn't even believe in the Goddess?'

She thought he really might shake the sturdy foundations of her belief.

When Rete went without saying anything for almost 10 minutes, Simon cautiously asked her,

"What's on your mind?"

"…Just thinking about how I want to beat you up."

"Nothing new, huh?"

Simon lightly laughed.

"What are you going to teach me next?"

Rete stared at Simon.

A necromancer who uses divinity…

Even if Teacher requested this and even if she needed a collaborator, she felt that what she was doing was actually insane.

Wouldn't teaching him light magic be a great threat to Efnel later on?

If she met him on the battlefield someday, would she regret what she did today?

"What's wrong? Rete?"

"…"

She let out a sigh and slowly stood up.

No matter how many times she thought about it, her conclusion was still the same.

It's foolish to read the Goddess's will through her narrow-minded, mortal perspective.

"Divinity is the power of those who are blessed and recognized by the Goddess."

She sighed.

"There must be a reason why the Goddess gave you divinity."

'I can't make the mistake of misinterpreting the will of the Goddess with my judgment alone. Isn't that the lesson I always learned at Efnel?'

"Promise me just this one thing."

She said, squinting into Simon’s eyes in an attempt to read his heart.

"That you won't do anything that 'crosses the line' when using light magic, whether you believe in the Goddess or not, whether you fight me in the future or not."

"Yeah, I promise."

Phew. Rete sighed before nodding her head with a cold expression.

"Then, we'll move on to the next subject."

* * *

* * *

Simon learned the fundamental light spells from Rete.

Strength from Blessings, Divine Arrow from Mechanics of Divinity, and Heal from Healing.

Since he had only just learned them, he wasn't at the level where he could use them in real life, so he needed more practice.

Also, although Simon could now use divinity and use jet-black, using both powers simultaneously was far from doable at his current skill level.

If he cast Strength while maintaining Jet-Black Operation, the two powers would collide, and one of the two tended to disintegrate.

It seemed that simultaneous operation would have to be practiced separately.

For now, Simon focused purely on learning light magic. Rete also focused on giving lectures on theory in the first day. From the second day onwards, she encouraged Simon to improve stability through repetition.

'This is so fun.'

Simon was training to increase stability by casting Strength on himself while running.

Just casting the blessing wasn't the end.

He had to work hard to operate the divinity so the blessing wouldn't deactivate.

'It's so nice learning new things!'

Simon smiled and suddenly began running faster. Rete, who was running next to him, screamed,

"What are you doing? Why are you suddenly speeding up?!"

"I just wanted to run!"

"Just do what I tell you to! Oh great Goddess!"

Sweat was blown away by the cool headwind.

Simon didn't turn his blessing off, not once.

After finishing class like that and returning home, a new mission awaited Simon.

"Simon, go check out the village of Betante."

"Yes, Father!"

A patrol mission in a village belonging to Les Hill.

There was no big city in Les Hill, nestled in the rugged mountains as it was, but dozens of small villages were scattered across the mountains. It was the duty of Les Hill's successor to patrol them.

"Also…"

"What is it, Simon?"

"When I finish the patrol, can you teach me dark magic? Please?"

Richard, who was sweeping the floor, opened his eyes wide. Rete, exhausted and sprawled on the couch, stared at Simon as if looking at a crazy man.

"But haven't you been practicing light magic until now?"

"It doesn't mean I can neglect the dark magic part."

He had no intention of wasting a minute or even a second just because it was holidays. In these two months, Simon intended to develop by leaps and bounds in both dark and light magic.

"Haha! If you go back to Kizen, you'll be learning dark magic within an inch of your life, whether you like it or not. Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Because it's a spell that I can't learn right away even after returning to Kizen."

"What spell is it that you want to learn?"

Simon took a light breath and answered,

"Corpse Explosion."

Bwahahahahahahaha!

At that, Richard laughed like a madman.

Simon was startled. He had never seen his father laughing so erratically.

"Isn't that a high-level dark spell that's taught in the second year?"

Seeing the spark in Richard's eyes, Simon was surprised, but he only said,

"Yes, but I had a chance to taste it a little bit, so I want the full meal before the feeling disappears."

If it wasn't for the sudden holidays, Simon would've gone to Aaron and begged to be taught. Also, Simon wasn't the type to pass up the opportunity of being taught by the great necromancer right in front of him.

"It's not difficult to teach, but you shouldn't expect the level of Kizen professor's teachings from me. Those people are professionals among professionals. They are many times better than me when it comes to teaching."

"Even just flatly telling it to me will do, I beg you!"

As Simon bowed in sincerity, Richard stroked his chin.

"Sure, but under one condition."

He took out a bracelet and an anklet from his subspace and dropped them on the floor.

"These are artifacts cursed with Exhaust. I'll think about it if you go patrol all the villages wearing these."

"Really?"

"Mhm, of course! Hahaha!"

Simon immediately sat down and put on the cursed items.

Rete, who had been staring at him, pushed herself off the coach in frustration and headed for the bedroom.

She saw Anna there, lying on the ground and wrapped in jet-black cloth. She sat beside her, leaning slightly against her as she wearily murmured,

"…Teacher Anna, I think all men in this household are crazy."

——