Chapter 87 A minor hiccup?

Aron heard a knock on his door and he unlatched it took find two girls standing outside. "Everything is ready?" The blonde girl asked with a no-nonsense expression on her face, not bothering to exchange any pleasantries.

"Yeah, please come in." Aron invited the two girls inside his little 8x8 quarter. Both girls stepped in and stood next to the bunk bed, considering that there was not much space in the room, to begin with.

Looking down at the necromancy-related items scattered over in one corner, the short-haired girl turned to face the boy. "You do have spares, I believe."

Busy organizing everything in a perfect circle Aron took a break to sweep his hair back and tied it up with a piece of cloth. "Yes, I have enough for two more tries." With a smile that caused both the girls to skip a heartbeat, he continued. "Compared to what it cost me to summon that douche.. these materials came rather cheap."

Julia shook her head to get rid of any useless thoughts in her mind. "Of course, it will cost less genius." She scoffed as if she can't be troubled by his ignorance. "You think casting an ancient spell is a joke? It takes people years to learn a single one, that too if you are lucky enough to land your paws on one."

Aron scratched his face, laughing in self-derision. "Haha.. then I must be pretty lucky since I was successful at the second attempt." Julia curled her lips in contempt. "If you count the chain of murders your summon committed as a success then yeah... I am pretty sure you are one lucky fellow."

Since there was nothing that can argue against her remarks, Aron chose to skip this conversation altogether. "Haha... I was just kidding. Now can you look into this? Is this ready? Should I cast the spell?"

Julia rolled her eyes at his attempts to wiggle out of the embarrassing situation. Not interested in pursuing him any further, she pointed out a few superfluous flaws in the arrangement of the items and Aron adjusted everything according to her whim.

They were going to cast the basic skeleton summoning spell. Since his earlier spell went haywire and brought a murderous freak from the underworld, there was no way he can cast the same one to pass the screening test.

Julia suggested this new spell, certain that even if he could cast this basic spell, it's more than enough to at least get admission to the Academy. With his goal right now being to get entry into the prestigious institution, Aron had no apprehension about taking no chances.

"Good.. Now chant the spell." With the go-ahead, Aron acknowledged with a nod and focussed his glance on the items on the ground. Julia meanwhile stepped back, standing next to Ava.

"How many tries do you think it would take?" She asked. Julia shrugged her shoulders. "Who knows..! Let's hope we can get it done with today. We need to spend less time cleaning his ass and more time on our year-end project."

"Haha.. he is just so cute. I could not refuse when he asks for help." Ava had no qualms accepting the real reason she agreed to be dragged here. "hmph.. He is good with leveraging his innocence to get close to the female gender." Julia humphed.

"Too bad.. good looks don't make you an adept spell caster." As the girls had been whispering to each other, Aron's mind was continuously chanting the spell in his mind. Ready.. he opened his eyes.. his dark pupils dilating. "Summoning magic: Summon Undead!!" He bellowed, with his hands on the floor channeling the mana from his body.

Both Julia and Ava had been watching keenly when suddenly the magic circle came to life. Both of their eyes popped out of the sockets when a pristine hand made entirely of bone emerged.

Gradually, the figure pulled itself out of the quagmire of the netherworld into the land of the living. "Hahahahaha...!! Awesome..!! I did it..!! Hahahha.. nice.. nice.." Aron jumped up and down in excitement. In all likelihood, this was the first true spell he cast that didn't result in a disaster.

Looking at the 5 feet tall skelly gazing at him with an expressionless face, Aron felt immense happiness. If not for his bony face, he would have definitely kissed this fellow.

Both the girls stood in their places stupefied. What was this guy? He actually did it in a single attempt. "How..?" Ava was the most surprised. It took her a full month before she could properly cast her first skelly spell. And this guy...

"Ahh.." Julia massaged her head. "This bastard even managed to cast an ancient sacred. Why did I expect something different?" A tinge of jealousy can be gleaned from her face, nevertheless, the blonde moved forward to slap a piece of paper on Aron's butt.

"Stop screaming.. it's the lowest of low spells. Now seal a contract with it before your puny mana pool dries up and he slips back down." Berating his behavior, she held out the paper in his hand.

Aron didn't mind being spanked on such a thrilling occasion. Eagerly holding the contact paper in front of him he was about to approach the skeleton. "ahem.. how am I supposed to use this thing again?"

This time Ava, who had recovered from the initial shock, helped him out. Placing the paper on the bony chest of the undead creature, he meditated, trying to connect his mind with the summon.

It was a pretty easy trick and right when he can feel the little consciousness of the fellow, he channeled his mana into the paper. The contract paper was burnt away and Aron can feel a connection in his mind. Although it was extremely weak, it was there nonetheless.

Julia at the same time slapped the skelly on its back. "This guy is hopelessly weak." She recalled the day she had to fight against that intelligent skeleton summon. She had put some effort into overpowering that fellow. If Aron can summon the same guy to fight for him, he can be extremely strong in a duel.

Too bad.. with how Aron was right now. The ancient spell seems to do him more bad than good. "Doesn't matter.. he is my buddy from now on hahahah.."Julia cringed watching the boy hug the skeleton.

"Now you should send it back. The longer you keep a summon in this world, the more mana you will spend." Ava cautioned but Aron was not ready to part with the guy so easily. "Can't we wait for some time? I want to take him out. Can't he take a walk with me?"

Julia was aware of how attached students can become to their first summon, but what the heck was this? "Send it back.. now!!" She commanded, making the disgruntled boy grumble like a kid who suffered a grievance.

Seeing the skeleton return she informed the boy. "From now, you don't need any necromancy item to summon it. Trigger the connection you can feel in your head and channel your mana simultaneously as you chant the spell, the guy will reemerge."

Although discontent, Aron nodded nonetheless. "I understand." Julia sighed at his downcast expressions. "For practice before the tests, you can summon him a few times but it should always be in our presence. Did you get what I said?"

Knowing that the girl was harsh only for his sake, Aron replied positively. "Then that will be it for today. Please excuse us, we got some other work to take care of." Julia walked out but Ava thought the blonde was too hard on the boy.

"Hey.. you did well, Aron." She gave the boy a gentle hug. "Hehe.. you should have seen her cast the spell for the first time. She was not much different than yourself." Both of them were only able to exchange a few words when they heard an angry Julia call out to Ava. "Best of luck, Aron. I can't wait to see you join us." Aron watched her walk out of the room with a smile on his face.

**At present**

An uninvited guest dragged itself into this world. Grabbing hold of the first skeleton the second one was able to hitch a ride to the world of the living. Aron was too stupefied to react as the second larger skeleton stopped the spell from closing up.

It slowly forced itself out of the fading magic circle, eventually standing next to the first guy who was too dumb to react to the situation. Two glowing red eyes glared down at it.

"Hm.. a basic skeleton spell?" To say that Simon was unimpressed with the spell would be an understatement. Yes, the boy managed to summon two undead instead of one, still, the fact remained that these were your run-off-the-mill cannon fodder skellies.

With the boy's performance yesterday, not only Simon but all the members of faculty present in the watching gallery had expected him to put up an amazing performance once again. That's the whole reason so many faculties spared the time from their busy schedule to come to play the audience to a literal nobody.

As such, they can't help but take a sigh of disappointment at the underwhelming experience. Needless to say, most of them already had their doubts of the boy deserved such a score in the Gamma trial.

He sure was a genius but was there a lack of geniuses in the academy? For many, treating him like a talent only appearing once over centuries was giving too much credit to him. Simply speaking, there was too much hot air and less substance and the

cheap summoning spell only gave prudence to their thoughts.

"What a waste of my time.. hmph..!!" A man among the personalities in the pavilion slapped his thighs in discontent. Everyone noticed him turn around and leave. In a matter of minutes, the viewing gallery lost almost half the audience.

Nevertheless, not everyone was in the mood to leave. "You see that Mrs. Holmes?" The lady with olive-green hair turned to look beside her. The mature woman beside her took another glance at the arena. "See what? That's just a stupid Skeleton summoning spell what's there to see?"

"Haha.. don't you think.. that guy.. the tall one.. is rather peculiar?" Mrs. Jayden pointed toward one of the two skeletons on the ground below. "Hmm.. well he looks stronger than the rest.." "Look at his eyes.. do you see something?" The first lady interrupted her assistant midway.

Mrs. Holmes gazed closely, this time with much more prudent attention. "Damn.." The very next second she gasped. "That one.. it's definitely sentient." There was no mistake. The glowing red eyes were showing an intense emotion.. of rage.

Undeads were not supposed to be sentient, at the very least the lower tier ones should be no different than a dumb golem, only responding to simple commands. It was to be noted that whosoever had chosen to stay had most certainly discovered the strangeness of Aron's summon.

"Sister Yana.. this thing.. Isn't that.." On the other corner, Darlene and Yana were having a similar conversation. With a nod, the lady dressed in black nodded her head and took a step closer to the rails. Her eyes fixated on the undead she spoke in a calm tone. "It's the same guy. Let's wait and watch for now."

Back at the arena, Aron shook his head to clear the confusion in his head. Although a major fuck up had happened but he had to make the best out of it. Immediately, he turned over to face Simon.

"Instructor, this junior had performed the summon undead spell. Is this enough for me to pass?" From his hurried words, Simon got an impression as of the boy was impatient about something.

"Ah.. yes, but as per convention.. you must pass a command and have your summon follow it." The instructor countered. Aron gritted his teeth and was about to utter a word to his skeleton buddy when suddenly the larger skelly made a move.

*Screech* A vicious scream left its nonexistent throat, scaring the life out of the young boy. It went on to grab the skelly next to it by its waist and raised it over its head. The next moment, a terrified Aron witnessed his buddy being torn apart from the middle.

The skeleton with a red glowing eye socket threw the broken body of his brethren to the ground and viciously crushed its head with his foot. Simultaneously, Aron felt the connection between him and his buddy extinguish like a lamp flame in the middle of a storm.

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