Kizen’s infamous course registration season had begun. Four hundred students scattered like sand, racing across the campus. Though they all started from the same point, most would fail to secure the schedule they had planned. Simon was in just as much of a hurry as everyone else.
’The fiercest competition is for Professor Jane’s Jet-Black Dynamics. I have to get to Professor Bahil and back as fast as I possibly can.’
Suddenly, his head snapped up. A gigantic kitchen knife was plummeting from the sky.
Sand and debris exploded on impact. Simon twisted in mid-air to dodge, landing gracefully on the ground.
"Again?!"
A monster with a glossy gray hide was growling at him. Simon casually raised a hand. Bone fragments shot out from his subspace, assembling in the air to form a spear.
‘Bone Spear.’
The spear shot forward, striking the monster squarely in the chest.
’Clang!’
It simply bounced off.
’What?’
It hadn’t been like this at first. The campus had been patrolled by ordinary danger level 3 monsters, and his attacks had worked just fine. But the closer he got to the Cursology building, the more of these impervious gray monsters appeared.
"Tch!"
Simon leaped away just as a beast-like gray monster swiped its claws through the wall where he had just been standing.
‘Bone Armor – Gauntlet Mode.’
The returning ‘Bone Spear’ disassembled, wrapping around his right arm like a second skin. Simon swung his fist, smashing it into the back of the monster’s head.
This time, his fist passed right through its body as if it were a ghost. The monster retaliated with a kick that sent him stumbling back.
[Barrier Gauge: 91%]
Simon clicked his tongue and retreated. He couldn’t harm them, but they could damage the suit he was wearing. If his Barrier Gauge hit zero, he’d be stuck in place for thirty minutes. Left with no other choice, he broke into a run, deciding to avoid them entirely.
[Mwahaha! You’re having a tough time, boy!] a familiar voice cackled.
Simon glanced down. The eyes of the skull-shaped badge on his uniform were glowing with a dark blue light.
’Pier!’ A wave of relief washed over him. ’It’s been a while since you came out to watch!’
[Indeed. I’ve been frightfully busy trying to find a way to restore that broken ‘sword’ of yours! But more importantly,] the badge’s eyes shifted. [I’ve seen this test before!]
Simon skidded to a halt as a massive gray arm slammed into the ground where he would have been.
[Think about the location, boy!]
"The location?" Simon asked, weaving between the monsters’ attacks.
[Yes! It only took Richard twenty minutes to figure it out.]
Simon’s brow furrowed in a pout. ’Are you comparing me to my father again?’
[Mwahahaha!]
Right now, getting to Bahil’s lab was more important than fighting these things. Avoidance was the best strategy.
’Still, all that time spent looking down at the campus from the student council office is paying off.’
Luckily, the student council building was located in the center of the second-year campus. He had often gazed out at the view while working, and now, a perfect map of the grounds was etched in his mind.
’And the route Dick gave me!’
Simon ducked under a monster’s swing and slipped into a narrow alley between two buildings. He heard a satisfying crash as the two creatures chasing him collided.
’I can do this!’
The moment he burst out of the alley into an open square—
’Flash!’
A single card lying on the ground pulsed with light. A look of dawning horror crossed Simon’s face. ’Endolas Bordeville’s card!’
The light erupted, enveloping him. A shimmering barrier, like the ring of a dueling arena, materialized around him. There was no escape. This was the world inside the cards, just like in the BMAT.
A moment later, a monster appeared before him—the same bipedal gray creature from the campus grounds, its upper body grotesquely muscular compared to its slender legs, its arms tipped with sharp blades.
’I have to defeat it to get out, right?’
The monster charged, slashing downward with a bladed arm.
’Whoosh!’
Simon feigned a block, then sidestepped at the last second. The monster’s arm sliced through the air beside him, and he countered with a raised fist shimmering with Jet-Black.
‘Hongfeng Original - Chwita.’
’BWOOOONG!’
As expected, martial arts were useless. His fist passed straight through the monster’s body.
’Calm down. Analyze the situation, don’t just rush in.’ His eyes narrowed. ’This isn’t a real battlefield. This barrier, these monsters... they were all created for the course registration. What is the creator’s intention?’
The creator’s intention. The thought sparked an idea. He was on his way to see Bahil, near the Cursology building.
Simon pointed his index finger at the monster.
‘Exhaust.’
The exhaustion curse shot from his fingertip, striking the creature dead-on. The monster, which had deflected or phased through every other attack, was finally affected.
"So this is it."
This wasn’t just a race. The monsters Endolas created were a test. They were asking if the students were truly qualified to take these classes. To enroll in Cursology, he had to win this fight with curses.
’Thump!’
Simon launched himself into the air, dodging another attack. Even after being hit with ‘Exhaust,’ the monster hadn’t slowed down at all.
’This curse isn’t the right answer. I need to use the most effective curse for this specific monster!’
His gaze dropped to the creature’s frail legs. A smirk touched his lips as he formed a magic circle with his right hand.
’Humans are creatures with unstable balance, standing on two legs with their backs straight. Simply making them fall can render them helpless.’
It was a curse students had used constantly during the first-year dueling evaluations—a technique Bahil himself had created for them, one that targeted a small area like the feet to trip an opponent.
‘Leg Down.’
The curse shot toward the monster’s legs, making them shimmer with dark energy. The creature, completely unaware, reached for Simon and—
’Thud!’
It toppled over like a felled tree, crashing face-first onto the ground.
’The problem is the monster; the answer is the curse.’
With the correct curse applied, a green target finally appeared on the back of the fallen monster’s neck. Simon immediately launched a ‘Bone Spear’ at it.
’Pshuk!’
A perfect hit. The monster’s body shattered like glass, and the barrier around Simon dissolved.
[Mwahaha! You figured it out in about the same time as Richard, boy!]
Simon let out a soft breath and grinned.
"If you were timing us, I bet I was a little faster than my father."
The rules for Kizen’s course registration were updated every year. This year, as Simon had discovered, the challenge was to overcome monsters and traps using only the skills and knowledge from the corresponding subject.
"I need a detox over here!"
"Dodge!"
Students heading for Venomology had to navigate an area swarming with poisonous monsters, either by using counter-poisons or by detoxifying themselves as they crossed toxic swamps. Card traps presented even more specific challenges; one might transport a student to a room with a collapsed victim, forcing them to identify and cure the poison to escape. Similarly, the area around the Necrology building was filled with monsters vulnerable only to spirit techniques, while Hemomancy’s guardians could only be defeated through bleeding.
The difficulty was far higher than anyone had expected.
"Ugh, Kizen’s second year is brutal right from the start!" Meirin yelled, swinging her arm to unleash a torrent of Jet-Black fire. Huge glacier monsters melted away in the flames, but the attack was useless against the creature made of pure water that followed. "You commoner dummy!"
"Leave it to me!" Dick shouted, pressing a button. The pre-set Jet-Black trap activated, sending a high-voltage current across the ground. The water monster convulsed and collapsed into a puddle.
"We did it!" Kamibarez cheered, having already blown away the first wave of monsters with a blast of Jet-Black wind. The barrier around them lifted, revealing the Kizen campus once more.
"Whoa, this is way tougher than my intel suggested," Dick said, wiping sweat from his brow. "Teamwork is pretty much essential."
Meirin glanced back at the buildings in the distance.
"I wonder if Simon’s okay."
"Worried about him?" Dick teased with a smirk.
"Ugh!"
Meirin’s face flushed crimson.
"O-Of course I’m worried! He’s my friend! And what’s with that tone?"
"What are you talking about? It was an innocent question, but you’re the one getting all worked up... Aack! Stop pulling my hair!"
"This isn’t the time to fight!" Kamibarez intervened, slipping between them. "Besides, Simon will definitely make it! He’s good with curses, and he has Skeleton Mages, so he can handle the Jet-Black Dynamics mission that requires using opposing elemental magic!"
Dick scratched his head.
"You know that Cursology route I told Simon about?"
"Yes?"
"It’s the fastest route, but logically, wouldn’t he run into the most traps that way?"
The girls’ expressions became momentarily more tense, but Kamibarez promptly regained her composure.
"I still believe he can do it."
"Ooh, such faith! What makes you so sure?"
Kamibarez smiled brightly.
"Because Simon is the Student Council President of Kizen!"
’Hoo! Haa!’ Simon ran, panting for breath. ’This test isn’t about who gets there fastest!’
The difficulty was far greater than he’d anticipated. The other second-years were undoubtedly struggling as well. As long as his Barrier Gauge didn’t hit zero and trigger the thirty-minute freeze, maybe taking it slow wasn’t such a bad idea.
He was now caught in his second card trap. A dueling ring surrounded him, and this time, three gray monsters advanced on him.
’Kiiiiiiiiiiii!’
One of them opened its mouth and let out a bizarre shriek that rattled his brain.
’Good thing I brought my first-year Cursology textbook.’
Holding the book in his left hand, Simon drew a magic circle with his right. He’d momentarily forgotten the formula and was now giving himself an impromptu review.
’This is it!’
Finally completing the incantation, he raised his index finger.
‘Silence.’
The curse spread like smoke, striking the screaming monster. Its throat constricted, and the piercing noise stopped.
"That’s better."
With its weakness exposed, Simon finished it off with a ‘Bone Spear.’ Reviewing the curses from his first year was proving to be surprisingly productive. As brutal as Kizen was, it was undeniably the best school in the world.
’Next.’
He looked up at a monster spewing flames from mid-air. It had large wings and, most notably, ears as large as a human’s.
’For that type, this curse is a direct hit.’
As he quickly prepared the spell, a voice echoed in his mind.
"Original! Brilliant!"
"Because you haven’t studied ahead! Because your mind is a blank canvas, not sullied by formulas and equations, you can produce such an original idea! To assume the motion sickness curse must use a vibration formula is a sign of a brain pickled in convention! Absolutely brilliant. This is exactly how you develop a curse equation!"
He remembered Bahil’s words from Cursology class, when Hector’s cronies had mocked him for not knowing the vibration formula.
’...It’s all coming back to me now.’
Simon raised his index finger.
‘Sickness.’
The motion sickness curse flew true, striking the monster. The effect was immediate and powerful. The creature wobbled in the air before plummeting to the ground and shattering.
’So the answer was ‘Sickness.’ That just leaves one!’
This one was the trickiest: an undead that tore off and ate its own flesh, growing stronger with each gruesome bite, despite its obvious agony. Standard weakening curses like ‘Exhaust’ were useless.
’What curse is the answer for this monster...?’
"Simon Polentia. This is a set of curses I developed just for you."
Another memory surfaced unbidden.
"You won’t find them in any book. They are one-of-a-kind curses, created solely for you. Is it not the nature of an educator to want to teach an exceptional student? Let’s call it the bond between master and disciple. You are a student, and learning is your duty. You should simply accept it as such."
Simon bit his lip as he completed a new curse. It was the first of the Four Great Curses Bahil had prepared for him to master ‘Compellonia.’
‘Indolence.’
The curse of painlessness struck the monster. The creature, which had been caught in a cycle of tearing its flesh and attacking, suddenly dropped its weapon. The moment ‘Indolence’ took hold, it began to frantically devour itself, soon consuming its own heart and self-destructing.
’Shooooooo—’
The barrier dissolved, returning him to the Kizen campus.
"Hah."
With a heavy heart, Simon looked up. The Cursology building, and Bahil, were now directly in front of him.
’W-What am I going to say when I see him?’

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