Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 256

As Simon walked in, he realized that what he had seen so far was nothing.

The fish market that exclusively sold to necromancers.

The stalls were filled with only monster corpses.

They were all dripping with blood from harpoon wounds, the wet blood perhaps used as a sign that they were a recent catch.

The floor was caked in red.

Some monsters were strung up upside down, and some needed their mouths tied shut.

It was a paradise of gore and brutality.

There was no shouting for attention like there was in the main market, just people in overalls working in silence.

And the customers here were all necromancers. An elderly woman swept monster organs into a bag she had brought with her and walked away with a smile on her face.

"The undead materials you see at a regular necromancer shop only look so pristine because they've been processed. Here, they're all raw and unprocessed."

Clarified Benya, briskly pacing back and forth.

"I'll admit that this place is a bit of a mixed bag amongst necromancers, but there are some hidden treasures to be found, especially for the type of undead you need, comrade. Normally, ocean skeletons would be in the 'specialty' category of shops, and you'd have to pay a fortune for them. But you can get them here for a tenth of the price."

Simon looked at her with admiration.

"As expected, senior, you're an expert!"

"Nah, I'm still a student. It's just that I'm just more interested in this area than others. Ah! Let's go that way!"

Every step took a bit of extra effort to separate it from the sticky red beneath them, forcing Simon to be aware of just how much blood he was surrounded by. Even if these were monsters that ate humans, them being slaughtered was still uncomfortable to think about.

"If I become a professional necromancer, will I visit places like this often?"

"Probably not."

Benya shook her head.

"You know how a lot of people like to eat meat but want to turn a blind eye to the killing of livestock? It's similar to that. Necromancers like neat things. We're here for a very specific reason, so we're just stopping by."

She added with a shrug,

"Still, visiting a place like this every so often is good training for world domination."

"Y-You're right."

As the conversation came to an end, Simon wandered around, soaking in the atmosphere like he was studying a new culture.

Looking about with the desire to learn, he came across a plethora of new sights.

Taking the role of a tour guide, Benya asked,

"Do you know how they categorize the undead that come into this kind of market?"

"Not really."

According to Benya…

Corpses that can be considered for sale as 'special undead' are immediately enchanted with various glyphs for storage and loaded onto boats or wagons for transportation.

The corpses that can become zombies or ghouls are moved to special warehouses designed to bring them to the perfect level of decay.

The remaining ones that can become skeletons are immediately skinned, and bones are taken for the market. The remaining byproducts are sold for research to necromancers, as catalysts for spells, or as materials for artifacts.

Normal livestock and beasts can be turned into undead, but they are weak. It's mostly monsters that become undead.

Monsters are absolutely evil, harm people, and have yet to be conquered by mankind.

This is one of the reasons why local lords encourage the development of necromancers.

The more necromancers there are, the fewer monsters there will be.

'I've never thought about necromancers like that…'

Of course, to come here, you have to be culturally accepting.

Simon figured that people like Rete and others from the Holy Federation would collapse in disgust.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

While distracted by the amusing imagery, he was forced back into reality as a merchant struck two knives together. In front of him was a crowd of wrinkled, old necromancers.

"It is now 1pm! I shall begin dismantling this cyclops!"

The merchant plunged his knife into the monster's abdomen and pulled the blade crossways to form a clean cut.

The stomach gaped open as the knife broke through with the ease of cutting paper, and hot steam billowed out.

"Oooooh!"

The necromancers smiled innocently at the sight, like children opening a Christmas present.

They rushed forward and took what they needed. Their hands were smudged with blood, but their eyes shone with curiosity as they busily swept the contents into bags. They weighed the items on a scale, paid, and left, satisfied with their bargain.

"That's all ingredients for potions, chimeras, hemomancy supplies, poisons, and more."

Explained Benya.

"Cyclops parts need additional processing to be useful, but I guess the buyers want it homemade."

In fact, while necromancy as a practice has existed for centuries, necromancer shops and undead factories were a relatively new trend.

There were people not too long ago who reasonably didn't trust what they could get from mass-produced workshops, so they had to make things themselves.

Simon gazed around, taking in the sights he had never seen before.

"Let's get to work, shall we? I told you what you need to find, right?"

"Right."

Polorans, wulfs, rodochetus, and gambans.

Among the underwater monsters, they were the ones that could be skeletonized.

The two walked on, searching the area carefully.

"Ah, senior, look!"

A massive creature made of what looked like whalebones was on display.

It was beautifully balanced, and it was positioned so it was easy to see the jagged teeth and, most importantly, the long vertebrae that ran from its head to its fins like train tracks.

"That's a poloran, a level 5 monster."

"…I'd be dead if I met one of those in the ocean."

The two approached and examined the poloran. This side of the shop seemed to be dedicated to skeletons, with mostly bones on display.

Just then, a man in a metal mask—he seemed to be the shop's owner—walked over expressionlessly.

"Today's poloran is in good shape. It's been skimmed, bleached, and dried, and the skeleton is in excellent condition."

Benya bent down and examined the bones carefully.

"Mmmm. You really took good care of them."

"Of course. I'm an expert."

Slowly, she ran her fingers down the vertebrae and then paused once she got below the ribs.

"You're missing bone 174, aren't you?"

The expressionless man flinched for the first time.

"You must have made a mistake when you removed the entrails from the bones. First of all, there's no number 207. if you connect 206 and 208 without 207, the movement of the all-important fins becomes rigid and stiff when used as an undead."

She winked at the man.

"You got caught, mister."

"An expert, huh? I'll give it to you at half price."

"I won't buy it even if you give it to me for 30%~"

She waved her hand.

"You can just ignore me, but removing the guts only with a knife is difficult, as the bones and guts of poloran are firmly attached. Damage to the bone is inevitable. So, dig a deep pit, bury the poloran in the ground, and use the 'decay' glyph. After a couple of days, the muscles and guts will rot away, and you can take the bones no problem."

"…!"

The man looked over at Benya, genuinely surprised.

Realizing that she was quite young, he said,

"You must be from Kizen."

"That's right."

"So the elites really are different. Thank you for your advice. I'll take note."

"Yes, I wish you well!"

Benya took Simon and left to go elsewhere.

"?"

When she turned back to make sure Simon was following, she was immediately met with his sparkling eyes full of respect.

"Ahaha! What's up? You're making me nervous."

Simon realized that, although they were both second-years, Benya was on another level compared to Andre.

The wall of 'senior' had never felt so high.

"Do you think I can become like you if I study Summoning more?"

"You don't have to be like me."

She shook her head.

"The field of creating undead is incredibly vast, and it's going to be hard to conquer. I've been doing it my whole life, and I love it, so that's why I'm doing it. But you don't need to memorize all these small details. You need to think about how you're going to fight your enemies with undead and win. And…"

She smirked and pointed a thumb at herself.

"…you leave the 'boring stuff' to us."

Simon was impressed.

This was exactly the kind of connection he needed to make so succeed as a necromancer.

It was good that he'd met her at school and not in society.

"Shall we continue to conquer the fish market, then?"

"Yes!"

* * *

* * *

Meanwhile.

The harbor of Balot, normally a mess with many boats whizzing past, was now in a frenzy.

"Okay, after three! One, two, three, pull!"

Twenty grown men were working together. They were unloading something from a dinghy, multiple enchanted nets wrapped around this one thing to distribute the force and stop the ropes from snapping.

Bwooooooosh!

Finally, the item on the small boat rolled off onto the dock, and people rushed over.

"What in the world is it?"

"I heard something about a baby netherwhale!"

"A netherwhale?"

What came down from the small boat was a dead baby whale.

It was a deimos, to be precise. It was the only monster capable of creating a special type of undead, a 'netherwhale'.

An adult deimos was a level 8 monster, and they were even known as the rulers of the sea.

"There's a wound on its belly. It was probably attacked by other monsters."

"It's a shame it's still a baby."

"Of course it's a baby! It wouldn't be dead if it was an adult!"

A five-meter-long baby deimos.

It was very small compared to the adult, but it was such a rare monster that only one was caught every ten years. The adults were even rarer, with barely a couple being caught in the last century.

"Now, now, stand back. Don't touch it!"

A man who appeared to be the captain of the ship who brought in the whale hopped down from the boat and motioned for the crowd to back off.

"It's going to be auctioned off at the fish market in two hours, so you'll get a good look at it then!"

With the wave of a hand, the captain ordered his crew to move quickly when…

"Excuse me."

An unidentified man in a robe walked briskly toward him. He said to the captain,

"Are you in charge?"

"I suppose I am."

"I'd… like to purchase… that item."

The captain frowned.

"Didn't you hear what I said? I'm putting it up for auction."

"I want to buy it right now."

"You don't understand."

"I'll match your price or better."

"No, I'm saying—!"

The captain immediately shut his mouth. He felt a chill run down his spine as he caught sight of the two hideous eyes glowing in the darkness of the hood.

'That's not a normal person. What is he hiding beneath that robe?'

There was no need to stir up trouble, so the captain pushed through the fear and said,

"Hmmmm, how about this?"

He quoted the robed man twice the price he'd originally thought he'd get at the auction.

"Now, if you can't afford it, just get out of my—"

"I'll pay you double that right now."

The man pulled a box of gold coins out of subspace and set it down in front of him.

'Ridiculous…! How rich is this person?'

The captain's hand shook as he counted the coins.

Four times of what he had in his mind… A sum he'd never get even if he auctioned it off and had a jackpot customer.

"A-A-Alright. Let's do it! No backing out later!"

The deal was sealed. The successful buyer approached the deimos corpse.

"How are you going to move this thing? No matter how big of a subspace you have, it wouldn't be easy to get it inside."

"I'll just take the parts I need. You can keep the rest."

The man formed a magic circle in his palm and placed his hand on the deimos.

* * *

'Hmm, it's hard to find summons that I like.'

Simon and Benya continued to wander around the market, but they were having trouble.

The polorans, wulfs, rodochetus, gambans, and other fish monsters that could be turned into skeletons were in high demand, as their bones were important alchemical and magical ingredients.

The issue was, they needed a full set of bones to create a skeleton, and most of the important bone parts of each creature had been taken by other necromancers.

But the ones that remained intact were often problematic to work with.

'There just aren't any in the proper condition.'

Just when Simon was thinking that he should try something else.

Clamor clamor.

People were rushing to the docks, and Simon and Benya naturally went to follow.

"It's a deimos!"

Exclaimed Benya, looking at the monster's corpse.

"That's crazy! This is the first time I've ever seen one in the market!"

"What is that?"

"It's the only monster that can create the high-rank undead 'netherwhale'! The adult is a level 8 monster and they're considered the apex predators of the sea."

"A-A netherwhale?"

Simon's eyes widened as he looked at the dead whale corpse, only about five meters long.

"Kinda small for a nether whale, huh?"

He was, of course, thinking of the netherwhale he'd ridden coming to Kizen.

"That's because it's still a baby."

There was a hole in its heart.

Apparently, another necromancer had already purchased and taken the most important and valuable parts, like the heart and other organs.

"You won't be able to make even a small netherwhale without those organs."

"…Mmm."

The customers quickly glanced at what was left for the netherwhale and went elsewhere. The value dropped significantly since they couldn't make it into an undead, and only the outer byproducts remained.

"Okay, we'll start the auction in 10 minutes."

The auctioneer was saying that to lighten the mood when Simon looked at Belya.

"Senior?"

"What's up?"

"Why don't we buy the remains of the deimos and…"

His eyes filled with determination.

"…turn it into a skeleton instead of a netherwhale?

——