Single Undead Operation
A few days later.
The day of the 'Single Undead Operation' performance evaluation had finally arrived.
The gathering point for the Summoning Department students was the Kizen Underground Dungeon, located within Roke Island.
Rumble, rumble—
Leaning back in the swaying carriage, Simon stared blankly ahead with a tired face while the other students around him chattered noisily.
"The Kizen Underground Dungeon. A famous place."
Fitzgerald pushed up his glasses.
"It's essentially a colossal prison where countless monsters captured from all across the continent are kept locked away."
"Toto and I have been there before!"
Toto said, then turned to Simon.
"Right, Simon?"
"That's right."
It had been a long time. The massive cavern visible through the window — that was where the first-year Class A had held their first performance evaluation, hunting down a Cyclops in teams.
"Simon, are you okay?"
Lorraine, seated across from him, asked with concern.
"You look pretty exhausted."
"...Haha. Just a little nervous, that's all."
Simon answered, then quietly turned his head.
*I only got thirty minutes of sleep.*
Right up to the final moment of completion, it had been a battle of blood and sweat... no, a battle of craftsmanship. Creating an undead was an unending chain of variables. If he had to make one more undead with special materials, he genuinely wasn't sure he'd survive it.
*Still.*
Simon clenched his fist with a pumped-up expression.
*I finished it.*
He was practically squirming in his seat, desperate to test it out in the exam. The entire carriage ride, he'd been imagining opening his subspace and summoning the newly built Dullahan.
Before long, the carriage came to a stop and the students filed out one by one. The teaching assistants waiting in front of the underground dungeon bowed respectfully.
"The professors are waiting for you."
"Please proceed inside."
The moment they followed the assistants into the dungeon's entrance, a thick, musty air flooded their lungs. Dampness hung in the humid space along with the smell of mold, and the cries of monsters echoed from somewhere far below.
The students craned their necks every which way, taking in the sights of the underground dungeon.
"My goal is to see the angel sleeping on the lowest floor of this place before I graduate!"
On the way to the exam site, Eshu was rambling on about exactly that.
Toto, walking beside her, responded.
"...Ah, that school mystery."
"Believing in that legend is a matter of intelligence, frankly."
Fitzgerald added, pushing up his glasses once more.
"Angels don't exist."
"Saintesses exist, so angels could too! Wait, glasses guy, why do you keep hanging around our group? Go back to yours!"
"...Being around Serne makes my memory feel like it skips a beat every so often."
After getting chewed out by Serne one too many times, Fitzgerald had taken to dropping by Simon's Group 10 now and then. With both Simon and Toto there, he apparently found a sense of psychological safety.
Amid this idle small talk, the Summoning Department students rode the teleportation magic circles deeper into the dungeon, transfer after transfer.
The network of teleportation circles within the prison was so staggeringly complex that even the students trying to memorize the route eventually gave up.
*We're going really deep.*
They had descended to depths that couldn't even compare to their first year.
What could possibly be waiting for them down here?
Simon straightened his uniform tie and steeled his resolve.
"Ah!"
"It's the professors!"
After quite the long journey, they reached their destination.
A vast underground clearing spread out before them, and gathered there were all the professors of the Summoning Department.
Aaron, the department head who taught Intermediate Summoning. Grelion, in charge of Summoning Materials. And the twin professors Lyn & Run, who taught Summoning Funerary Studies.
Behind the professors, the entire assistant staff stood waiting as well. Seeing them all gathered in one place made it newly clear just how large the department actually was.
But that wasn't all. Simon lifted his head and gazed upward.
*Those are Kizen Headquarters staff. And—*
"The elders are here too."
Lorraine murmured. She stared at the liver-spotted old men as if they were a familiar sight.
Eshu hopped up and down, pointing off to the side.
"Miss Lorraine! The Crows are here too!"
"And those ones next to them must be the rich folks. Look, they've got like ten rings on each hand?"
This was practically their first proper hands-on performance evaluation since entering their second year, and everyone's attention was fixed on them.
It was, in a sense, a showcase.
The students had been given a chance to demonstrate their abilities in front of the continent's movers and shakers. It went without saying that each of these achievements would shape their futures and careers.
"Attention."
Aaron stepped forward.
The students fell silent all at once and fixed their eyes on him.
"Welcome to the Kizen Underground Dungeon. I trust you all prepared well for your first large-scale performance evaluation?"
Yeeees, sir!
The students answered at the top of their lungs.
"I shouldn't have to explain how important this evaluation is. Not only my Intermediate Summoning course, but Professor Grelion and Professors Lyn and Run will each be grading you within their own subjects as well."
The students gulped.
All three major courses, linked together. This was no ordinary large-scale evaluation for nothing.
"And regarding this evaluation, we announced it as 'Single Undead Operation.'"
He swept his gaze across the students, then suddenly spoke.
"Coiter Pizn."
The area went quiet. A moment later, one student realized his name had been called and thrust his hand into the air.
"C-C-Coiter Pizn, sir!"
"Self-assessment."
Aaron continued in a calm voice.
"If you were to grade the undead you prepared for this exam, which grade between F and A do you believe is appropriate?"
"...Sorry?"
A heavy stillness settled over the room.
Not just his classmates — the eyes of the professors, and on the second floor, the influential figures and elders watching with interest, the headquarters staff, even the senior Crows.
Cold sweat streaming down him, Coiter clenched his fist tight and shouted with all the bravado he could muster.
"O-of course A-grade!"
The last syllable shot up an octave and cracked with a squeak. Laughter rippled through the crowd.
Coiter's face flushed scarlet as he pressed on.
"I'm really confident! I barely slept while preparing for this evaluation! I even put midterms on the back burner to go all-in on this...!"
"Are you saying you half-assed your midterms?"
At Aaron's offhand remark, Coiter's face turned redder still.
"N-no! I didn't mean I actually half-assed them, it's just a figure of speech! I mean, that's how hard I worked for this evaluation!"
Ooooh—
A few students whistled playfully. Hector's faction snickered among themselves, muttering about *that dimwit*.
"Very well, then."
Aaron turned his head.
"Elarin Ruoh."
"Wah! Y-yes sir! Elarin Ruoh here!"
A girl shot her hand straight up. Nervousness had her fingertips — poking out past her uniform sleeve — trembling visibly.
"Self-assessment."
"Ah, um, I...!"
She glanced sideways at Coiter, who had spoken before her, then squeezed her eyes shut and cried out.
"I'm A-grade too! My Dullahan is in perfect condition to pass any exam!"
After that, Aaron called on students one by one as his gaze traveled across the room.
"Laubel Brenmus."
"Eshu Arzel."
"Guinevere Benders."
The vast majority of students raised their hands and called out 'A-grade' confidently.
Aaron's tone was light, and more tellingly, the assistants weren't recording any of the grades the students announced. It was probably just a way to loosen everyone up before the exam and hear a word of resolve from each of them.
In that case, fair enough. A necromancer was better off showing confidence than trembling in fear.
The lowest of the low were the students with enough conscience to say B-grade, and those like Toto who hedged their bets with a cautious C-grade.
Below that, nothing at all.
"Hector Moore."
Hector answered with a bored expression.
"Is there no S-grade?"
Hahahaha!
His faction burst into delighted laughter, slapping Hector on the back. Having secured a Guardian and forged his Dullahan from it, Hector radiated more confidence than ever before.
Hector curled the corner of his mouth as he stared at Simon — and right on cue, Aaron spoke.
"Simon Polentia."
Simon kept his poker face and opened his mouth.
"I'd also like to grade mine at the highest level."
"Noted."
Having finished with Simon, Aaron swept his eyes over the students one last time.
"Most of you said 'A-grade.' In that case, every single person here is in line for the highest marks. Isn't that so?"
"......"
A faintly tense silence fell over the room.
"Confidence and audacity are good things. But a necromancer must remain level-headed at all times. A summon's performance can be predicted with reasonable accuracy before it ever enters real combat. What materials were used? What formulas were employed in its creation? Was there any damage during the construction process? Were any elements omitted? Does it move smoothly? How much jet-black can it channel?"
Having said his piece, Aaron looked around at the students.
"A hunter who doesn't know his own weapon inside and out goes hungry. You have to know how far your arrow flies before you can close to the right range and put it through your quarry. Necromancers are no different. No matter how much passion you poured into your summon, you must measure its capabilities with a cool head. Underrate it, and you waste jet-black while sacrificing efficiency. Overrate it, though—"
Aaron added, his voice heavy.
"—in the worst case, you can die on the battlefield."
"......"
"Assess your summon's abilities dispassionately. Whether you can put them to one hundred percent use — that is what I'll be watching for in this exam."
Aaron snapped his fingers.
The assistants activated the output devices they had prepared, and a massive mana screen unfolded in the air.
"Behold the rules of this performance evaluation."
The mana screen displayed the exam grounds deep within the underground dungeon. Countless monsters seethed within it.
"That is where you will take your exam."
Simon's eyes gleamed at the sight of the writhing mass of monsters inside.
Nothing in there looked overwhelmingly powerful. In terms of danger rating, they ranged from Tier 2 to Tier 3. Which meant—
*A one-versus-many battle.*
In the first-year performance evaluation, five students had faced off against a single powerful monster.
And now, as second-years who had chosen the Summoning major—
Each student would have to face that horde of monsters alone, with a single summon.
"Time limit is fifteen minutes per person. Within those fifteen minutes, you must eliminate every monster inside the exam grounds. Per the 'Single Undead Operation' rule announced earlier, the only thing you may use is one summon. You yourselves may not enter."
The students nodded energetically — this much they had expected.
"Seems doable?"
"Yeah! Yeah!"
"With a Dullahan's firepower, that's easy."
The Dullahan was a monster that unleashed devastating power in short bursts. Right before midterms, in Professors Lyn & Run's special lecture, they'd even learned how to imbue a Dullahan with an aura and unleash slashing strikes.
The students who had dutifully attended that lecture showed hardly a trace of fear.
"But now, a new rule comes into play."
At Aaron's words, the students quickly turned their heads back.
"The number of monsters you will hunt in that chamber — is decided by you."
The students began to murmur in earnest.
*I decide how many monsters?*
Everyone had assumed this was a 'time attack' format — a set, equal number of monsters, judged on how fast you could clear them.
Instead, some subtle twist had wormed its way into the rules.
"There's no need to overthink it."
Aaron continued his explanation.
"Immediately before your exam, you will tell the dungeon keeper the 'number of monsters' you intend to hunt. The keeper will then release that many monsters — of random types — into the exam grounds. You must hunt down all of them with a single undead, and you receive points according to how many you kill."
The screen happened to be showing an example: a skeleton archer controlled by an assistant, hunting down monsters.
The skeleton archer methodically picked off the monsters one arrow at a time, and by the end of the fifteen-minute limit, had destroyed twenty of them.
"In this case, since the examinee destroyed twenty monsters within the time limit, they receive twenty points."
The rule was intuitive enough that the students slowly nodded along.
"Doesn't seem so hard."
"Yeah, honestly."
Then the scene on the mana screen changed.
A 'Skeleton Knight' in heavy armor was chasing after monsters, its speed visibly hampered by the weight of its gear. The fifteen minutes ran out, and one monster escaped it in the end.
"This examinee declared they would hunt thirty monsters — and failed to catch one."
Simon's eyes narrowed.
*So that'd be twenty-nine points, one deducted...*
"In this case."
Aaron said, his voice grave.
"Zero points."
Whammmmm!
The students erupted into panicked murmuring, faces drained white.
"Zero points for missing just one?!"
"Th-this can't be right, can it?"
Aaron clapped his hands once, quieting them.
"Do you have grounds for complaint? You are the ones who decide the number of monsters."
"......!"
The noise in the hall died in an instant.
"If you wish to avoid such a disaster, simply assess your summon accurately and call the 'right number.' Call too few, and you cannot beat your rivals who dared to call higher. Call too high, however, and you pay the price of your hubris and arrogance. That is all there is to it."
The corner of Aaron's mouth lifted.
"A great many of you just called 'A-grade.' Let us see just how boldly you can commit to a decision now that real risk is on the line."
And so began.
The cruel first large-scale performance evaluation of the Summoning Department.