Summoning Genius of Necromancer School - Chapter 115 Starting the very next day, Simon began intense training with the Overlord in preparation for the Duel Evaluation. He practiced with the Overlord whenever he had free time, before and after classes. 'Hmm.' However, no matter how many times he connected to the Overlord's consciousness and swung its blades, something felt off. He couldn't tell if his skill was improving or if he was growing at all. Unlike Bone Armor or Mud Golem, where proficiency was immediately visible, training with the Overlord felt like trying to cut water with a knife. Simon knew from past experience that when faced with such a situation, seeking help from others was a faster solution than struggling alone. So, he made his move. "......What are you doing here, Simon Pollentia?" Aaron said, arriving at his lab after class. Simon, who had been sitting by Aaron's lab door, idly nibbling on a piece of bread, quickly stood up and bowed. "Hello, Professor!" "I asked what you're doing." "I came to seek your guidance!" Aaron pressed his hand to his forehead, a wry smile on his face. To think he'd come out like this just because Restoration classes were rare these days. "......Guidance? About Bone Armor?" "I completed that during the last mission!" This crazy kid. Aaron was starting to think this young disciple was like a monster. "If not Bone Armor, then what?" "I'd like to ask about the operation of the new undead I recently acquired, the 'Overlord'!" Aaron had also heard from Jane that Simon had obtained a special undead worth 10,000 gold in Blue Harbor. Normally, he would have ignored him, saying it was quitting time, but... 'The Overlord, huh?' As a Summoning Studies scholar to his very core, Aaron felt a strong surge of curiosity about the new undead. In fact, if he hadn't been so busy, he would have gone to the Blue Harbor exhibition himself to see it. Simon, subtly observing Aaron's reaction, quickly added, "The Overlord is a completely new type of soft-bodied undead. It has a total of six tentacles, and the bones, which lack strength, are coated with mithril to form blades." "......." "It's a model designed to attack by slashing or stabbing with its tentacles like swords. Its movements are truly like a mollusk. However, its operation is difficult, so if the professor could take a look, it would be a great help......." "Alright. Come out." Watching Aaron turn and walk away, Simon quietly clenched his fists in delight. They arrived at the building's open lot. With Aaron watching with interest, Simon brought out the Overlord, connected to its consciousness, and demonstrated various techniques, asking if this was the correct way to train. "You won't improve by just swinging it around haphazardly like that." "......Th-then what should I do?" "Prepare yourself. Take off your shirt." Simon didn't understand why, but he did as he was told and took off his uniform. After taking off his outer coat and shirt and hanging them on a tree, Aaron pulled out a skeleton made of 'Demon Bones' from his subspace. Then, he disassembled it into several bones. "From now on, I will attack you with these bones." "Huh? What?" "From now on, the only thing you can use is the Overlord. Block them." And then, he immediately began launching bones using Restoration. Simon's two legs were already fixed to the ground with an application of 'Bone Prison', he didn't even see when Aaron cast it. "Gah!" He couldn't dodge now. Simon hastily connected to the Overlord's consciousness and sent its blades towards the incoming bones. Clang! Clink! The bones hit the blades and bounced off. But one bone, squeezing through the swinging blades, hit Simon squarely on the forehead with a 'thwack!' sound. It didn't hurt terribly, but it certainly woke him up. "Stay focused. They're still coming." Whoosh! Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh! Bones flew continuously with uniform speed and tempo. Simon raised two blades at once. 'Read the speed and pattern.' Simon, discerning the movements of the bones flying from left and right, crossed his arms. The blades also crossed from left and right, covering both sides and the center simultaneously. 'Send the blades precisely to the point of impact!' As the blades swung, they traced curves, and the incoming bones collided with them, bouncing off weakly. Perhaps because the bones were under Aaron's control, there was absolutely no irregular pattern. It was intentionally designed so that he could block everything if he timed it right. "From now on, I'll double the attack volume." As Aaron gestured, more bones appeared in the air. "The speed and pattern are the same. You know what to do, right?" Bones flew immediately without explanation. Simon, sweating profusely, controlled two more blades. A total of four blades. "Hoo-up!" The four blades swung to cover Simon's front, deflecting the incoming bones. A look of delight spread across Simon's face as he watched the bones fly off. 'The feeling of control is incredible!' It was definitely a different dimension from just swinging in the air without a target. He could feel his control improving. Wham! Thud! However, his concentration faltered for a moment, and his tempo got tangled, causing bones to start hitting various parts of Simon's body. "In a real fight, you'd be dead already. Control them more precisely." Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh! Whoosh! Simon moved the blades until his mouth felt dry. After finishing the tempo training, they moved on to accuracy training, where he had to hit and knock down projectiles flying left and right in the air with the blades, and then even training to hit projectiles with intentionally twisted patterns that were difficult to read. "Haaah! Haaah! Phew!" Completely exhausted, Simon collapsed flat on the ground. The areas hit by bones ached, and his mind was frayed from constantly concentrating on the consciousness. Aaron quietly sat on a nearby bench and put a cigar in his mouth. "Interesting." "......Huh?" Simon thought he misheard and asked again, but Aaron just exhaled cigar smoke without a word. "You started this. You may have started it on your own terms, but I'll decide when it ends." "What do you mean......." "Come again tomorrow." Aaron tossed the finished cigar into a trash can and turned his back. "We should have some enjoyable training, shouldn't we? It'll be beneficial for me too, as I can collect data on soft-bodied undead." "Ah, Professor Aaron?" Aaron, who usually seemed bothered by everything, left with an unusually eerie smile. Simon shivered once. But the training wasn't over yet. After all his classes were finished, Simon's next destination was Pier's Ruins in the Forbidden Forest. [That Kizen professor, Aaron, his lessons are too obvious! Simply increasing proficiency and reflexes cannot draw out the true power of the undead!] Pier said, placing his hand on the Overlord's body that Simon had brought out. "Wait, Pier! Are you......." [Don't worry, I'm not Legionizing it! The Overlord is something you need to use at Kizen!] Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh! After Pier did something and stepped back, the previously calm Overlord's body suddenly began to move violently. Simon, startled, quickly stood up. [I've made the Overlord's consciousness run wild, maximizing its aggression for a moment.] Pier sent out Legion-type skeletons. The excited Overlord moved its tentacles, sending the skeletons' bodies flying. "......!" [Watch closely, boy.] Pier said. [That is the Overlord's inherent movement.] The Overlord's blades moved like winding snakes, constricting the skeletons' bodies, or just moved their tips to tap the skeletons as if paralyzing them. Until now, what Simon had reproduced by connecting to the Overlord's consciousness were only stiff, artificial attacks like slashing or stabbing. But seeing the Overlord's inherent movements made his mind feel soft and pliable. 'It's flexible. So that's how it uses its joints.' 'Just moving the tips of the blades like that is threatening enough.' 'Don't just stick to straight lines, use curves. And swinging the blades like that can effectively utilize a narrow attack range.' As Simon observed the movements in real-time, his eyes shining, the Overlord's blades suddenly dropped towards Simon. "Whoa!" Simon hastily retreated and dodged. Pier laughed loudly and said, [Why are you just standing there watching! Feel the Overlord's movements by dodging them yourself!] "Pier!" Pier's lesson was to observe the Overlord's natural movements as much as possible, internalize them, and then reproduce those movements by connecting to its consciousness. An human moving their limbs and an Overlord moving its tentacles were completely different concepts. Simon realized that there was a way the Overlord felt more comfortable and could move better. Consequently, Simon's movements when swinging the blades also became smoother and more natural. After finishing Pier's lesson, Simon visited the 'Mutant' club room during lunchtime the next day. "No, my boy! What did you do to it in one day?" Benya, the club president, was examining the Overlord's condition with a horrified expression. "I just trained it a bit......." "You overworked it! The joints here are already worn down, and it's dried out!" She ran off, her short skirt fluttering, and returned with several paint-like cans from a shelf. Then, she dipped a large brush generously into the cans and began to spread the contents over the Overlord's body. "This child isn't like a regular skeleton that you can just leave neglected. It maintains an extremely unstable body through artificial means, so maintenance is not an option, it's a necessity! You have to constantly take care of it!" "Ah...... How exactly should I maintain it?" Benya exclaimed, 'Good posture!', and pulled on the Overlord's body. "Especially this soft material in its body is called 'Fluid-o'. If the Overlord moves its legs frequently, this part here, below the joints, dries out. You have to keep it moist by applying Fluid-o or slime components. If you keep doing this, its durability will drop, and eventually, you might have to replace the mithril entirely. Okay?" "I'll keep that in mind!" Benya shared detailed knowledge about the Overlord's maintenance. The Overlord, who usually strongly disliked anyone touching its body, did not resist Benya's touch, perhaps knowing it was for its own good. Simon learned various new pieces of common knowledge from his senior Summoning Studies student. "Good work." Just then, Fitzgerald arrived at the club room. He also took out his Chimera from his subspace and was tinkering with it. "Are you also tuning your Chimera, my boy?" "Yes." "Oh! Just a moment. I got some good materials from Rochester." While Benya went to the shelf to get materials, Simon approached Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald also saw him and spoke. "Simon, this Duel Evaluation won't be easy." "You saw it, huh? Oh, now that I think about it, you're in Class M with Malcolm, right?" Fitzgerald nodded and said, "Be careful, Simon." "Hm?" "Malcolm is different from the guys you've faced in Duel Evaluations so far. You absolutely won't win if you try to trick him like before." Simon blinked. Fitzgerald's words couldn't be easily dismissed. As he had learned from their few conversations, even though he was eccentric, he always spoke with logical reasoning. "Then how can I win?" "......." After a moment of silence, Fitzgerald's gaze turned towards Simon's Overlord.
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