After the game, he and Lorraine parted ways. The moment she stepped out of the portal, her communication crystal buzzed. Her face tightened into a deep frown, and she ran off after a quick apology for not being able to stay longer. From the few words he overheard—'Serne' and 'problem'—it sounded like her rival had caused trouble again, and Lorraine was off to clean up the mess.
Their cat-and-dog rivalry would probably last until graduation.
'Being Lady Nephthys's daughter must be tough.'
Simon put on his glasses and immediately set off to find the next card. He found the second one quickly, tucked inside a drainage ditch in a vacant lot behind a building. This one was yellow.
'Yellow was Summoning, right?' Simon thought, a flicker of hope rising as he walked toward the card.
[Entering a new game.]
Simon opened his eyes. He had entered the card from the drainage ditch, and now he found himself looking at one. Except this was far too wide to be a simple ditch; it was more like a deep, narrow alleyway. Simon stood on a hill overlooking it.
'Hmm.'
He tried to step forward, but an invisible barrier blocked his path. He couldn't go down there directly.
'I have no idea what the theme is.' It certainly didn't feel like a Summoning game. As he was smacking his lips in disappointment, a notification appeared.
[1 person has entered - Simon Polentia]
[Starting capacity (8/8)]
"It's—It's Simon Polentia!"
"We're saved!"
A group of seven students materialized out of nowhere, swarming him.
"You're Simon, right? Not someone with the same name?"
"It is him! It's Special Admission No. 1!"
"That match with Deimos was amazing!"
They all started talking at once, and Simon struggled to get his bearings.
"P-Please, one at a time," he managed, looking over their faces. He didn't recognize a single one. There were no other famous students or special admissions here. They were all just ordinary, run-of-the-mill students.
"Then I'll ask first!" a girl with a moon-shaped headband exclaimed, stepping forward. "Are you really Special Admission No. 1, Simon Polentia?"
"Y-Yes, I am."
"He says he is! He is!"
"Woooah!"
They erupted into cheers, high-fiving and jumping up and down. Their welcome had gone far beyond simple hospitality; they were looking at him like he was their savior.
"U-Um, guys," Simon interrupted. "What's the theme here?"
"The Summoning theme!" the girl answered immediately. "It's a game where you use summons to catch the monsters passing down below! They say you can only attack them with your summons."
'A Summoning theme!' Simon's eyes lit up. He grasped the rules instantly, a thrill of anticipation running through him.
"We were in real trouble," the girl continued. "We were talking while we waited, and it turns out not a single one of us is majoring in Summoning!"
"What...?" Simon's eyes widened.
"And that's when you showed up!"
"And a Summoning major, of all people! Special Admission Number One, no less! Haha!"
"No, hold on!" Simon exclaimed, the gravity of the situation finally dawning on him. "Are you telling me there isn't a single one?"
"Nope!"
"You all got in with yellow cards, didn't you? Shouldn't you have at least some confidence in Summoning?"
At his question, all seven students suddenly looked mortified, their eyes darting everywhere but at him. The girl with the headband mumbled in a voice barely louder than a whisper, "W-Well... we were all trying to collect the set of seven different colored cards."
'...Oh, for the love of—'
Meirin's words echoed in his memory.
'—The number of kids trying to collect the whole rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet—is going to skyrocket. Just like you, Simon.'
Her prediction had been dead-on. After the first test, a rumor had spread like wildfire that the themes were rarely related to the subject written on the card. As a result, aiming for the highest-scoring rainbow combination had become the new trend. Students had started blindly hunting for any color they didn't already have.
And this was the disastrous result.
"Still, it's a huge relief you're here, Simon! The master of Summoning himself!"
'It's not a relief at all,' he thought grimly. 'They're looking at me like I'm their only hope.'
Before he could process it, Simon found himself being guided into a chair someone had pulled from their subspace. Students immediately began massaging his shoulders, arms, and legs.
Snapping back to reality, he protested, "F-First, just explain the rules."
"Right!"
The rules they laid out were simple enough. An evil necromancer was sending monsters to destroy a village full of innocent people. The students, acting as a vigilante corps, had to exterminate every last monster and restore peace. It was a classic, if uninspired, scenario.
The monsters would spawn from a magic circle at the starting point and could only advance along a single narrow path. They wouldn't attack the students positioned on the hill above; they would simply charge straight for the village.
The catch, however, was a major restriction. The students could only attack using their summons. Curses and all other forms of black magic were forbidden.
'...This is going to be tough without a single other Summoning major.'
Simon let out a faint sigh. The students flinched at the sound, their eyes wide with anxiety.
"I-It's impossible, isn't it?"
"Should we just get ready for the next game?"
"No, that's not it," Simon said, forcing a smile as he ran a hand over his forehead. "I'm just thinking I'll have to figure something out."
His words were met with an immediate, deafening roar. "Woooow!"
"That's our guy!"
"He's a real man!"
"Let's do this!"
And just like that, the Simon fan club was born.
The battlefield was a simple, straight alley stretching from the starting point to the village. Soon, the monsters would pour through.
First, the eight of them had to claim their defensive sectors. Simon was practically shoved into position at the most critical spot: the final stretch right before the exit. The others scrambled to pick spots they liked along the rest of the path.
Behind them stood a realistic-looking village, its residents huddled inside their homes, doors barred and trembling with fear.
"Alright! Get ready!" Simon commanded.
The students hesitantly summoned their undead.
'...What a disaster.'
It was worse than he'd imagined. Most of the summons were basic skeletons and zombies, and one student could only control a maximum of three.
"Sorry, I'm a Combat Magic major!" the student with the meager trio called out apologetically.
'Right. As for me...'
Watching the other students deploy their forces, Simon sank into thought. Which summons would be most effective? His jet-black was finite; he had to choose the most efficient units and unleash his full power at the decisive moment. A straight path was perfect for Deibos's Ocean Current Cannon, but with no water source, summoning him was out of the question. Using Overlord was also risky; keeping six subspaces open at once would quickly overheat his ring.
"G-Guys! Monsters are coming!" yelled the student at the front of the line.
Armed goblins began pouring out of the magic circle, flooding the narrow alley. They were Green Goblins, a Class 2 threat, but their numbers were staggering.
Simon glanced at the counter floating in the air.
[200/200]
'Two hundred?'
It was an absurd amount. For eight proper Summoning majors, it would have been a manageable challenge. But as it stood, he could only rely on himself and maybe one or two others.
"Phew! My heart's pounding!"
The first defender was the girl with the moon-shaped headband. She formed a blockade in the narrow alley with two shield-bearing skeletons, placing a spear-wielding one behind them. It was a clever and efficient formation.
'Kishishishit!'
A flood of goblins crashed against the skeletal shields with a series of heavy clangs. With the path blocked, the monsters furiously hacked at the obstacle. The skeleton behind the shields thrust its spear diligently, but it was a losing battle.
'A frontal defense is useless.'
Overwhelmed by sheer numbers, the formation crumbled. The shield-bearers were torn apart, and the remaining skeleton was shattered into bone fragments.
[191/200]
They had only managed to kill nine.
"Next one, get ready!"
But the subsequent defenses were just as futile. The Combat Magic major's line was breached in seconds, and the student after him who used ghouls had sloppy control over his undead.
"Don't block the path! Attack from the sides!" Simon yelled, unable to watch any longer.
A few students glanced back, confused. "B-But won't they just run straight through?"
"I'll deal with that! The priority right now is to thin their numbers, even if it's just by one!"
Learning from the failures, the students quickly adapted. They armed their skeletons with spears and had them attack from the high ground of the hill, while those with shorter weapons hurled stones. It meant letting the main horde pass, but it drastically increased their kill count.
And then... The zombie beast tore through the goblin ranks, earning a wave of enthusiastic cheers.
Their Kizen training was not just for show. One student, despite not being a Summoning major, had managed to reanimate a Class 4 Crimson Bear.
"He's holding them!"
"Go for it!"
The Crimson Bear zombie was impressive, but control remained the critical issue. The sheer mental strain of maintaining a connection with such an unruly undead was immense. The student clutched his head, complaining of a headache, before finally collapsing. The Crimson Bear froze in place. A stationary undead was nothing but a target, and it was swiftly surrounded and hacked to pieces by the goblins.
[103/200]
"Agh!"
"It's all up to Simon now!"
All seven of them had fallen, yet half the monsters remained. Every eye turned to Simon, their last hope, the final line of defense.
'What will he summon?'
'Deibos is impossible.'
'Maybe that bladed creature?'
The students watched with bated breath, their minds racing with possibilities. But what Simon summoned was something else entirely.
"Skeleton Archers!"
Eight of them. The bow-wielding skeletons took their positions, ready to fire.
"W-Will that be enough?"
"There are fewer arrows in their quivers than there are monsters."
The students muttered anxiously, but Simon simply raised his right hand, a confident smile on his face.
'Of course, they aren't just any Skeleton Archers.'
In his palm rested a golem's core, wreathed in his turquoise Cloud.
The spell, 'Summon Blood Golem,' was already complete.
'Fwoooosh!'
The Cloud erupted from the core, surging through the magic circle in the air before descending upon the Skeleton Archers. Their eye sockets ignited with a turquoise gleam. Their bows and bowstrings shimmered with an emerald light, and intangible capes of pure Cloud materialized and fluttered behind them. The spell was sealed as Simon, the caster, settled a crown of Cloud upon his own head.
'Simon Original - Royal Guard Sharpshooters'
This was Simon's personal guard, composed entirely of Skeleton Archers.
"Whoa! That's the technique from the BMAT, isn't it?" The students who recognized it began jumping with excitement.
"Load," Simon commanded.
Their emerald capes billowing, the archers drew arrows from their quivers. The moment their bony fingers touched the shafts, the arrows began to glow with a turquoise light. They nocked them and took aim at the goblin horde.
"Fire!"
A single arrow streaked through the air, leaving an emerald trail in its wake. It effortlessly pierced the chest of the lead goblin, but its momentum didn't stop there. It continued its flight, tearing through the entire line of enemies behind it.
"A-A piercing effect!"
With every turquoise arrow that flew, droves of monsters were annihilated. A single shot was felling seven or eight goblins at once.
It was a breathtaking spectacle. With each arrow loosed, another wave of monsters collapsed into a heap of corpses.
'Hah!'
Sweat dripped from Simon's brow. Gritting his teeth, he swung his arm, and the archers imbued their next arrows with Cloud.
"Loose!"
A volley of turquoise arrows flew in perfect sequence, mowing down the goblins. The horde, which had been at ninety percent strength just moments before, was being systematically wiped out.
[Monsters Remaining: 48/200]
"In..." a male student stammered, his body trembling. "...insane."
"He's actually going to pull it off!"
The onlookers were losing their minds. The monster count had already been cut by more than half. Fueled by their roaring cheers, Simon pushed himself harder, squeezing out every last drop of power.
'Ugh.'
But this was no simple task. Unlike the sword-wielding Royal Guard, the Sharpshooters directly consumed Cloud to enhance their arrows. The turquoise glow of the skeletons themselves was beginning to fade. First their capes vanished, then the light in their eyes and the aura around their bodies grew dim.
'Nothing else matters,' Simon thought, panting as he raised both arms. 'Just get the Cloud on the arrows and fire!'
Once more, emerald arrows flew, piercing through goblin after goblin.
[Monsters Remaining: 7/200]
"He's almost there!"
"The boss is coming!"
Lagging slightly behind the main force, a goblin of considerable size was now charging down the path. The other students tried to send their remaining summons to intercept it, but they were swatted away one by one by its massive axe.
"Hoo!"
By now, Simon had finished off the last of the minions. The Skeleton Archers had emptied their quivers and were now making futile, twitching motions toward them like broken machines.
[1/200]
Only the massive goblin boss remained. If a single monster reached the village, they would fail.
Simon swung his arm. "Return."
All the Cloud remaining in the archers flowed back into his magic circle. Drained of their power, the undead reverted to normal skeletons and ceased moving, as if switched off.
'Now for the finale!'
He deliberately disrupted the Cloud ratio in his magic circle, watching as the emerald light shifted to a deep, dark blue jet-black. He turned his head. One Skeleton Archer, its connection to him still intact, remained in its Royal Guard state, waiting by his side.
"It's all on you!"
'Simon Remake - Blood Arrow'
From the magic circle, Simon forged a bow and arrow of pure jet-black and handed them to the archer. It took them without hesitation and leaped down into the alley.
'Thud! Thud! Thud!'
The boss goblin charged forward. The lone Skeleton Archer stood its ground, boldly blocking the path.
"Only the boss is left!"
"Please, let this work!"
The other students cried out, their voices united in a single hope.
Simon raised a hand. 'Load.'
The archer carefully nocked the jet-black arrow. They were in perfect sync; Simon felt as if he 'was' the archer.
"Shoot!"
The instant the archer released the string, a deafening roar tore through the air. The sheer force of the shot shattered the archer's body into dust. The arrow flew true, embedding itself squarely in the goblin's chest.
'Gurgle!'
The boss stumbled back, dropping to one knee.
"Ah!"
"It wasn't strong enough!"
Coughing up blood, the goblin gripped the arrow in its chest and began to struggle back to its feet.
"No," Simon said, a faint smile touching his lips as he clenched his fist. "I got him."
'BOOOOM!'
The arrow detonated within the goblin's body. An explosive fan of jet-black energy erupted from the wound, and the creature's body was blown apart, showering the alley with flesh and blood.
'Patter, patter.'
Beyond the mangled corpse, only a hazy residue of jet-black remained. As everyone stared, their jaws hanging open...
[0/200]
[All monsters have been eliminated.]
[Objective complete.]
"WOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The moment the message appeared, the sky filled with triumphant screams as everyone rushed toward Simon. He let out a hollow laugh and sank to the ground.
'...Three rounds of this game and I'd actually die.'
In seconds, he was swallowed by a sea of cheering students.

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