Please Save Us

The day they had been waiting for had finally arrived — the Summoning Material Science practical assessment had begun.

The venue was a place on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Kizen campus called the Plant Pavilion.

"Everyone ready?"

A man with his upper-body muscles bared and sunglasses perched on his nose — Professor Grerion — called out in a booming voice. The students answered with a spirited "Yes, sir!"

"I'm starting the timer now. Begin!"

With fire in their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes, the students scattered in every direction.

Kizen's Plant Pavilion was an enormous structure of steel framing and vinyl sheeting, and it housed vegetation from every corner of the continent.

With Grerion's permission, students could harvest two plant species here and fuse them to craft a chimera of their own design.

The heart of this practical assessment was how powerful a synergy their chimera could produce.

"It's insanely hot in here."

Toto said, wiping the sweat dripping down his forehead. Simon had long since shed his uniform jacket and tied it around his waist, sweeping his gaze over the plants.

"Toto, have you decided what to graft?"

"Yep! I figured an assessment like this was coming, so I drew up a few lists in advance!"

Toto was flapping his notebook around when Simon clapped his hands over his ears.

"Toto, cover your ears."

"Huh?"

"Someone picked a Mandragora."

KEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

A plant that screamed the moment it was uprooted. The Mandragora was famous for it.

All around, students who had heard the shriek hurriedly clapped their hands over their ears.

The student who had harvested the Mandragora hastily stuffed it into a black vinyl bag and heaped soil over it until its body was buried — only then did the Mandragora finally quiet down.

Toto lowered his hands from his ears and muttered, "…Someone is definitely going to modify a Mandragora into a chimera that turns that scream into birdsong and take the A+."

"Ooh, that's actually a great idea."

Toto spotted the plants he wanted right away and left the pavilion, while Simon pushed deeper inside.

Before he knew it, Simon had reached the zone where the carnivorous plants and their related plant-type monsters were kept.

Supposedly, further in still, there were eccentric specimens that devoured monsters whole — but even Grerion's authorization didn't extend that far.

His allotted time wasn't generous. Simon hurriedly made the rounds of the carnivorous plants.

"Found it!"

A carnivorous plant with venom dripping from its maw. Both its coloration and appearance matched the field guide exactly.

Simon uprooted it whole and carefully placed it into his collector's bag. Just in case, he gathered a few other plants as well.

Good. Next.

His next destination was the section of the Plant Pavilion where plants from cold climates were cultivated.

A magic circle in the ceiling was pumping out frost in steady streams; the farther in he walked, the more snow appeared underfoot — there were even strange specimens rooted directly into the ice.

A breath of cold air drifted out. Simon untied the jacket from his waist, draped it over himself, and buttoned it up.

Alright. Let's power through and find them!

An hour later, Simon had secured all of his harvest without much trouble and walked out of the Plant Pavilion.

Outside, in the open air, worktables had been set up.

This was where the chimera grafting would take place. The students who had arrived first were already putting everything they'd learned in class to work, crafting their plant chimeras.

Simon scanned the area for an open seat.

Oh — there's Lorraine.

Lorraine's table was, for some reason, covered in adorable little plants — clearly a reflection of her personal taste.

Noticing Simon passing by, she stammered out that she was going to make a chimera to serve as an ingredient for her perfumes. He hadn't asked, but Simon quietly cheered her on anyway.

And Hector, at the table beside hers, was something else entirely.

He had hauled back some vine-like plant-type monster, and was now locked in a blood struggle with his own materials. The vine monster was winding itself around Hector in frantic coils, and Hector was tearing the thing off with raw, monstrous strength.

Simon pretended not to see and quietly slipped past.

Found an empty table!

At last settled in, Simon lovingly laid out the materials he'd gathered from the Plant Pavilion one by one.

He washed his hands thoroughly, set up his tools, and peeled off a strip of mana tape.

Perhaps because he'd memorized the plant field guide cover to cover, an idea had come to him the instant Grerion announced the assignment.

Let's start by making just these two types.

"The practical assessment is over."

Grerion stopped the timer in his hand and addressed the students.

"Hands on top of your heads. Anyone who so much as touches their table gets an automatic F."

"Students! Please take three steps back from your tables."

The students withdrew, clicking their tongues in disappointment. Even after time was called, some couldn't let go — a few kept leaking Jet-Black toward their tables and had to be stopped by the TAs.

"Now then, allow me to introduce a special artifact we'll be using for this chimera evaluation."

Grerion announced. Behind him, four TAs came trudging over, groaning under the weight of an enormous flowerpot.

"With Lady Nephthys's blessing, we've brought out Roina's Flowerpot. As you all know, a plant chimera you've just grafted can't possibly perform at a hundred percent of its potential. Plants take time. But plant something in this pot, and you can see an illusion of what that plant will look like six months from now."

A murmur rippled through the students at the new evaluation method.

"No long preambles — we'll go straight into the evaluations. Front row, one at a time."

The students in the front row lined up, cradling their chimera plants in the pots like precious treasures.

"Reporting."

The first boy to step forward spoke up.

"I'm Matt Corner! What I combined was Linset, which bears sweet, delicious fruit, with Furis, a plant-type monster."

"Why combine the two?"

"Linset's fruit is sweet and fragrant, but it only bears one at a time. Furis is a plant-type monster that grows clusters of tree fruit in abundance! I combined them hoping to make the valuable Linset fruit grow in large quantities."

The boy rattled off one precedent after another of successful crossbreeding between similar plant-type monsters and plants, brimming with confidence.

"Chimera-driven cultivation, eh. The results will speak for themselves. Plant it in Roina's Flowerpot."

"Yes, sir!"

The boy placed his chimera plant into Roina's Flowerpot, and moments later an identical illusion of the same plant sprang up beside it.

"……Ah."

But the illusory chimera plant hung limp, blackened and rotting away.

"This is what happens when you fuse plants that don't belong together. You killed off two perfectly healthy specimens for nothing. Evaluation score: 'F'."

Watching Grerion hand down an F without a shred of mercy, the students exchanged frightened glances.

"Next!"

In truth, ever since Grerion had declared the practical assessment the week before, there had been quiet debate among the students about how a plant chimera could fairly be judged.

They weren't monsters or undead — it went without saying that a freshly grafted plant chimera would struggle to function properly.

One faction argued the pots should simply be stored for several months and then examined; another held that since this was fundamentally a test of ideas, a plausible combination should earn high marks even without strict realism.

As it turned out, every student who had gambled on impact and audacity over chimera stability was revealed by the illusion to have made a dead plant — and received their F.

"It's at least alive. C."

Merely surviving six months earned a minimum grade of 'C'.

Grerion weighted chimera survival heavily. After all, surviving months in the wild was proof in itself of a chimera's refinement and completeness.

And then the moment of truth arrived — Hector's turn.

"Poet Vine detects prey through touch alone, which limits its aggression, so I added a plant capable of sensing temperature as well, turning it into a far more aggressive monster."

Far too aggressive, as it happened. It had hurled vines in every direction, snatched poor Toto's Daril by an unlucky catch, and gone dragging the poor thing off behind it.

As for Hector, he'd apparently given up on whether the vines wrapped around him or not — he simply stood there, still, his body sheathed in dragon scales.

"A chimera with genuine field utility."

When Hector placed his creation in Roina's Flowerpot, the six-months-later illusion showed the chimera grown even larger, and Grerion looked satisfied.

"A+. Hector Moore."

"Thank you, sir!"

Grerion was a field-practical necromancer himself, after all.

So long as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they met the condition of not dying within six months, the students who had chosen bolder, more combat-oriented chimeras tended to earn the higher marks.

Before long, Simon's turn finally came.

Unlike the large, outlandish plant-type monsters the other students had chosen, Simon's was a somewhat small, slight carnivorous plant.

Grerion gave a nod. "Report."

"I'm Simon Polentia. I combined a plant-type monster called 'Pobea' with a red lotus root, a tuber-bearing plant."

Simon continued his explanation calmly.

According to the plant field guide, Pobea grows on the 'Isle of Bees', where it evolved to devour the swarms of insect-type monsters known as Killerbees.

Killerbees were mainstream hornet monsters — the rank-six student, 'Bee Queen Merdiana', even used them as her signature weapon.

They carried a diverse and powerful array of venoms, and Pobea swallowed it all in one gulp, then combined the toxin with compounds from its own body to convert it into a harmless substance, which it released through its roots.

"So your target was an antidote."

Grerion rested his chin on his hand.

"But I've never once seen a venom-specialist necromancer use Pobea as an antidote ingredient."

"Correct, sir — because the plant takes the very compounds it just neutralized and dumps them from its stem straight into the ground. So I replaced the root with a tuber plant, so that the neutralized compounds aren't released into the surrounding soil but instead accumulate in the stem. Cut the stem and eat it, and you can expect an antidote effect."

"The results will tell us."

Grerion immediately planted Simon's Pobea in Roina's Flowerpot.

Moments later, Simon's Pobea showed its properly matured form in the illusion — the stem bulge was thick and sturdy as well.

There was no way to verify from an illusion whether that tuber truly held an antidote effect, but Simon's intent had been realized, and above all, the thing had survived. That was what mattered.

"Well done. Evaluation score: A. Simon Polentia."

"Thank you, sir!"

He'd worried, unable to prove the antidote effect, but Simon was thoroughly satisfied. Before long Grerion called the next student, and Simon returned to his seat.

"Nice work."

It was Fitzgerald, who along with Hector was one of only two students to earn an A+. He had been a chimera-specialist necromancer since his first year, making him the student with the greatest advantage in this subject.

"Thanks, Fitzgerald."

"If I may offer a personal observation."

Fitzgerald pointed at the large carnivorous plant laid out on Simon's table.

"If you'd used something with more of an impact than Pobea, you might have had a shot at the A+."

"It was my choice, so no regrets."

Simon smiled.

"When I grafted the chimera, Pobea's side just felt much better to work with."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It fused cleanly, without even a whisper of resistance."

Anyway, the students who had finished their evaluations were free to go.

Some wandered over near Roina's Flowerpot to gawk at everyone else's chimeras, while others sat resting at their tables, chattering away. A few students even used the spare time to build another chimera just for fun.

Simon was tidying up his cluttered table.

"Summoning classes do look like fun."

Simon whirled around in surprise. Striding across the outdoor practice ground was a grey-haired male student, bandages wound around him.

"Kajan!"

Kajan gave a tired smile and scratched at the wound near his eye.

"Magic Combat had us wearing curse-bracelets all day long and running across the entirety of Roc Island. Our practical assessment was a desert crossing, apparently."

"……Ahaha. Professor Hong Peng does put physical conditioning above everything else."

Kajan glanced around once, then gestured off to the side. Simon nodded and quietly followed him.

An empty bench behind a deserted building.

Kajan pulled out the request form he'd brought ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and showed it to him.

"The problem was this remarks field. As expected — a cipher."

Kajan opened his mouth.

"Tarados once used a language called 'Rukian', which has since been wiped out by the continental tongue. Apparently it was the native language of the Tarados indigenes."

Kajan produced a Rukian word list.

"This number is a combination of this figure and the first words listed under each number in the Rukian word table."

"Let me try it."

Simon compared the request form and the Rukian word list back and forth, working it through.

"Every two digits gives one word, right?"

"Right."

"Se. Ve. Me. Please. Sa... Wait, what does this say......"

In that instant, Simon felt goosebumps erupt across his entire body.

"Please save us."

"Yeah."

Kajan nodded, his expression grim.

"Something insane is happening in Tarados."