Chapter 531: Episode 531
The blows landed with impactful thuds. As Toto was being beaten under the scorching sun, he wondered, ’How did it come to this?’
After struggling to find a Ratcher den, he had stumbled upon a Ratcher that had collapsed from an arrow wound.
’Someone must have left it behind!’ he’d thought gleefully.
Upon inspection, he saw the arrow was lodged deep in its muscle. It had likely been abandoned because it wouldn’t meet Professor Grelion’s standards.
A brilliant idea struck him. He couldn’t get graded for this one, but what if he turned it into a ghoul and used it to find other Ratchers?
He immediately put his plan into action and succeeded. However...
The ghoul had pinned him down as soon as it was complete and was now beating him senseless.
"I forgot about post-mortem instinct!" he wailed.
He desperately tried to shield his head with his Kizen uniform, but it hurt like hell. His head was being whipped from side to side, and blood was streaming from his broken nose.
"Ah."
As he was being pummeled by the very summon he had just created, Toto’s vision drifted past the ghoul to the shimmering sunlight.
’Am I going to die like this?’
If he did, the story would probably be plastered across every newspaper on the continent.
[KIZEN SECOND-YEAR STUDENT BEATEN TO DEATH BY HIS OWN GHOUL]
"AAAAAAAH! I’D RATHER DIE THAN LET THAT HAPPEN!" Toto shrieked, gathering jet-black into his feet with all his might and kicking the ghoul away. The creature tumbled backward, and Toto, panting, scrambled away on all fours.
The ghoul shrieked, refusing to let him escape, and leaped onto his back again. Seeing its sharp claws glint as they descended, Toto screamed.
"H-help...!"
Something slammed into the ghoul with a dull ’thwack’, sending it tumbling to the ground.
It let out a pained cry.
He snapped his head to the side. Small, strange, doll-like figures were pinning the ghoul’s arms and legs. And beyond them...
A female student stood there, an expression of profound pity on her face, as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have. Toto’s face flushed crimson.
’Of all people, in front of a girl!’
She quietly cleared her throat.
"I’ll keep it a secret," she muttered reluctantly before turning and disappearing. As she retreated, the dolls holding the ghoul also began to vanish. The restraints were loosening.
’Ugh!’
Tears of shame streamed down Toto’s face as he pulled a skeleton’s bone from his subspace, gripping it like a club.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Screaming at the top of his lungs, he repeatedly bashed the head of the ghoul as it struggled to break free.
And on that day, Toto awakened to the art of combat magic.
---
The two hours Grelion had allotted were drawing to a close. Students began to trickle back to the starting point.
"Assistants, begin the evaluation!"
"Yes, sir!"
The students lined up, laying out their Ratcher corpses on mats. The criterion was simple: nine or more medium-quality Ratchers. The assistants carefully inspected each one.
"Student Pierre Buckler, nine Ratchers confirmed. Pass."
"Yes!" the student cheered. The assistant marked his name on the list.
"Do you have more Ratchers in your subspace? You must present all of them."
"Ah, I thought nine was enough? The others aren’t in very good condition..."
"You must present all of them," the assistant repeated mechanically.
Left with no choice, the student produced three more Ratchers from his subspace.
"Two are below quality. With one more added, a total of ten are confirmed."
The assistant then took out a stamp and quickly pressed it onto each of the ten corpses. It was a mana stamp, used for counting.
’A stamp?’ Simon wondered.
"Good work. Next."
The returning students had their hauls inspected and then went to rest. A short distance away, Grelion watched, a middle-aged man bowing and scraping beside him.
"Oh, Professor! Thank you so much for bringing the students at such a difficult time! You should have given me a heads-up!"
He was none other than the lord who governed this region.
"It’s just a class," Grelion said, adjusting his sunglasses. "No thanks are necessary."
This area had been plagued by an explosive increase in the Ratcher population. Wandering necromancers sometimes visited to make ghouls, but it was never enough. Ghouls weren’t a popular product for undead factories since their value decreased over time, so a large-scale extermination was out of the question.
Still, having the students come was a huge relief. The territory could use their cleanup efforts to attract merchant caravans back to the Sandroad.
"It’s nothing much, but I’ve prepared some simple snacks!" the lord said, gesturing to a wagon. The sight of cool water, bread, and fruit made the resting students’ eyes sparkle. Grelion looked indifferent, but seeing his students’ reaction, he gave a slight nod.
"I’ll accept it as a donation. Assistants! Distribute them to the students who have passed!"
"Yes, Professor!"
Around that time, Simon arrived with ten minutes to spare. He laid out his Ratchers, and an assistant checked his name.
"Student Simon Polentia, a total of twelve Ratchers. Pass."
Simon finally smiled, letting out a sigh of relief. He had his twelve Ratchers stamped and received his water and snacks.
Lorraine, who was next in line, was placing a massive Ratcher on her mat. The other students murmured at its impressive size.
"Student Lorraine Archbold, a total of ten Ratchers. Pass."
With a ghoul that large, she would surely have an advantage in tomorrow’s evaluation.
Simon glanced around. Hector and Aseraz, ranked third and fifth, had already returned. Fitzgerald from his club was just arriving, laying out his nine Ratchers.
’Where’s White?’
The transfer student of interest had not yet arrived. Toto was also missing. Grelion checked his wristwatch.
"Three minutes left. Only students who arrive at the camp on time will be evaluated."
The students nibbling on their bread heard this and started shouting at the figures running in from the distance.
"Hey! What are you doing? Hurry up!"
"Three minutes left!"
The approaching students paled and picked up their pace, some even using ‘Jet-Black Internal Combustion’ to dash forward.
Grelion looked at his watch.
"Two minutes left."
As the early arrivals cheered them on, one male student sighed dramatically and stood up.
"Everyone’s gotten soft in their second year."
He was chewing gum—the only student who had secured twenty Ratchers within the first thirty minutes.
"Why are you even cheering for them? If they fail, that’s less competition. We should play the Kizen way."
"What are you planning now?" his friend asked nervously.
"I’m going to stop them from getting here."
"Are you insane? The professor and the assistants are watching! How?"
"Obviously, I can’t interfere directly. Just watch."
He drew a magic circle on the ground and activated it. A low rumble spread through the earth, and Ratchers suddenly burst from the ground, while more scrambled down from the cliffs.
"What the—!"
The students who were moments from the finish line looked on in horror as a horde of monsters suddenly blocked their path.
"What is this?!"
"Just run!"
They blasted their way through with black magic, continuing their desperate sprint. Grelion remained impassive, his eyes fixed on his watch.
"One minute left."
Simon stepped forward, his expression tense. A hand clapped him on the shoulder.
"Have you seen Toto?" It was Fitzgerald.
Simon shook his head, his face grim. "No. You?"
"Me neither."
"Uwaaaaaah!"
The last runners poured in, some with Ratchers still clinging to their limbs.
"Fuck! Which bastard summoned all those Ratchers at the end?!" one student gasped, scanning the crowd fiercely. The culprit merely whistled, looking away.
"Thirty seconds left," Grelion announced.
Benz, the transfer student from Aland, rode in on a Ratcher he was controlling with his taming ability.
"How many are left?"
"There are fifty of us here!" someone shouted.
At that very moment, a massive white sphere materialized in the sky. It scraped along the ground, shooting forward with a deafening roar before coming to a halt inside the camp.
"Aaaaaah!"
The students braced themselves against the powerful aftershock. The white sphere flickered out like a light bulb, and from within, the transfer student White landed softly on the ground. The sight of him turning to look at the others with a completely indifferent expression was a spectacle in itself.
"Ten seconds," Grelion said.
Now there were fifty-one. The Summoning students began the countdown for the final person.
"Five seconds!"
"Four!"
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
The ground suddenly erupted with a great ’whoosh’, and a massive, worm-like monster shot out.
"A-A Deathworm?"
It was a Deathworm, one of the unique undead summons known to be extremely difficult to handle. It opened its maw with a squawk and spat something out with a wet ’thump’. A black figure, covered in a foul-smelling green liquid, lay on the ground. It was a person.
"Time’s up," Grelion declared as the chief assistant stopped the timer.
The students erupted in cheers. All fifty-two of them had made it. Simon and Fitzgerald rushed over and pulled the slime-covered Toto to his feet.
"Haha! You scared us, Toto," Simon said with a broad grin.
"A member of the Mutants wouldn’t fail at something like this," Fitzgerald added, adjusting his glasses.
Toto seemed too exhausted to speak, his eyes spinning as he groaned.
Grelion extended his arm.
"The students who just arrived, I will check you."
White had an impressive twenty Ratchers. Toto had just barely scraped by with nine. The ninth one, the Ratcher with an arrow in its thigh, was borderline, but Grelion came over to judge it himself.
"Its speed will be reduced by the arrow wound, but its upper body is well-developed, so its strength is promising. It’s a close call, but it passes."
"Wow!" Toto exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. Simon clutched his stomach, laughing at the absurdity of it all.
"That one with the arrow," Simon said between laughs, "that’s the Ratcher I abandoned because I thought it wouldn’t pass."
"Really? Thanks, Simon! You saved me!"
Grelion stomped his foot on the ground with a heavy ’thud’ and struck his signature pose.
"Everyone, attention!"
All eyes turned to him.
"Don’t get too excited. This is the expected result for Kizen students! Still, I will offer my praise. For this class, all fifty-two Summoning students have ‘Passed.’ Congratulations."
The students high-fived each other, celebrating their collective success.
"And," Grelion continued, taking off his sunglasses. "In this simple ‘Pass or Fail’ test, there was one among you who went out of his way to interfere with his peers."
His blazing, hawk-like eyes fixed on a single male student, who flinched under the intense gaze.
"That’s not competition; it’s the dirty work of a coward who fears a fair fight! Other professors might not care, but I don’t tolerate such tricks. If you’re from Kizen, then act like it and compete with your skills in tomorrow’s evaluation!"
With a sharp ’click’, Grelion put his sunglasses back on.
"After a thirty-minute break, we will return to Kizen for the next class! During the break, use the materials you just secured to prepare your ghouls."
"Yes, Professor!"
The corners of Grelion’s mouth lifted into a smirk.
"Prepare thoroughly. The next brats’ assignment will be much more demanding."
As Simon silently nodded, Benz from Aland sidled up to him. "...Hey, Simon. Who are these ‘brats’ he’s talking about?"
Simon grinned.
"You’ll be surprised when you see them."