Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 329
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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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Summoning Genius at Necromancer School — Chapter 329
The following morning brought Necromancy class, which for Simon meant a free period.
Tap. Click. Tap-tap. Tap. Click.
From early morning, Simon had been frantically covering the blackboard of the empty lecture hall with equations. His shirt collar swayed with each movement, and beads of sweat dripped steadily from his disheveled hair.
Tap-tap-tap.
On the final equation, the last stroke lengthened, stopped, and a period punctuated it with a sharp jab.
‘That’s it.’
Simon set down the chalk and sprinted toward the desk.
Four desks pushed together held a Skeleton Mage Set and a Magic Circle Sheet, all arranged and ready. Simon began meticulously correcting the formulas and circuitry of the Magic Circle while referencing the blackboard.
“The main circuit was the problem from the start.”
Simon’s Dark Element flowed into the Magic Circle, correcting the errors. New pathways formed, and the numerical values in the formulas shifted accordingly.
Once Simon finished the clean revision, he placed his hand on the Magic Circle again.
“Activate.”
Hum!
The Magic Circle sprang to life.
The Dark Element awakened the Rune Language, and the formulas refined the power of the runes. Across the circuitry spreading like a spider web from the center, the Dark Element flowed like a river, causing ten strokes to emit a beautiful luminescence.
‘So far so good.’
Simon’s gaze shifted from observing the Magic Circle’s state to the staff fixed on the desk.
He had connected the Magic Circle’s circuitry to this staff. If the magic flowed from the staff correctly, then this assembled undead skeleton would be capable of using the same magic.
‘Please work.’
A Magic Circle unfurled above the staff. And then—
Crack!
Black lightning erupted, and the Magic Circle crumbled to pieces.
“Ugh.”
Simon collapsed as well, feeling all the strength drain from his body in an instant.
“What’s wrong with it?”
Simon muttered hoarsely while staring at the blackboard.
A Magic Circle was an intricate ecosystem where everything was tightly connected.
Kill an insect, and the spiders and mantises that feed on it vanish; kill them, and the birds that hunt them vanish; kill those, and the snakes that eat the birds vanish in turn.
But the result glowing in Simon’s mind was: ‘I killed an insect and somehow the snakes went extinct.’
He couldn’t fathom how the causal chain between them had fractured.
Like drifting through an endless Möbius strip.
A towering wall loomed before him.
—When can you make a Lich?
He felt ashamed.
Here he was, unable even to complete a Skeleton Mage, yet he’d brazenly spoken of creating such a high-tier undead in front of Aaron.
“Ugh.”
Simon rubbed his flushed face vigorously and flopped onto the floor.
The ceiling of the empty classroom came into view. Wind whistled through, rustling his hair.
“Still.”
Staring vacantly at the curtains rippling in the breeze, Simon—whose face was haggard beneath dark circles—let out a small laugh.
“It’s fun.”
He shot up suddenly. Trying to clear his mind, the next wave of ideas came flooding in one after another.
Racing toward a goal was exhilarating. Sometimes his breath came short and his ankles creaked, but he knew this ordeal would end eventually. He knew the view from the summit would be breathtakingly beautiful.
“Let’s see who wins, me or this.”
Simon rushed to the blackboard and began substituting the corrective elements that had just occurred to him.
He’d talked about making a Lich, yet here he was already growing impatient. How ridiculous.
But this Skeleton Mage—he’d complete it with his own strength, no matter what.
* * *
“Mm, mm. Mm.”
Merin walked across the Campus Grounds with her sky-blue hair flowing, in good spirits.
Her mood today was not at all bad.
‘What’s gotten into him?’
Simon had asked her to meet just the two of them before the afternoon classes.
Without Dik, without Kamibarez—just the two of them.
It was unusual for him to do this, and it sent a flutter through her chest.
So she’d woken early to prepare. Today her hair felt silky, and her makeup had come out perfectly.
With her long hair flowing freely, Merin arrived at the empty lecture hall where they’d agreed to meet.
The door was slightly ajar.
‘?’
She peeked through the gap. There he was—Simon, visible in the doorway.
Sunlight streamed through the window, and a gentle breeze stirred the air as Simon lay slumped over his desk, fast asleep. The boy who never snored before was doing just that now, his breathing audible and steady.
She quietly slid the classroom door open and stepped inside.
Simon had turned his head to the side, resting it on his own arm. From this angle, his jawline and the curve of his neck were unmistakably defined.
‘He’s really out cold.’
With his mouth slightly open, oblivious to the world, Simon bore little resemblance to his usual composed self. He looked like nothing more than a neighborhood kid.
She felt the urge to poke his cheek with her forefinger and wake him, but he was sleeping so soundly that she held back.
Instead, she dragged a chair over and sat down directly across from him.
‘Mm.’
The wind had been strong today.
Simon’s blue hair swayed in the breeze like rippling waves, catching the light and shifting in tone—here and there a subtle shimmer, like colors bleeding across a painter’s palette.
As Merin gazed absently at his face, a faint warmth crept into her own cheeks.
‘Am I being weird?’
Preparing for any contingency, she reached out and waved her hand back and forth in front of his face.
There was no sign of him waking.
‘Sigh.’
She had summoned him here, only for him to fall dead asleep in the classroom like this. No sense of timing at all.
Well, it worked out. She settled in proper, crossing her legs and folding her arms, stretching her neck forward to get a better view.
Usually she felt too embarrassed and self-conscious to look at his face directly from this close.
‘…….’
When she gazed at Simon like this, still and quiet.
Pion came to mind.
She had pictured Pion—the one who saved her in Deathland—as frightening, terrifying, with an absolutely massive frame.
But when she encountered Pion again in the neutral territory of Kelso Village, he turned out to be somewhat leaner than she had imagined.
Yes, exactly like Simon is now.
‘I’m sure Pion’s Dark Element had that same dark blue tint.’
Her heartbeat quickened, her breathing grew shallow. She cupped her hands together to form a frame shape and brought it up in front of Simon’s face to look through.
‘Huh, when I look at it this way, they do seem kind of similar…….’
Just as she stretched her arm out to hold the frame up against him.
His eyes snapped open.
“Aaah! Waah—! Eeeek—!”
Merin let out a startled shriek, her whole body trembling. Her face flushed red all the way to her ears.
“?”
Confused for a moment, Simon simply blinked innocently before breaking into a smile.
“Oh, it’s you, Merin. I guess I dozed off.”
“Geez, you scared me!!”
She yelped, pressing both hands to her chest.
Her heart was racing wildly. To any observer, she was clearly the one at fault, but somehow her voice had grown louder anyway.
“Sorry.”
And Simon, as always, smiled and accepted her outburst without complaint.
“……Hmph.”
Merin quickly grabbed the chair and backed away, putting some distance between herself and Simon, then began fanning herself with her hand.
“So, why did you call me here anyway?”
Her head still turned away, she asked in a coy tone while letting her eyes dart sideways to glance at him.
He answered.
“I wanted to ask you something.”
‘!’
Why did that suddenly sound so loaded? But given Simon’s personality, it was absolutely, definitely not going in that direction!
“Actually, I’ve hit a wall with the Dark Element System Magic Circle. I was trying to work on a Cold Bolt Magic Circle earlier.”
Right, of course it wasn’t.
What were you expecting?
Fooled again.
Merin’s lips quivered in what might have been a smile or a pout.
“When I tried modifying the main circuit of the Magic Circle…….”
Oblivious to her frustration, Simon launched into an enthusiastic explanation of the Magic Circle, speaking rapidly. She pouted, finding herself irritated for some reason.
“……so the fundamental equation itself breaks down right there. Are you following so far?”
Merin let out a small sigh and rested her chin on her hand.
“That’s a circuit resistance problem.”
“Hm? I didn’t think resistance was an issue.”
“No, you fool! Listen to me!”
Somehow the two of them had rushed to the board and were now scribbling equations, each refuting the other’s work.
“No, that won’t work that way!”
Merin corrected Simon’s equation with heated intensity, and as she scrawled frantically through the formulas, a soft laugh escaped her lips.
‘I’ve become a Necromancer after all.’
The fact that she’d bolt toward the board like this over something so trivial proved it.
“What is it?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just watch—I’ll prove it to you!”
After some twenty minutes of debate, Merin emerged victorious. Simon recognized his error and felt the satisfying clarity of a proper solution.
It was only natural. By grades alone, she ranked second in all of Kizen—a true genius—and Dark Theory and the Dark Element System were her particular domains. The gap between them was so vast that Simon should have been embarrassed to challenge her at all.
Merin smiled with the ease of a victor.
“But why the Dark Element System all of a sudden? You’ve always done well with Summoning Magic and other things—why deliberately pick up a new form of attack now?”
“Oh, I was in the middle of crafting a Skeleton Mage.”
“Huh?”
Merin’s expression clouded with confusion.
“What are you talking about? We have the Skeleton Mage crafting lesson tomorrow—why are you making one on your own?”
“Well, it’s just… kind of like preview study.”
“You really do invite trouble onto yourself.”
Merin shook her head firmly, planting her hands on her hips.
“Anyway, since I helped you, buy me lunch? I used my head and now I’m starving.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
* * *
The next lesson was Professor Eric Aura’s Dark Theory class.
Dark Theory formed the foundation of Black Magic itself.
Even professors of other subjects would ask their students how far along they were in Dark Theory before adjusting their own curricula.
The equations and Rune Language students knew depended entirely on this course’s pace.
—Didn’t you learn this in Dark Theory?
It was one of the most common questions professors posed during class.
Though students like Merin who specialized in the Dark Element System could choose it as their major, Dark Theory remained mandatory. Thus professors never selected direct disciples for it.
“We’ll end the lesson here for today.”
The middle-aged man who taught this crucial Dark Theory course, Eric Aura, had earned the nickname “the Colorless, Odorless Professor.”
His ability and skill were acknowledged, but he was famous for being rigidly orthodox, injecting no personal flair into his lectures. He was an absolute theorist through and through.
His clean, austere classes—focused solely on transmitting knowledge—struck some students as bland compared to the flamboyant showmanship of star professors like Bahil or Hong Peng, who unconditionally drove student participation.
A course built entirely on theory, not practicum.
A subject that demanded spending the whole day staring at Magic Circles, Rune Language, and equations, racking your brain.
Yet all students understood its importance. Master it here, and you’d inevitably apply those formulas in every other class—it was a subject no one could afford to neglect.
“Thank you for your instruction!”
As class ended, students quickly filed out of the lecture hall.
Eric was tidying up when a student approached him.
“Yes, did you have a question——”
Turning to confirm who had come to ask, Eric was somewhat surprised.
The students who normally came asking about Dark Theory were always the same ones, but today was different.
“This is the first time you’ve come to me. Simon.”
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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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