Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 124

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Necromancer School’s Summoning Genius Episode 124
Simon and his companions climbed onto the roof to escape the horde of zombies pressing in from below.
But the danger was far from over. The zombies spotted them and surged forward in waves, and soon they began crawling up the building’s walls.
To be precise, they weren’t so much climbing as they were stacking—the foremost zombies plastered themselves against the wall, and others climbed over them, forming a grotesque mound of flesh. Dick, who had been watching this sight, let out a hollow laugh.
“Ugh, I’m going to be seeing this in my nightmares for a week.”
An extreme, primal image of terror.
Every undead creature present howled with hunger for their lives. The only thing they could rely on was each other.
“We have to move again.”
In the end, the four of them barely caught their breath before jumping down from the roof still wearing their Bone Armor. The moment they vaulted over the fence and landed in the alley, the zombies on the ground chased after them as if they’d been waiting.
“Is this place always this brutal?”
Merin gasped out the words between breaths.
“I thought we just had to be careful of a few wandering zombies and gather materials!”
Simon felt the same confusion. It was strange that so many zombies were pursuing them so relentlessly.
Was some artificial force at work?
Then, as they ran along the carriage road, Simon’s eyes caught sight of something that looked like a lid. Its color stood out subtly against the rest of the road.
“Everyone! Wait!”
Simon ran toward it and grabbed the lid’s handle, lifting it. Beneath it lay a ladder leading downward, accompanied by the distinctive stench of sewers.
“Simon! You’re thinking of going that way?”
Simon turned back. The wave of zombies approaching like a hillside was drawing closer by the second.
“With zombies coming at us from all sides, I think our best bet is to drop down and get below them.”
Dick shrugged.
“Will it work? They’ll probably follow us right down.”
“Each of us draws the zombies’ attention in different directions, then we slip in here quietly. What do you think?”
Merin nodded immediately.
“I’m in! I can block their view with flames!”
“Ah, I’ve heard that zombies are sensitive to sound!”
“Then this will do.”
Dick pulled a Music Box shaped like a musical instrument from his pocket dimension.
“I was preparing this prototype to sell, but there’s no helping it now.”
Dick wound the mechanism with practiced motions and released his hand, and the Music Box began playing loudly.
“Got any more?”
Simon pulled out three Skeletons and asked. Dick matched the number, producing two more Music Boxes.
“We don’t have much time!”
Kamibarez fired Blood Bullets in rapid succession, knocking down the approaching zombies and buying them precious seconds.
“Blocking their sight!”
Merin swung her arms, laying down Black Flame like a wall around them. Smoke billowed up with the flames, completely concealing the three of them.
‘I’m counting on you!’
Tap-tap!
Tap-tap-tap!
The Skeletons holding the Music Boxes burst through the flames and scattered, running off in three different directions. The zombie hordes, hearing the loudly echoing music, split in three ways to pursue it.
Now was the moment!
All four of them moved swiftly into the Sewers. Simon, the last to enter, closed the lid with a heavy click.
The moment the lid shut, thick darkness swallowed everything. All they could feel was the cold, rusted metal of the ladder they were gripping with all their strength.
“Is everyone all right?”
“Yes!”
After waiting a moment for their eyes to adjust to the darkness, Simon retrieved a Lantern from his pocket dimension.
Now they could see better. Simon was at the top of the ladder, with Kamibarez, Merin, and Dick climbing down in that order.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Rough footsteps echoed from directly above. The ceiling trembled and ghastly shrieks filled the air.
With only the ceiling between them and the horde, all four held their breath, tension coiling through their bodies.
Then, after a moment.
“……Are they gone?”
The noise above had faded. The footsteps ceased, as if the zombies had moved elsewhere entirely. Only then did they all exhale in relief.
“Now we have two choices.”
Dick spoke, his voice steadier now.
“Do we go back up, or do we go deeper down? Either way carries its own risk.”
“Hmm…”
Merin furrowed her brow in thought, but her eyes suddenly met Dick’s directly.
“Ah!”
Her face flushed red all at once, and she quickly grabbed the hem of her skirt.
“Where are you looking?!”
“Ah. Caught.”
“Caught? Don’t you dare say caught! Die! Just die already!”
“Ow! Hey! Hey! You got my nose! My nose!”
Merin grabbed her skirt with both hands and began kicking at his face viciously. Eventually, Richard ducked below the reach of her legs.
“Wow, you’re really trying to kill someone here! It’s dark anyway—all I can see is your outline!”
“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t be looking at it! You vulgar commoner!”
While the two of them bickered, Kamibarez let out a small sigh and looked up at Simon.
“What should we do, Simon?”
“Let’s head down. Staying here like this is difficult anyway, and if we go back up now, there will likely be zombies wandering nearby.”
The other two agreed with Simon’s words. They all carefully descended the stairs and stepped onto the sewers’ floor.
There was nothing unusual.
A dark corridor stretched endlessly before them, and the distinctive stench of the sewers mixed with the acrid smell of ammonia assaulted their nostrils. Beside the walkable section, foul black water trickled along the sewers with a faint gurgling sound.
“Well, this is actually fortunate.”
Merin folded her arms across her chest.
“We probably won’t find any materials worth gathering further up, so let’s just head straight down through the sewers into the deep parts of Deathland!”
Richard shook his head dubiously.
“Are you serious? There are already so many zombies near the entrance—if we go deeper, we might actually stumble into a real zombie nest.”
She smirked slightly.
“Scared?”
“Cough! N-Scared? I’m not scared! I’m just saying we should make rational decisions instead of acting on impulse!”
Richard and Merin turned their heads simultaneously to look at Simon, both of them seeming to say, “I’m right, aren’t I?”
Simon hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Merin’s right. I’d say the materials near the camp have already been picked clean.”
Class C had gone ahead of Class A, and according to what the club seniors had told them, students taking Professor Aaron’s Summoning class had come to Deathland in previous years as well. Of course, the camp’s location had always remained the same.
“So we need to go deeper, then?”
Simon nodded in response to Kamibarez’s question.
“Right. The fact that they gave us twelve hours for the practical assessment, that they had us move in groups, and that materials are inherently difficult to obtain—all of that is because of this, I think.”
Richard clicked his tongue and nodded in agreement.
“Fine, I’m convinced.”
“If we all work together, we’ll be fine!”
The four of them reached consensus.
Simon and his group walked through the sewers until they found another passage that would lead them back to the surface.
Simon observed the faces of his teammates. Perhaps still shaken from the zombie swarm’s ambush earlier, they now spoke with composure.
‘Pier.’
Simon pressed Pier’s avatar and spoke inwardly.
‘What do you think?’
[Kre-hehe! Well, zombies are such oddities even among the undead that I can’t hastily jump to conclusions just from observing their behavior!]
‘I see.’
[But still, I suppose I could venture a guess or two!]
Pier’s avatar’s mouth curled upward.
[The Legion Commander of the entire Legion—Prince! He might be the one orchestrating the zombies from behind the scenes!]
‘I was thinking the same thing. Tell me more about Prince’s abilities and personality in detail.’
Pier launched into an explanation as if he’d been waiting for this moment.
[Prince’s most essential ability is the Crown.]
‘The Crown?’
[When he wears the Crown, he can control undead of the same type as himself—that is, zombies!]
Simon nodded. It was like a watered-down version of the Legion Commander’s abilities, limited to controlling only zombies.
[The difference from the Legion Commander is that he can control zombies that haven’t undergone Legionization! With this ability, in Deathland where over ninety percent of all undead are zombies, he would truly reign like a king! That’s why I wanted to come to this place.]
‘I understand. Let me ask this differently then—would Prince be friendly toward the Legion?’
Pier took a moment before answering this question.
[I’m not certain. During the Richard Legion era, Prince was a moderate who was loyal to the Legion Commander. He seemed to harbor admiration for him.]
‘I see.’
[But as you know, the Legion didn’t end well. Whether Prince harbors any particular feelings now—well, we’d have to meet him to find out.]
If this massive zombie attack was truly Prince’s doing, and if the reason was that he’d recognized Simon as a Legion Commander…
Then Simon might have to crush Prince by force.
“Simon!”
Simon flinched and turned to look beside him. Kamibarez was smiling brightly.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. What did you want to ask?”
Dick suddenly thrust his head forward.
“What do you think of Merin’s brutality—breaking an innocent person’s face to a pulp simply because they were under her command?”
“…Please. Please just die. Please get hit by a carriage the moment we return to Kizen.”
They walked for quite some time after that.
By the time Simon’s legs were beginning to ache and he thought his nose had gone numb to the stench of the sewers—
“A ladder!”
At last they found a route leading back to the surface. Unlike the other places, the ladder here was in perfect condition.
“Let’s go.”
Simon went first, climbing the ladder.
Dick, next in line, bowed like a nobleman and shouted “Ladies first,” though he did get his hair yanked a few times by Merin—but it was nothing serious.
Dick climbed after Simon, and the female students followed.
Click.
Simon, having climbed all the way up, shoved the ceiling hard. The sky came into view, and a cool breeze brushed against his skin.
Simon hoisted himself up and out, then reached down to help his teammates emerge.
“Wow.”
Kamibarez, the last to climb out, let out a soft gasp of wonder.
“It’s so beautiful!”
They had escaped into the garden of a grand, luxurious mansion.
No zombies were visible here. It seemed someone had maintained this garden alone—the flowers and trees bloomed properly. After hours in the sewers, the fragrance of blossoms made his nose sing with joy.
“A place like this in Deathland…”
It was beautiful, certainly, but the Practical Assessment took priority over sightseeing.
“Let’s search the area.”
“Right.”
The four of them began combing through the garden.
[Boy.]
That was when Pier spoke to him.
[I sense traces of a broad-reaching barrier in this place.]
‘A barrier? What kind?’
[A blocking ward. It’s deactivated now, but there was once a presence that wanted to hide this location.]
“Kyaaah!”
While Simon was still focused on Pier’s words, Kamibarez suddenly screamed.
“What’s wrong? Kami!”
The three of them rushed toward her in a panic.
“Over… over there…!”
There was a person lying collapsed in the garden.
While the others hesitated to approach, Simon strode forward to examine the body. From the clothes, she appeared to be a maid who had worked in this mansion.
“Already dead. Long ago.”
A world that did not decay.
Though life had already left her, the corpse remained uncorrupted, preserved intact. It made the whole thing feel even more eerie.
“It might be better not to look…”
“Don’t underestimate me, Simon.”
Merin approached, her eyes hardening with determination.
“I’m a Necromancer too.”
Dick and Kamibarez stepped closer as well. Merin crouched boldly in front of the corpse, rummaging through the clothes to examine its condition.
“It meets the conditions for summoning magic from the textbooks. I could make it a zombie and avoid a zero score, but… this alone still feels insufficient.”
“Let’s search a bit more.”
They dispersed again and began searching the surrounding area.
This time it was Dick who called everyone over.
“Isn’t this enough for a Class A grade?”
Behind the mansion lay the corpse of what appeared to be a guard—a large man, nearly two meters tall. His entire frame was packed with well-developed muscle.
“Physically, the ideal specimen.”
“Yes.”
Yet hesitation was written all over their faces.
And no wonder—up until now, they had all used undead made from materials that someone else had already processed with magic.
But now they had to turn the corpse before their eyes into a zombie with their own hands.
The reason so many older students and seniors had described the Deathland experience as grueling likely wasn’t because of the zombies’ attacks.
“I’ll do it.”
Simon rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward, and Merin’s expression hardened.
“Wait, hold on! I can do it too!”
“I’m better at Summoning than you are. I got higher marks in Zombie Summoning Magic too.”
At the mention of grades, Merin’s mouth snapped shut.
Simon drew a deep breath and knelt before the corpse. He placed his palm against its chest.
‘Already dead. Don’t let emotion cloud this.’
The core of a Necromancer’s craft was pragmatism.
To win in battle, a Necromancer had to exploit everything at their disposal—corpses, bones, whatever lay at hand.
Simon summoned Dark Magic and began tracing a spell circle across the corpse’s chest.
‘Here we go.’
Both Skeletons and Zombies were elementary Undead. Yet even at Kizen and other Necromancer Schools, Summoning professors taught primarily through Skeleton instruction.
In this era of peace, some institutions avoided Zombie work altogether for the sake of their students’ sensibilities, or showed only those spawned from monsters.
Aaron was different.
He brought first-year, first-semester students to the Deathland and had them raise Zombies with their own hands. According to his educational philosophy, this was essential for any true Necromancer.
Perceive the fundamental nature.
Confront it.
Then transcend it.
A surgeon who cannot perform an autopsy will not survive. So too for a Necromancer—this is inevitable.
Simon breathed Dark Magic into the spell circle.
A deep, thrumming hum filled the air.
At last, a black spell circle blazed to life across the corpse’s chest.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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