The Venomology class began. It had gotten to the point where Simon felt guilty just making eye contact with the TAs placing the poison sets on their desks. He silently tossed the antibody lump into his mouth.
'Tastes like hair today.'
Were humans truly creatures of adaptation? After weeks of this, his body had grown accustomed to the routine. He no longer needed a timer; he could feel when the medicine had spread enough. He immediately picked up the vial of poison and downed it. The revulsion had dulled. All he wished for was for the agony to pass quickly.
'Ughhhhh.'
Feeling the poison course through him, Simon lifted his quill. Byulya now required them to fill out a checklist after each dose: what it tasted like, the specific pains and symptoms, what kind of poison it seemed to be, and which poison from the textbook it most resembled. Finally, they had to define the poison they had just swallowed in a single word.
Simon wrote 'hair'. His mind would become so hazy that thoughts flowed onto the paper without conscious filtering.
Fewer students were vomiting now compared to the first class, and the pain had lessened considerably. Someone had joked that they were turning into monsters for being able to adapt to this, and Simon had to agree.
Having quickly finished one poison, Simon immediately took the next. 'This one tastes like fingernails.'
Of course, he had never eaten hair or fingernails, but the images just popped into his head. Looking over, he saw Dick writing down the names of fruits, Meirin writing the names of lipsticks, and Kamibarez writing colors.
By the third poison, Meirin was pulling a bag over her head with practiced ease. Kamibarez started sniffling. Dick, as soon as he swallowed his third dose, stood up and declared he was done. Among Team 7, Dick was the quickest to adapt.
After enduring his own bout of pain, Simon raised his hand and reported to a TA that he was fine. He submitted his checklist and was about to head to the adjacent classroom for the theory lecture when a voice stopped him.
"Hold on."
It was Byulya. She was sprawled out in the very back seat instead of at the lecture stand, supposedly monitoring the students. Of course, the students were all too busy wrestling with the poison to even notice she was back there. As Simon approached, she let out a long yawn and tapped her shoulder with her fist.
"Sorry, but give me a massage."
Hearing that, a nearby TA looked horrified and offered to do it instead.
"It's alright," Simon said with a bright smile, moving behind Byulya and placing his hands on her shoulders.
Byulya, who had been expressionless, flinched in surprise and straightened her posture, but then relaxed and let her body go limp. She grew quiet. She looked like a cat that had gone stiff after being grabbed by the scruff of its neck, and the sight almost made him laugh.
"Hey, you're good at this," Byulya said, her voice filled with genuine admiration. "Did you learn massage somewhere?"
"I just got used to it from massaging my mom's shoulders often."
"Heheheh. What a filial son."
After a moment of silent massage, Simon spoke quietly. "Professor Hongfeng will be worried."
Byulya snorted. "That woman? She completely cut ties with me after getting kicked out of the plains."
"Professor Hongfeng has been planting detoxifying herbs all over Roc Island," Simon added in a near whisper. "And she's been consistently giving students drinks made from them. Probably... because of you, Professor Byulya."
Silence stretched on. Standing behind her, Simon couldn't see her expression. Then, suddenly, her hand shot back and grabbed his cheek.
"P-Pwofessow?"
"Listen here, you little punk. What do you know about adults' business to be meddling?" she said, then smiled playfully and pulled his cheek.
'Ow, that hurts!' It hurt so much that tears welled up in his eyes. Simon squatted down, trying to pull away.
"You little brat," she cooed, flashing her sharp, shark-like teeth before letting go. Simon rubbed his cheek and stared at her resentfully.
"Are you preparing well for the next БМАТ?"
At the sudden question, Simon blinked. "Ah, yes. I'm working hard."
"If you get stuck on something, come find me." She lightly patted his shoulder. "Whatever you ask, this big sister will help you out, at least once."
He wasn't sure what had just happened, but he felt like he had gained something huge for a simple shoulder rub. He decided to definitely keep her offer in mind.
"Thank you, Professor!"
"So formal. You can drop the 'Professor' when we're alone."
"Yes, Professor!"
"Gahaha! So upright, you little brat!"
Although Byulya had offered to help, he couldn't just go to her and demand a solution for underwater combat. He figured he should first decide on a general strategy—what skills to use and how to fight—and then ask for advice on the areas he was lacking.
As the days of classes went by, his worries only deepened. The professors were deliberately not teaching any black magic specifically for use in the sea; that would be no different from giving them the answer. The most they offered were hints, like Professor Jane's lecture on magic circle binding or Professor Bahil's lesson on non-projectile curses. It was as if the faculty was collectively saying, 'You have to figure out how to fight in the sea on your own.'
And so, classes passed one after another, and time flew by. The other students were starting to get a grasp on their underwater strategies, but Simon hadn't found a definite method beyond being able to breathe.
"An undead that can be used in the sea?"
"Yes."
Simon had stopped by the 'Mutant' club room for the first time in a while. While helping Benya with the Overlord's maintenance, he casually brought up the topic.
"Hmmmm..." Benya, who was diligently wiping one of the Overlord's legs with a cloth, thought for a moment. "A Nether Whale!"
"I don't think I can control such a high-level undead yet," Simon said. "And I have no way of obtaining one."
It seemed he hadn't provided enough context. Simon explained the theme of the third БМАТ in detail, and Benya, finally understanding, nodded.
"Right! So you're looking for an undead to fight alongside you in the sea?" Having finished wiping the leg, she stood up with a grunt. Her school uniform skirt fluttered carelessly as she walked over to the bookshelf and rummaged through the books. "Basically, you know that undead themselves are unsuitable for use in the sea, right, my boy?"
"Yes! Of course."
"But for the grand goal of world domination, we can't just ignore a vast stage like the sea."
He was reminded again that it was necessary to filter the words of this eccentric undead engineer.
"It's a bit better if you make an undead from a monster that lives in the sea. How about something like this?" She opened a book to a page with an illustration of an undead made from the bones of a massive whale.
"That's amazing! But could I get something like that?"
"If you're lucky?"
The premise was rather unstable. As Simon looked on uncertainly, Benya put the book down. "Rather than looking at a hundred pictures, it's better to go and see for yourself!"
"Huh?"
"Can you make time this weekend? I'll take you somewhere fun."
The weekend arrived quickly as the weekdays had been consumed by performance evaluations. Benya had told him to meet her in Rochest, so Simon had assumed the 'fun place' was somewhere on Roc Island. But when he arrived at the meeting spot, a teleportation magic circle prepared by the Vanilla Group was waiting for him.
'...Just like Serne. The rich really are unparalleled.'
She had even reported the teleportation to Kizen to avoid any issues. Since Benya ran several of her own undead-related businesses, Kizen was accommodating in that regard.
With a nervous expression, Simon stepped onto the magic circle. Soon, his feet lifted off the ground, and the scene around him shifted.
"Welcome to the port city of Ballot, my boy!"
When Simon opened his eyes, a vast, endless sea spread out before him, with countless fishing boats coming and going. It was his first time seeing a port of this scale.
"To get a good undead, you have to get good materials first," Benya said, pointing. A large-scale fish market was visible, its entrance already teeming with people. "The fish market in Ballot Harbor is the largest in the Dresden Kingdom. Shall we go conquer it and see if anything good has come in?"
"Yes!"
The two energetically entered the fish market, greeted by the unique salty smell of the sea and the pungent odor of fish. Simon's eyes darted around, taking in the unfamiliar sights.
'It's all fish!'
He was overwhelmed by the sheer number and scale of the stalls. It felt as if every fish that existed on the continent was displayed here. Behind the colorful stalls, fishermen and merchants shouted, boasting about their day's catch. The moment he made eye contact, they gestured wildly, beckoning him over. It felt like stepping onto a fierce battlefield of commerce.
And it wasn't just fish; there were sea monsters, too. A creature buried in ice, with teeth so long it was hard to believe it was a fish, was still gasping as if alive. The sign identified it as a danger level 4 'Gerontos', caught just yesterday.
"Welcome! How'd you know our Gerontos is good today? Want a taste?" a merchant with a scraggly beard asked, pulling out a fish knife. In one fluid motion, he sliced off a piece of the Gerontos's flesh, preparing sashimi on a cutting board.
'That's so cruel, it's still alive!'
Even a necromancer who dealt with corpses would be horrified by the scene unfolding in this fish market.
"Don't be shy, have a bite!"
"N-No, thank you!" Simon refused with his whole body, palms spread wide. But Benya strode forward, picked up a piece of flesh, and popped it into her mouth.
"Mmm," she nodded as she chewed. "Delicious! How long ago was this caught?"
"It came in just last night. Fresh as can be."
Seeing Simon's reluctance, Benya pointed to the more normal-looking sashimi made from a dead monster next to it. "First time trying monster sashimi? Give it a go."
'Ugh.'
Simon squeezed his eyes shut and took a bite. As the thick piece of fish entered his mouth, he chewed.
It was dense and slightly acidic. The rich oiliness was more like meat than fish, with a wonderful savory flavor. Having grown up in the mountains, he'd rarely had the chance to eat sashimi, but this was the most delicious he had ever tasted.
"Land-dwelling monster meat is famously tasteless, right? But what's funny is that most fish-type monsters make for high-quality sashimi."
"I never knew that."
Benya turned to the merchant. "We're necromancers. Do you have anything that could be used as an undead?"
"Oh, you young folks are necromancers? Today's catch has all been used for sashimi, so we're out."
"Then we'll come again later!"
"Sure, sure. Drop by anytime."
And so, the two ventured deeper into the fish market.
"Ballot is located right between Kizen, the holy land of necromancers, and Langerstine, the royal capital," Benya explained. "Thanks to its location, a lot of marine monster corpses come in along with the fish. It's a popular spot for necromancers to get materials."
"Ah, I see." He had a feeling he would be visiting this place often.
They soon reached the deepest part of the market.
"There it is!"
An alley decorated with the bones of a ferocious shark monster came into view, exuding a gloomy atmosphere. The other market-goers didn't even glance that way; if they had to pass, they did so at a brisk pace.
"Hehe! What you saw before was a normal fish market. From here on out is the real world of necromancers! Are you ready?"
A nervous Simon gulped and nodded. "I'm ready."
'A new undead!' Vowing to find the answer to underwater combat here, Simon took a step forward.

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