Chapter 327
After the game ended, Simon parted ways with Loraine.
As soon as she stepped outside, she received a call through her communication crystal, frowned deeply, and ran off. She told Simon she was sorry she couldn't stay with him longer.
From the few words Simon overheard from the crystal, "Serne" and "problem" came up one after another. Judging by that, it seemed Serne had caused trouble again, and Loraine had gone to deal with it.
This push-and-pull relationship between those two would probably continue until graduation.
Living as the daughter of Lady Neftis isn't easy either.
Simon adjusted his glasses and immediately went off to find the next card.
The second card was quickly found, behind a building, in a drainage channel. This time, it was yellow.
'Yellow was Summonology, right?'
Expecting a Summonology-themed game, Simon approached the card with anticipation.
* * *
[Entering a new game.]
Simon opened his eyes.
After stepping into the card in the drainage channel, he found himself facing a large drainage path.
No, it was too wide to call a drainage channel, more like a narrow alleyway.
Simon stood atop a hill overlooking that alley.
Hmm.
He tried stepping forward to go down, but a barrier blocked his path, as if to prevent him from getting closer. It seemed he couldn't go directly down that narrow path.
'I can't tell what the theme is yet.'
It didn't seem related to Summonology at all.
Just as Simon clicked his tongue in disappointment—
[1 participant joined – Simon Follentia]
[Starting Garden (8/8)]
"S–Simon Follentia!"
"We're saved!!"
Seven students appeared from who-knows-where and surrounded Simon.
"You're Simon, right? Not just someone with the same name?"
"It's him! It's Special Admission Number 1, I'm telling you!"
"I saw your match where you used Deimos!"
All of them spoke at once, leaving Simon no time to think.
"P–please, one person at a time."
He said this while scanning their faces.
None of them were familiar.
There were no other famous special admission students here, either. Everyone looked like completely ordinary students.
"Then I'll go first!"
A female student wearing a crescent-moon headband stepped forward.
"You really are Special Admission Number 1, Simon Follentia?"
"Y–yeah, I am."
"He says he is, he says he is!"
"Woooaaah!"
They high-fived each other, jumped up and down, and made a huge fuss. They were treating him not just with a warm welcome, but like a savior.
"Uh, but guys. What's the theme here?"
"Summonology theme!"
The girl answered right away.
"It's a game where you use summons to defeat monsters passing below us! You can only attack monsters with summons."
'So it was Summonology!'
The moment Simon heard the rules, his eyes sparkled. He couldn't wait to try it.
"We really almost had a disaster."
The girl continued talking.
"While we were waiting, we were chatting, and it turned out none of us are Summonology majors!"
"Wha…?"
Simon's eyes widened.
"And right then, you showed up! And not just anyone, the top Summonology special admission student! Hahaha!"
"Wait, hold on!"
Simon finally realized the seriousness of the situation and asked urgently,
"Not even one of you?"
"Yep!"
"You all came into a yellow card, right? So I thought maybe you'd at least be somewhat confident in Summonology?"
At that, all seven suddenly averted their eyes in embarrassment.
The girl with the headband mumbled in a tiny voice,
"W–well… we were all trying the combination of collecting seven cards in different colors."
'…Oh no.'
In Simon's memory, he could hear Maelyn's voice.
—The number of people trying to collect the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, navy, violet combo is going to skyrocket. Just like you, Simon.
Just as Maelyn predicted, that's exactly what happened.
After the first exam, word spread fast among students that the chance of getting a theme related to your major wasn't that high.
So many students started aiming for the highest score by collecting the "rainbow combo". They began seeking only cards of colors different from the ones they already had.
And this mess was the result.
"Still, Simon! It's lucky that the pinnacle of Summonology showed up!"
No, not lucky at all.
These guys clearly planned to rely on him completely.
Before he knew it, someone had pulled a chair out of subspace and sat him down, while others massaged his shoulders and limbs.
Simon quickly came to his senses and said,
"…F–first, explain the detailed rules to me."
"Got it!"
The rules they explained were as follows:
An evil necromancer is sending monsters to devastate a village. Innocent people live there.
The students become a vigilante group and must kill every single monster, protecting the village's peace — a typical, cliché story.
Monsters spawn from a magic circle at the starting point and can only pass through the narrow road. They don't fight back against the students on the hill, just rush straight toward the village.
In return, students also had restrictions. They could only attack monsters using summons. No curses, no other black magic.
'…If there's not even one Summonology student, this is going to be tough.'
Simon let out a quiet sigh.
At his reaction, the students flinched and watched him nervously.
"S–so, clearing it's impossible, right?"
"Should we just prepare for the next game?"
"…No, that's not what I mean."
Simon gave a faint smile and rubbed his forehead.
"I mean, I'll try to make it work somehow."
The students immediately cheered loudly.
"Awesome!"
"Man, you're the real deal!"
"Let's do it!!"
Thus, Simon's fan club was born.
* * *
The battlefield was simple.
From the starting point to the village, there was a single straight alley. Soon, monsters would pour through it.
First, the eight of them had to choose their respective defense zones.
Simon was pushed into taking the most important last section, right in front of the exit. The rest picked spots they liked along the path.
Behind him was an actual village. The residents were holed up indoors, shutters closed, trembling in fear.
"All right! Let's get ready!"
At Simon's call, the students began pulling out their undead.
'…This is, a mess.'
It was worse than he expected.
Most had just skeletons or zombies, and some could only control up to three summons at a time.
"Sorry, I'm a Magical Combat major!"
One such student apologized in advance.
'Then I…'
Watching the undead they deployed, Simon fell into thought.
Which summons should he use? The Darkness he could spend was limited. He had to pick the most efficient summon and pour all firepower into it.
A straight-line path like this was perfect for Deimos' Current Cannon, but without a watery terrain, summoning Deimos was impossible.
Overlord was also a bit tricky, keeping six subspaces open would quickly heat up his subspace ring.
"Hey, monsters are coming!"
The student at the front shouted.
From the starting point, armed goblins poured into the narrow alley.
Green Goblins. Class-2 danger monsters, but their numbers were huge.
Simon checked the counter floating in the air.
[200/200]
'200 of them?'
That was an absurd number.
If there were eight Summonology majors here, they could clear it easily, but the only reliable fighters were Simon and maybe one or two others.
"Phew! I'm nervous!"
First up was the crescent headband girl.
She blocked the alley with two shield-bearing skeletons, and placed a spear-wielding skeleton behind them.
It was an efficient and clever formation.
—Kishishishit!
The goblins poured in like a flood and clashed with the shield skeletons.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With the path blocked by undead, the monsters actively attacked the obstacle.
The skeletons hidden behind the shields thrust their spears diligently, but…
Blocking head-on won't work.
In the end, they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The shield bearers collapsed, and the rest of the skeletons were shattered.
[191/200]
Out of 200 monsters, they had only taken down nine.
"Next! Get ready!"
The following students' defenses weren't much better. The Magical Combat major was breached in seconds, and the one with ghouls had poor undead control.
"Guys! Don't block the path head-on, attack from the sides!"
Unable to watch any longer, Simon shouted. Several students looked back at him in confusion.
"B–but won't they just run straight through?"
"I'll handle that! Right now, reducing their numbers is more important!"
After seeing the failures before, the students quickly adjusted their strategy. They gave spears to skeletons to attack from the hill, or had short-weapon skeletons throw rocks.
It meant letting monsters through, but the kill count was much higher.
And then—
—Kuwooooo!
The "Keyzen" type didn't lie about their class for nothing.
One student, not even a Summonology major, had zombified and was controlling a Class-4 monster, a Crimson Bear.
Alone, it tore through the goblins, drawing thunderous cheers from everyone.
"Nice hold!"
"Keep it up!"
His Crimson Bear zombie was certainly powerful, but, as expected, control was the issue.
Controlling a Crimson Bear zombie was extremely stressful for a summoner, just connecting to it via thought link alone was taxing.
The student, clutching his head in pain, eventually collapsed on the spot, and the Crimson Bear stopped moving.
Once it froze, the undead was simply surrounded and hacked to pieces by goblins.
[103/200]
"Damn!"
"Only Simon's left now!"
All seven others had been defeated, and half the total enemy count still remained.
Everyone's gaze turned to Simon, the final hope and the last line of defense blocking the exit.
What's he going to use?
He can't use Deimos, right?
Maybe that bladed summon?
As the students speculated, they watched Simon closely.
But what he pulled out was none other than—
"Skeleton archers!"
Eight skeleton archers appeared, bows in hand, taking their positions and preparing to fire.
"Uh, is that really going to work?"
"There aren't even as many arrows in those quivers as there are monsters."
The students muttered with anxious expressions, but Simon smiled confidently and raised his right hand.
Of course, these aren't just ordinary skeleton archers.
In his right hand was the core of a golem, covered in Cloud.
Fwoooosh!
The Cloud shot upward, passed through a magic circle in the air, and descended onto the skeleton archers.
Their eyes gleamed with a turquoise glow, their bows and bowstrings turned emerald, and intangible Cloud capes billowed behind their backs.
Finally, Simon pressed the Cloud's crown onto his own head, completing the black magic.
A royal guard unit composed entirely of skeleton archers.
"Wow! That's the one, right?"
The students who had seen Simon's BMAT match jumped excitedly in place.
"Load."
At Simon's command, the skeleton archers rustled their emerald Cloud capes, drew arrows from their quivers, and infused them with a turquoise hue. They nocked them, aiming at the flood of goblins.
"Fire!"
Shooosh!
An arrow shot forth, leaving an emerald tail in its wake.
It pierced the chest of the frontmost goblin with ease, then retained its momentum, tearing through the bodies of every enemy lined up behind.
"P–Piercing effect!!"
Each time a turquoise arrow flew, whole groups of monsters were slaughtered. One arrow was dropping seven or eight goblins at once.
Shooosh!
Shoooshhh!
Each volley turned another pack of monsters into corpses, an impressive sight.
'Hhh!'
Sweat beaded on Simon's forehead. Gritting his teeth, he swung his arm, prompting the archers to coat the next arrows in Cloud and nock them.
"Let 'em fly!"
The turquoise arrows fired in sequence, mowing down goblins. The horde, which had been nearly at full strength, was being wiped out entirely by Simon.
[Remaining Monsters: 48/200]
"M–"
A male student trembled where he stood.
"...This is insane."
"He's actually going to pull it off!"
The spectators were nearly delirious. The monster count had already been cut in half.
With the uproarious cheers ringing in his ears, Simon pushed himself harder.
'Haaah.'
But it was no easy feat.
Unlike the standard blade-wielding royal guard, the Royal Shooting Guard consumed Cloud directly to enhance and fire their arrows. The skeletons' bodies gradually lost their turquoise glow. First, the capes disappeared, then the glow in their eyes and bones dimmed.
'That doesn't matter.'
Panting, Simon raised both arms high.
'Just keep coating the arrows with Cloud and firing them!'
Once again, emerald arrows pierced through goblins in succession.
[Remaining Monsters: 7/200]
"We're almost there!"
"The final boss monster's coming!"
Lagging behind the main horde, a massive goblin charged forward.
Students tried sending their summons down from the hill to intercept, but one by one, they were struck down by the boss' huge axe.
"Whew!"
By now, Simon had wiped out all the minions.
The skeleton archers had fired every arrow in their quivers, now fumbling at empty ones like broken machines.
[1/200]
Only the hulking goblin boss remained. Even one monster getting through meant defeat.
Simon swung his arm.
"Return."
All the Cloud remaining in the skeleton archers flowed back into Simon's magic circle.
With the Cloud gone, the royal guard reverted to ordinary skeleton archers, freezing in place as if their power had been switched off.
'For the last one, this!'
Simon destabilized the Cloud ratio in his magic circle. The emerald magic circle darkened into a deep, jet-black shade.
He turned his head. Beside him, the only skeleton archer that hadn't severed its thought link — still in Royal Guard mode — stood ready.
"I'm counting on you!"
From the magic circle, Simon created a black bow and arrow, passing them to the skeleton archer. It accepted them instantly and dashed down the alley.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
From the front, the goblin boss barreled toward it. The lone skeleton archer stood tall, blocking the path.
"Just one left!!"
"Please!"
The students shouted together, all holding their breath.
Simon raised his hand.
'Load.'
The skeleton archer carefully drew the black arrow.
'A perfect unity.'
Simon felt as if he was that skeleton archer.
"Fire!"
Tuuuuuuuuung!
The moment the bowstring was released, a deafening boom erupted, wind howled, and the archer's body shattered into pieces. The arrow shot straight forward, burying itself squarely in the goblin's chest.
—Krrruk!
The boss goblin was pushed backward, dropping to one knee.
"Ah!"
"The power's a little weak!"
With the arrow lodged in its chest, the goblin bled heavily from its mouth and began to rise.
"No."
Simon smiled faintly, clenching his fist.
"I've got you."
Twaaaang!
The arrow inside the goblin exploded, Darkness fanning out from the wound.
The goblin's body burst apart, flesh and blood spraying in every direction.
Thud-thud-thud.
Beyond the collapsed corpse, only faint, hazy remnants of Darkness remained.
While everyone stood with mouths agape and eyes wide—
[0/200]
[All monsters eliminated.]
[Objective complete.]
"Wooooooaaahhh!!"
The moment the message appeared, the group screamed as if to shake the heavens and rushed toward Simon.
Simon gave a wry smile and slumped to the ground.
'…If I play three games of this, I'll really die.'
Before long, his body was swallowed up in the crowd of cheering students.