Chapter 530: Episode 530
A high-pitched whine filled the air as Simon sped forward on his Golem Board, kicking up a cloud of dust. The Ramakhan Crags. It was a vital passage in the massive trade route known as the Sandroad, but it had also become a death trap, claiming countless lives each year due to an explosion in the native Ratcher population.
The local lord had given up on exterminating them entirely, and merchants now paid for costly detours. Recently, the starving Ratchers had even started attacking large, well-guarded caravans, making the region a constant source of disaster.
Professor Grelion’s voice echoed in his mind. "It’s a lesson that kills two birds with one stone: securing ghouls and eliminating monsters! Helping people is the duty of an elite necromancer!"
Simon also recalled the professor’s booming lecture. "Thanks to the efforts and spilled blood of your seniors, the image of necromancers has improved throughout the Dark Alliance! They have become deeply integrated into daily life, allowing for the construction of this very infrastructure! Follow in their footsteps with a grateful heart!"
With a soft ’click’, Simon drew his bow. In the distance, a Ratcher was sprinting across the barren landscape. It was covered in shaggy brown fur, with pointed ears, giving it the impression of a goblin that ran on all fours.
’I need to avoid damaging the muscles as much as possible,’ he reminded himself.
Simon took out an arrow and nocked it.
’Aim for the neck. One shot.’
The arrow flew with a sharp ’ping’, but it lodged itself in the Ratcher’s thigh. The monster, writhing in pain, spotted Simon and began to charge.
"Ah, damn it." Seeing the limping leg, Simon muttered in disappointment and drew another arrow. The second shot hit the neck precisely, and the creature collapsed a moment later.
The Golem Board glided to a stop beside the corpse. Simon jumped off and examined the dead Ratcher.
"This won’t pass inspection."
The arrow had unfortunately struck the crucial thigh muscle, which was already beginning to stiffen. A ghoul made from this would have poor mobility; in the worst-case scenario, it might even limp. It would almost certainly fall short of Grelion’s standards.
Simon left it without a second thought and got back on his Golem Board.
"Nine of these... this is going to be tough."
He hadn’t even secured a single usable Ratcher yet. The rule was ‘Pass or Fail.’ If he was disqualified here, he’d be barred from the practical evaluation and the next Funerary Rites class.
’Still...’
The fact that a Ratcher was nearby meant a den was likely close. Simon scanned his surroundings carefully from his Golem Board, and finally, he found it: a small breathing hole in the sandy ground. It looked narrow, but a Ratcher’s flexible body could easily squeeze through.
’This is it. The den.’
Simon dismounted and waved his hand in the air.
’Summon Golem’
A torrent of sand and earth swirled around the Golem Board, reshaping it. Within seconds, the towering form of a large golem rose from the ground.
"Widen the entrance!"
At Simon’s shout, the golem raised a massive arm and brought it crashing down on the breathing hole. The ground shook with each heavy blow. Simon retreated to a safe distance as the golem clasped its hands together and smashed them down one last time.
With a final, deafening sound, the surrounding ground gave way, and the entrance to the den widened into a gaping hole. From within, the startled, chittering cries of monsters echoed out.
Simon retrieved the golem’s core and, without hesitation, dropped into the darkness below.
He landed with a soft ’thud’ and straightened up, his eyes adjusting to the gloom. All around him, pairs of glowing eyes stared back. Ratchers bared their teeth, lowering their stances and letting out menacing growls.
’I came to the right place.’
Scattered throughout the den were the skeletal remains of humans, alongside horribly torn pieces of cloth and worn-out bags.
A Ratcher shrieked and lunged. Simon reflexively clenched his fist, gathering jet-black, then caught himself.
’Right, I almost beat it to death!’
The Ratcher sailed over his head and landed on the far wall. Simon corrected his stance and opened his subspace.
"Everyone, out!"
Eight skeletons burst forth. At Simon’s gesture, they instantly scattered and disassembled into a pile of bones.
’Bone Prison’
As Simon thrust his arm forward, the bones shot out like projectiles, pinning the nearest Ratchers to the cavern wall.
The wall shook as the shrieking Ratchers struggled violently.
’Threat level three, just as expected. They’re stronger than I thought.’
Simon flicked his index finger as if wielding a baton. The arm bones of the skeletons connected to the Bone Prison snapped into place, followed by the hand bones, which gripped their swords. In a single, fluid motion, they struck the Ratchers’ necks, silencing them.
More Ratchers shrieked and charged from the opposite side. Simon spun, swinging his arm, and a new wave of bones flew out, pinning the creatures to the wall. Then, he brought his arms to the center.
The skeletal hands that had fallen to the floor picked up their weapons and floated into the air. With Simon spreading his arms like wings as a signal, they shot forward, precisely piercing the necks of the monsters held captive by the Bone Prison.
’That’s four secured... Ah!’
Just then, a thunderous rumbling of footsteps echoed from deeper within the den, and more than ten Ratchers poured out. In such a narrow space, that many level-three monsters was a death sentence.
"It’ll be hard to catch them all without injury. I’ll have to be satisfied with half for now."
Simon quickly donned his Bone Armor. Watching the ferocious tide of monsters surge toward him, he gave a single command.
"Open."
A storm of snake-like blades erupted from his subspace with a metallic shriek, whipping around him and slicing through the charging monsters. Fountains of blood painted the cavern walls red.
---
At the same time, the other Summoning students were scattered across the crags, each employing their own unique methods.
Aseraz, ranked fifth, stood with her arms crossed, peering down into a breathing hole.
"Perfect."
She took out a gas potion she had concocted in Venomology class and tossed a few into the opening. Soon, a pungent smell filled the air, followed by the pained screams of the Ratchers inside.
"All I need to do is preserve the muscles, right?"
She used black magic to seal the breathing hole with sand. A short distance away, at another exit to the den, her splendid silver-armored Skeleton Knights were already waiting.
The Ratchers shrieked and keened, unable to stand the gas. They scrambled out of the second hole and straight into the trap.
"Catch every last one," she commanded coolly.
The fleeing monsters were immediately grabbed by the Skeleton Knights and slammed to the ground. Her control was so precise that the knights even had divided roles—some threw nets while others simply lopped off heads. Aseraz cleared the mission with cold efficiency.
Meanwhile, high up on the cliff face, a black dragon soared through the sky, breathing columns of fire.
’It’s common sense that cliff-dwellers have more developed shoulders than tunnel-dwellers.’
Hector, ranked third, had transformed. Most of the Ratchers in his path were incinerated by his dragon’s breath.
The creatures shrieked in terror.
[I have no need for weaklings! I’ll only use the survivors as ghouls!]
Having discovered a large Ratcher settlement on the hill, Hector was also on the verge of completing his task.
As the black dragon diligently burned the cliffs, a female student on the ground below watched with a lazy yawn.
"So full of energy in this scorching sun, Class Rep," Serne purred. She had not only conjured a chair but had also opened a parasol to shield herself from the heat. Behind her, a male student dutifully fanned her with a large leaf.
"Thank you all so, so much. You really shouldn’t have," she cooed, a playful smile on her face. In front of her, several students with her signature feathers stuck to them were dazedly presenting her with the Ratchers they had caught.
"Before ’that woman’ arrives, I’ll take just one from each of you, okay?"
Serne, too, was steadily approaching her goal by poaching from the other students.
And then there was another.
"Hah... hah..."
Inside a Ratcher den, Lorraine stood with two Skeleton Knights, a dagger clutched in her hand. The ground was littered with countless Ratcher corpses. Before her, a massive, boss-level Ratcher stood with its eyes gleaming.
’I never imagined,’ she thought, wiping sweat from her brow. ’That the day would come when I’d be cornered by a Ratcher.’
She was feeling it in her very bones: how weak she was with her innate ability sealed, and how arrogant she had been.
School management? The next head of Kizen? Everything she had done to please the adults now felt utterly embarrassing.
’I’ll start over. Step by step.’
With a practiced flick of her wrist, she re-gripped her dagger, lowered her stance, and glared at the growling beast.
’Just like him. I’ll do what I can, right now!’
---
"Ugh, that was tough."
Simon managed to escape the Ratcher den just as the weakened ground collapsed, nearly burying him alive.
He spat out a mouthful of sand and pushed himself to his feet. Opening his subspace, he took stock of his harvest. He had the four Ratchers from the start and the two he had just added—a total of six. But Grelion’s requirement was a minimum of nine.
’I need to find one more den.’
He had about an hour left. Simon took out the corpse of a freshly caught Ratcher and a set of corpse knives he had purchased in Rochest. Then, just as Grelion had demonstrated, he began to quickly prepare it.
’One of the most important characteristics of a Ratcher ghoul is its excellent sense of smell.’
A Ratcher ghoul could gain a powerful detection ability, strong enough to locate objects buried deep in the sand. Searching this vast area by sight was a gamble. Simon decided to make a ghoul right here, on the spot.
He removed the internal organs, sprayed a solution to release the rigor mortis, and adjusted the muscles and skeleton. He remembered the steps clearly from the lecture. Though his hands were still awkward with the tools, he managed to follow along.
’Is this good enough?’
Finally, he engraved the summoning magic circle onto the creature’s skull. After connecting the head to the body, Simon took a few steps back, took a deep breath, and activated his black magic.
’Summon Ghoul’
With a ’clack’ of bone, the dead monster’s head shot up. Jet-black energy spread from the magic circle throughout its body, and it began to move with a series of creaks and groans. It flopped around like a fish on land before finally arching its back and finding its balance on all fours.
"It worked!"
Simon was celebrating his first successful ghoul summoning when he noticed the unusual look in the creature’s eyes. It bared its teeth and charged.
All undead, at the moment of their creation, experience a resurgence of their mortal instincts before becoming fully subservient to their necromancer. It was like a wild animal attacking before being tamed. Some might bite their master, while others attack any nearby living thing. In the case of a ghoul, it was the latter.
The completed ghoul opened its mouth wide and lunged at Simon, but he was faster.
Leaping onto a platform of jet-black, he instantly grabbed the ghoul’s head and slammed it into the ground with a heavy ’thump’. The ghoul writhed and bucked, growling as it tried to escape his grip.
Simon’s eyes flashed with cold authority.
[Stop.]
At his Absolute Command, the convulsing ghoul went limp. In its previous life, the Ratcher had lived in packs, obeying the strong. That instinct remained.
Only when he was sure it was completely subdued did Simon release his grip and step back.
"Get up."
At his command, the ghoul shot to its feet. As it stood on all fours, panting, it looked almost like a puppy.
"Good boy."
When Simon held out his hand, the creature whined and gently rubbed its face against his palm, for all the world like a loyal dog.
"Sorry to put you to work right after summoning you, but there’s something I need you to find."
The ghoul howled at the sky like a wolf, then took off at a run, signaling for him to follow.