The Last Signature
The open plaza in front of the Jet-Black Mechanics building.
Whooosh!
Fwoosh!
One after another, the Muspel—monsters made entirely of living flame—spewed fire across the plaza. Simon weaved this way and that to dodge the attacks, strolled casually through the open ground, then came to a stop.
"Hah!"
Five skulls floated in the air around him. Skull Drones, their bodies wrapped in emerald Cloud.
"Now! Fire!"
The skeletal heads yawned open and blasted out water cannons, dousing the Muspel one after another.
He strode past the cooled-off Muspel, and no sooner had he taken a few more steps than plant-type monsters shaped like pitcher plants lunged at him.
The Skull Drones rained down Water Bolt after Water Bolt, but the plant monsters shrugged off the hits and kept advancing without a hitch.
[Kheheh! A deceptively tricky exam, this!]
It's fine, Pier.
Simon pushed the Skull Drones forward and spread both arms wide. His eyes glistened with fierce concentration.
Simon Original — Magive System
A Skeleton Mage, and by extension a Skull Drone built on one, could only use a single school of dark magic at a time. The Magive System, developed by Simon himself, was a dark magic that changed that.
The magic circle unfurled in midair linked to the circles embedded within the Skull Drones through lines of Cloud. Currently registered in the drones: Water Bolt of the Jet-Black Water Arts.
Switching to Dark Blaze of the Jet-Black Flame Arts.
The moment Simon manipulated the central circle, the magic circles etched into the Skeleton Mages' skulls began to transform as well.
Fingers dancing across the air like a pianist hammering keys, Simon reconfigured the Mages' registered spells in seconds—and the instant he finished, he gave the attack order.
"Dark Blaze!"
This time the Skull Drones opened wide and spat fire. The plant monsters that had given him so much trouble moments ago were reduced to black ash in the blink of an eye, as if all that struggling had been a lie.
Simon swiftly extracted himself from the battlefield.
Thank god I studied Skeleton Mages.
His proficiency in Jet-Black Elemental magic was lacking, but he had Skeleton Mages to cover the gap. Whatever attribute of monster the Jet-Black Mechanics exam threw at him, he could handle it.
[We've arrived, boy!]
"Yes, sir."
The Jet-Black Mechanics building was now right in front of him.
Simon unfolded the map Dick had given him.
Dick said there was a fast way through this one too.
Even from here, the front entrance echoed with the clamor of students and the booming of dark magic going off one explosion after another.
Following the map, Simon circled around to the back of the building.
Two old benches in the plaza.
His eyes darted busily, cataloguing every detail of his surroundings.
In front of the camellia tree.
Simon stopped before the tree, facing the direction it looked toward the building. This was the spot.
He warmed up with a few light hops in place, then sprinted at the building.
Thud—!
Jet-Black flaring from both feet, he stepped up onto the wall of the building. As his body began to tilt off the incline, he shot out an arm and grabbed hold of a section jutting from the wall.
"Just as I thought!"
There was a point where students of old had used dark magic to force bricks out of the wall.
Dangling from the building, Simon glanced down. If anyone else spotted him like this, they might attack.
Calmly, he planted both feet against the top of the wall and climbed up the surface, slow and steady.
But is it really supposed to be this easy?
If it was, anyone could just scale the wall instead of brawling their hearts out at the front gate.
[Kahaha! Distrusting everything while taking a Kizen exam is an excellent habit!]
Pier's phantom grinned slyly.
[Look to your right!]
At Pier's shout, Simon's gaze swung over. A single card was wedged into a gap in the wall.
Oh no—!
Whoaaaaash!
The card flared with light and swallowed Simon's body into a new space. Gravity shifted—the boy climbing the wall became a boy crawling across the floor.
The wall had become the ground. Simon could rise and stand firmly upon it without any trouble.
Directly ahead appeared a monster in the form of a giant chameleon, its skin bone white, its tongue flicking lazily in and out.
"So a card was guarding this place after all."
Still, if he could take down one monster and pass straight through, that was a bargain.
Simon immediately pulled a Skull Drone out of his sub-space. Whether this chameleon was a northern breed or not, its entire body was coated in snow and ice.
The theme of the Jet-Black Mechanics exam was attributes and compatibility. Against an ice-attribute monster, he figured he might get lucky and win without even needing to switch spells.
Dark Blaze
The instant the Skull Drones' mouths opened and flame burst forth, the chameleon's appearance changed. The ice melted away in a heartbeat, and its whole body rippled into a form draped in flowing water.
?!
BOOOM!
Whump!
The fireballs failed to destroy the chameleon monster, simply plunging into the water and snuffing out.
"What even is this thing."
Flustered, Simon nonetheless activated the Magive System, trying to swap Dark Blaze for another dark magic suited to taking down a water attribute—
Ssssss—
The chameleon's form shifted again. This time its entire body was cloaked in mud.
Ssssss—
Now it blazed all over like living fire.
Ssssss—
And back again to snow and ice.
A monster that changes its own attribute at will.
No wonder students hadn't climbed the wall and had gone looking for other routes instead. That thing would be a nightmare to pin down.
The examiner's intent is probably a dual attribute.
A necromancer like Meilin, who wielded both Jet-Black Flame and Jet-Black Frost simultaneously, could clear it by unleashing both spells at once.
But Simon's solution was a little different. The corner of his mouth curled up.
A dark magic powerful enough to ignore attributes entirely.
Crack! Crack!
A violet spear was being drawn from his lower back like a sword from its sheath.
Jet-black magic with overwhelming destructive power!
Simon Original — Chaos Spear (Chaos Spear)
At the sight of the violet spear in Simon's hand, the chameleon's eyes spun in circles. It scrambled frantically through its attributes, but before this technique, it seemed utterly lost as to which form could possibly stand against it.
"Hnngh!"
Simon planted his foot hard and hurled the spear.
The violet spear tore forward in a lightning-like zigzag, drove into the chameleon's open mouth, and pierced clean through.
With a pop like a burst balloon, the monster's body exploded into shreds of flesh that whirled in every direction.
One shot was plenty.
"Ah."
Simon, who had already pulled out his second and third spears in advance, stared at the aftermath of his own attack and muttered.
"Well. Turns out the first one was the winner."
The black-tinted space around him crumbled away, and reality snapped back into place. A beat late, Simon realized something.
Gravity had returned to normal.
Which meant he was currently standing on the side of the wall.
"!"
With no time to attempt anything at all, Simon's body peeled away from the wall and dropped under gravity's merciless pull.
"Gotcha!"
Grab!
A hand shot out from a third-floor window and seized him. Caught fast, Simon found himself dangling in midair.
He looked up to see a girl grinning down at him, one eye squeezed slightly shut.
"Class President!"
It was Jamie Victoria.
"For the last tiiime, I'm not the class president anymore!"
Still shouting it, she groaned and heaved Simon up. He tumbled through the third-floor window and gasped for breath.
"Th-thank you."
Jamie chuckled.
"Consider that debt from the BMAT paid off, hmm?"
With that, she headed down the stairs. Simon called after her.
"Hold on! What about your registration for Professor Jane's class?"
"Already done and on my way out! Hurry up!"
Her voice drifted back down the stairwell.
"There's probably only one or two spots left!"
At those words, Simon's blood ran cold and he bolted up the stairs.
Dash!
He shot straight up to the fourth floor, where Professor Jane's office stood. Monsters' corpses littered the staircase—Jamie, it seemed, had just cleared them out for him.
Barely seconds after Simon passed, he caught a glimpse of fresh monsters being resummoned in that very spot by Endolas Vaudeville's cards.
That was way too close.
Simon crossed the corridor at full sprint. A student was just stepping out of Jane's office.
Slam!
Panting hard, Simon caught the door before it could close. He wiped the sweat from his brow once, then stepped inside.
"Oh!"
Jane's Head TA, an armful of file folders, broke into a bright smile.
"President! Oh—no, I mean, Student Simon!"
Simon greeted her warmly and moved on in.
At the far desk sat Jane, as if absolutely nothing in the world were happening. Calm as ever, eyes lowered, she worked through her paperwork.
A complete contrast to the chaos of battle raging outside. This room was as peaceful as another world entirely.
"You're late."
At her voice, Simon's shoulders flinched.
"Student Meilin came. Student Camibarez came. Student Dick came. Most of Class A's main players have already been through."
She lifted her head and met his eyes.
"And to think yours wasn't the first class you came to. How surprising."
Simon's entire body went rigid, as if a petrification curse had seized him.
Cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck.
"P-Professor Jane! I, that is—!"
"Just kidding."
She smiled—a rare sight—and extended her hand.
"You're the last of my class, Student Simon."
"Ah...!"
Only then did relief wash over him, and Simon let out a long breath.
Thank goodness.
That was really cutting it close.
Outside, the Head TA was turning students away from the office door, their cries of shock and despair rising into a chorus of wailing.
"Here! My course registration form!"
Terrified she might change her mind, Simon thrust the form forward with both hands.
Jane took it, signed with a flourish of her quill, and placed it atop the stack of documents beside her.
"Let's have a good semester."
"Yes, Professor! Please take good care of me!!"
Simon bowed his head deeply, then left Jane's office walking on air.
The biggest mountain is behind me!
Only one course left.
Professor Hong Peng's Magic Combat registration has a seriously infamous reputation! It's the hardest one of them all.
Simon recalled Dick's words as he made his way out of the Second-Year Campus.
At Kizen, the basic rule for registering for general electives was to seek out the professor in person and submit the registration form.
But Hong Peng was nowhere to be found on campus. She had her assigned office and quarters, sure, but she always slept in a cabin outside the school grounds and lived out in nature. That was precisely why all her classes were held outdoors.
Which meant, to find her—
I have to comb the entirety of Roc Island, huh?
Still, the Hong Peng Simon had come to know over the past year was not the type to leave things entirely to chance. She was from the Grasslands, spoke halting Continental, and cut an exotic figure—but she had always been sharp and wise.
He slipped out of the Kizen campus and scanned his surroundings, and sure enough, a suspicious spot revealed itself almost immediately.
One region of Roc Island sat under a gloomy, rain-threatening sky, with an uncanny crimson mist swirling above it.
Simon headed straight for it.
Ah.
The area was dark as though storm clouds had gathered, and a reddish haze blanketed the forest thick and heavy.
Grurk!
As he entered the darkness, an orc-type monster came lumbering toward him.
It wasn't a monster native to Roc Island. One look told him it had been brought in for the exam.
So Professor Hong Peng is somewhere inside this zone, and I have to find her?
Krararak!
The orc charged at him, axe raised. Simon reached for his sub-space.
Huh?
The sub-space wouldn't open. He quickly forced out Jet-Black to unfurl a magic circle instead, but whether it was the effect of that crimson fog, the circle refused to take shape and scattered apart mid-drawing.
I see how it is.
Simon smiled slyly.
Of course the Magic Combat exam would be—
CRACK!!
Simon's fist slammed into the orc's face. The monster went flying backward and tumbled across the ground.
"Fighting with Magic Combat and nothing else."
Brushing off his hands, Simon advanced on the monsters. Not just the orc—an assortment of forest beasts were glaring at him, growling low.
Before long, five of them sprang forward first.
Hong Peng Original — Chakgeom (Fixed Blade)
With a light sweep of his arm, the monsters charging in that direction were cleaved apart in a perfectly straight line. The ones behind them flinched hard, hesitating to follow.
Professor Hong Peng's Magic Combat registration has a seriously infamous reputation! It's the hardest one of them all.
Recalling Dick's voice, a smile spread across Simon's face.
"Honestly? This is the easy part."