Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 210
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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 Summoning Genius of the Necromancer School — Chapter 210
Test Command Center.
The two ravens, who moments before had looked ready to tear into each other, had called a truce to their mind games. Now they sat facing each other in chairs, enjoying tea time.
“Ah, you should have mentioned he was your direct disciple.”
Evangelous, who had been gulping down hot tea, added the words while gauging Bahil’s reaction.
“Then I would’ve been inclined to go easy on him too.”
“He is not my direct disciple.”
At Bahil’s reply, Evangelous’s expression shifted to one of surprise.
“Is that so? I thought you were the type who had to possess whatever caught your fancy—that it was necessary for your nature to be satisfied.”
“You flatter me. Besides, this school isn’t as simple a place as all that.”
Evangelous clicked his tongue.
“Hah! Has the vicious Bahil truly gone soft? If you’re annoyed by the other professors’ interference, why not slap a subtle curse on this Simon fellow—one he won’t notice?”
Bahil took a sip of his own hot tea. Finding it scalding, he removed the bowler hat from his head and set it on the table.
“Special Exemption Number One is a student under the direct watch of Neftis herself. It would be far too dangerous to try winning a student’s heart through curses. And more than that—”
Bahil tilted his head back.
“I dislike it.”
“Oh?”
“A genius is a complex entity. Intelligence, experience, values, temperament, parental discipline—these amalgamate and achieve a particular balance, and only then does a true genius emerge. Why would I mar such a masterpiece by introducing flaws of my own making? I wish to teach a person, not a doll.”
Bahil, who had been speaking at length, suddenly contorted his face monstrously and flicked his tongue.
“I wish for him to trust me sincerely and follow me. To revere me with his whole heart, to understand my philosophy and purpose from the depths of his chest, and to become a disciple with whom I can speak freely about the very essence of the world.”
Truly a pervert, Evangelous thought.
But he did not voice it aloud.
“Seeing how obsessed you are with him reminds me of when you were a new professor—how you used to trail after that female student majoring in Poison Magic, saying how badly you wanted to teach her.”
“Ah, you mean Chehekul? She now works as my chief assistant. A most capable talent.”
“In any case, you’re utterly unhinged.”
Evangelous shifted the subject, turning his gaze to the screen.
“But about the final stage—even I, the chief supervisor, cannot interfere. What will you do now?”
Before the entrance leading to Kizen Campus Grounds, a final gate awaited Simon.
“I have done what I can do. Now it rests entirely upon Simon’s shoulders.”
Bahil spoke matter-of-factly.
“If he is truly the talent to become my chosen disciple, he will overcome this trial as well.”
* * *
Simon, riding a Golem Board, was ascending a road he knew far too well.
The very path connecting Kizen Campus and Rochester. If he veered slightly to the side here, he would reach the Forbidden Forest, and beyond it, Pier’s Ruins.
He had arranged to meet Pier and Erzsebet at the ruins once the break ended. The reunion with both of them was something he looked forward to.
‘Will both of them be here in Rocksum?’
It seemed unlikely, but if Efnel truly had launched an assault on Kizen, Simon planned to first verify the state of the campus, then immediately change course toward Pier’s Ruins.
A long-awaited return of Pion. With both Erzsebet and Prince deployed, he intended to face the Priests with the power of a Legion Commander.
As Simon, eager now, accelerated the Golem’s speed—
Whoosh!
From the sky, a Priest’s Holy Spear hurtled toward him.
One Holy Spear was nothing. Simon tried to dodge by accelerating, but the spear moved with an oddly leisurely speed, falling smoothly until—thunk!—it pierced the Golem Board with ease.
‘…?!’
His vision suddenly shot skyward.
The Holy Spear had tunneled through the Golem Board’s body and driven into the ground. Simon’s body flew upward from the momentum.
‘What? The spear’s trajectory bent?’
Bang-crash-bang!
Simon’s body came crashing down hard against the earth. He bounced like a ball several times before tumbling through grass, the taste of soil and blood mingling in his mouth, his head spinning wildly.
After rolling several times, his body finally stilled. Amid the rising dust, Simon coughed and pushed his upper body upright.
His once-pristine black School Uniform was now covered entirely in dirt, and every bone in his body screamed with pain.
‘Ugh.’
Moreover, from botching the landing, his left arm wouldn’t move properly. In the worst possible condition, Simon lifted his head.
Standing in the center of the path leading to Kizen Campus Grounds was an elderly man.
He looked like an immortal sage presiding over a lofty mountain.
He wore a white martial robe, one hand clasped behind his back, the other fanning himself.
White whiskers and gray hair, deep wrinkles etched across his face. From him, Simon sensed a vast current of Holiness.
‘A Priest. And one far beyond any I’ve met before.’
The elderly man, who radiated a final-boss sort of aura, opened his mouth.
“Young Necromancer. You cannot proceed any further from here.”
His voice was grave and kind, yet laced with something ominous and cloying.
“If you wish to preserve that precious life of yours, I suggest you turn back now.”
Simon gritted his teeth and lowered his stance.
“That’s not possible.”
A subspace tore open, and skeletons and zombies poured forth in a torrent.
Several of the skeletons outfitted Simon’s legs with Bone Armor, and fitted it to his motionless left arm as well. Vast waves of Inner Force flowed from Simon’s body.
“Step aside, please.”
‘Interesting.’
The old man’s eyes flickered with surprise as he regarded Simon.
The impact had been considerable, and though the boy’s breath came in ragged gasps, his eyes still burned with life.
‘Fine spirit. That gaze is tempered steel.’
Children with such eyes at that age were rare. The old man’s mood brightened, and he spoke with newfound cheer.
“Flight is a form of courage too. You’re no fool—you can sense the difference in our strength.”
Simon kept his mouth shut and began to move his Bone Armor-clad arms and both legs, assuming a combat stance. It was the preparatory form of Combat Magic.
The old man accepted Simon’s challenge. He folded the scroll and tucked it behind his belt at his back, then stretched his arm toward empty air.
Holiness gathered in his palm, transforming into a long sword well over a meter in length.
Whish! Whish!
The Holy Sword sang through the air with an eerie, cutting edge. After two light test swings, the old man brought the blade forward and spoke.
“Come at me.”
Thud!
Simon pushed off the ground and charged forward. His right fist, sheathed in Bone Armor, rocketed toward the old man, who pivoted easily and swept his blade in response.
Clang!
The Holy Sword collided with the Bone Armor, sending sparks scattering.
Simon’s eyes widened. From that single strike alone, the Bone Armor had cracked, and his Darkness Element had been extinguished.
‘But—’
The punch was a feint. Simon pivoted on his extended left arm like an axis, flowing seamlessly into a rotation driven by his right leg—one of his signature combinations.
Clang!
Yet again, the old man dispatched him with a casual swing, shattering the Bone Boots. As the old man’s leg swept toward Simon’s ribs, the boy flew backward and tumbled across the ground.
“Your movements are too broad.”
The old man summoned Holiness into his palm.
Hum!
Transparent panes of hardened Holiness unfurled in the air. The old man swung his blade through them, shattering them into countless pieces that scattered outward like shards of glass.
‘A ranged attack!’
Simon quickly pushed off the ground and rolled away. Watching the holy fragments embed themselves in the earth made his heart sink.
“You have much to learn.”
The old man created several more panes in the air, then strolled past them with one hand clasped behind his back, sweeping his blade in broad arcs. A deluge of holy fragments cascaded toward Simon.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
The Bone Armor shredded and crumbled at the touch of each fragment. When several pieces struck Simon’s body, he let out an anguished cry and smashed his head into the ground.
‘Hmm. I was careful not to damage the Core, yet perhaps I went too far.’
The old man maintained a grave expression, though privately he felt a twinge of regret.
And yet—
‘…No, wait.’
Simon lay with his head pressed to the ground, his body trembling violently.
‘…It actually doesn’t hurt at all. Is this really all right?’
Desperate acting.
He’d used this exact performance against Phlema once before, so he had experience feigning pain from Holiness.
If this was a Kizen examination with observers watching, then if it became known that Holiness didn’t affect an Efnel priest—that would be his trump card, and it couldn’t be exposed too easily.
Simon gritted his teeth and forced out a strained voice.
“Now it’s my turn!”
While Simon bought time, skeletons that had withdrawn from the forest and encircled the old man on both sides began to wield their weapons.
The old man swung his blade several times without moving from his position. Silver arcs of light slashed through the air in succession, and all the skeletons went flying in different directions.
‘Not yet!’
Simon’s concentration surged upward.
‘It’s not over!’
The skeletons that had been hurled by the sword began to scatter, disintegrating into dozens of bones. All but the parts severed by the Holy Sword reassembled themselves and rushed forward together.
It was Bone Nail, one of Simon’s signature techniques.
‘And here—’
Whoooosh!
Six Overload blades erupted from the subspace.
A combined assault of Bone Nail and Overload—such a relentless onslaught from all directions that no human with two arms and two legs could possibly evade it.
“Forcing him into a position where he can’t escape is well and good, but it’s hardly the best strategy against a Priest.”
The old man raised a Holy Sword before him and traced a sacred symbol. A Holy Barrier unfurled around his body, and every assault was deflected.
Simon gasped for breath and withdrew the Overload.
“And the reason you’re drawing his attention with such elaborate theatrics.”
The old man’s head turned.
“Would be those zombies you quietly sent off to the side earlier, yes? When were you planning to use them?”
Simon’s back grew slick with sweat.
‘He saw through everything.’
That calm composure born from experience was utterly terrifying. His opponent revealed not the slightest opening—no variable, no gap to exploit.
‘Still, there’s one thing I have over him.’
Simon slowly raised his right arm, extending it toward the direction where the zombies waited.
“You’ve never been to Rocksum before, have you?”
The boy was smiling. The old man regarded him with interest.
“True enough. But how is that supposed to matter?”
“Knowledge of the terrain.”
A Corpse Detonation Magic Circle bloomed in Simon’s palm.
This was mountainous country. The path he’d traveled countless times on trips down to Rochester sat on unstable ground—on rainy days, soil would cascade down and choke the road with debris.
The servants had reinforced the rocky boundary with timber barriers.
‘Collapse that with enough force, and—’
Simon clenched his fist as though pressing the ignition switch of a bomb.
Rumble… rumble… rumble!
A series of thunderous explosions. The ground shook violently as if seized by an earthquake, and a massive torrent of earth and rock came pouring down from the right.
“!!”
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
The landslide buried the old man first. He raised a Holy Barrier in place, and the cascading debris obscured everything before him in a thick haze.
‘Hah! He’s caught it for certain!’
While the old man maintained his barrier, Simon had already constructed a new Golem Board and was racing across the torrent of soil.
“Now!”
Simon’s eyes blazed with concentration.
“For the entrance!”
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
In truth, the landslide wasn’t particularly large in scale. But the old man, unfamiliar with the terrain, had simply anchored a barrier firmly in place, and Simon had turned that crisis into opportunity.
That single difference had opened a vast gulf between them.
‘I did it!’
Now it was a straight shot to the Kizen Campus Grounds. The familiar entrance appeared ahead, and the gate hung open.
The moment Simon passed through the entrance.
Roooaaaaarrrrr!
A deafening roar erupted like a thunderbolt, jolting Simon back to awareness.
‘?!’
He halted the board and looked around, his eyes widening sharply.
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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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