Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 366

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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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Necromancer School’s Summoning Genius Chapter 366
[So, you’re my creator?]
A historic moment.
Simon gazed at this Undead he had created, feeling an emotion that defied description.
It was speaking.
It was moving.
The Lich, with a skeletal frame encased in crystal and a face that was simply an ordinary skull, twisted its body this way and that, then crossed its boneless legs and swept one skeletal hand through the empty air where hair would have been.
[But your creator is still so young? That’s hilarious. How old are you?]
“……?”
Was this Lich a female Undead?
The Lich uncrossed its legs and rose from where it stood.
Thump-thump.
The Life Vessel beat like a drum, drawing in the surrounding mana, transmuting it into Dark Element, and supplying it to its entire form and the Magic Circle.
An Undead that maintained its own vitality without Simon accessing its Mental Connection, without him granting it Dark Element.
‘I made this?’
Excitement surged through him, impossible to contain.
Since beginning his studies in Summoning Magic, he had never felt such a sensation of awe.
If there hadn’t been Ancient Undead nearby, he might have jumped around and shouted with pure joy.
Just then, the Lich drew close and raised Simon’s chin with a skeletal finger.
[You’re cute, I’ll admit that. But a little too young for my taste. Outside my usual range.]
“……?”
He’d done nothing, yet his own creation had just rejected him.
At that moment, Erzsebet, who had been standing with her arms crossed in clear displeasure, spoke with irritation.
[How dare you, barely formed thing! Remove your hands from our Legion Commander this instant!]
The Lich’s head turned.
[What’s this? Is that a spider? Why is there a spider wearing a School Uniform? That’s hilarious.]
A vein bulged on Erzsebet’s forehead, hard and rigid. Achemous gripped her shoulder, urging her to calm down, but she let out a furious shout.
[How dare a newly formed Undead speak this way to an Ancient Undead! Do you want to be unmade the moment you’re born?]
[You’re strange, older sister. Is there really a hierarchy among Undead based on the order of death?]
“Enough, enough.”
Simon clapped his hands to clear the tension.
“My name is Simon Polentia. I created you. What should I call you?”
Even as he said this, Simon secretly hoped he’d be the one to give the Lich its name.
[Herseba.]
The Lich placed a hand on its chest bone and spoke.
[My name is Herseba.]
Perhaps because he had used such an expensive heart, this Lich possessed an extraordinarily strong sense of identity.
“Do you still have memories from before you died?”
[Of course!]
Herseba crossed her arms and smiled—or at least, that’s what Simon thought. Unlike Pier, that skull showed no change in expression.
[But now that I’m Undead, it just doesn’t matter anymore! I’m born anew! The feeling of being freed from this heavy flesh! Isn’t it wonderful?]
She began singing “La-la-la” and spinning in place, dancing.
The Ancient Undead stepped back to give her space, and Simon scratched his head.
[Hey, Simon!]
Prince fixed Simon with a stern expression.
[Did you make this correctly? Because it looks like you built a Lich with a screw loose!]
“I-I’m sure I made her properly.”
Perhaps Herseba had been a ballerina in her past life. The gracefully spinning skeleton tapped its finger against the wall.
[Hmm?]
When nothing happened, she tapped the wall again, then began poking it repeatedly with her finger, harder this time.
[What’s this! What’s going on!]
She cried out in alarm.
[Where did my abilities go! Why aren’t they working!]
“Oh, a Lich manifests magic through a staff. I’ll connect you with one shortly.”
[You scared me! Hurry up!]
Simon retrieved the final component.
An elegant, elongated case. The moment he opened it, a staff with independent movement—Areldelú—flew up with a sound like “Tee-hee-hee.”
“Please hold it.”
Not wanting Areldelú to run off and cause more trouble, he asked Pier to keep hold of it.
The moment it was in Pier’s hand, Areldelú became docile as though transformed.
‘Fine. I’ll even use my best staff.’
Simon drew the final magic circle.

* * *
As Simon finished the last details, he recalled his conversation with Benya Vanilla.
—Ah, a staff? Just use the highest quality one you’ve got.
Simon tilted his head in confusion.
—But since we’ve decided on Herseba’s heart as the core material, shouldn’t we find a staff that actually complements it?
—And how would we know whether it suits the heart or not?
—…
He had a point.
—The Lich’s Three Elements arrangement is basically just taking the three best materials you have and hoping for the best result. You’re working alone, the Life Vessel success rate is what it is, and Lich creation requires a lot of luck anyway.
—So that’s just how it works.
In the end, Simon chose Areldelú as the staff the Lich would wield.
The most expensive staff he owned.
It was a truly rare artifact with both Black Magic and Curse embedded in its core—a natural choice. Benya had even said it was the best option available.
But then.
[Shrieeeeeeeeeek!]
Watching what unfolded before him, Simon felt the faintest twinge of regret about that decision.
[You—you dare try to take my body? You’re dead!]
—Cackle cackle cackle!
The moment their mental connections linked, the Lich and the staff began to fight.
Because Herseba had such a strong sense of self, and because Areldelú also had a consciousness embedded within it, the two entities clashed frantically over dominion of the same body.
Crack! Crack!
Sparks erupted everywhere, and darkness coiled around itself like a vortex.
Pier’s Ruins shook as if it might collapse, rumbling ominously.
[Shouldn’t we stop them?]
Prince, pressed flat against the wall in panic, shouted.
But Pier shook his head.
[Once the mental connection has begun, if we intervene, both will be in danger.]
It was utter chaos. The staff and the Lich grappled with each other, wrestling.
The skull shrieked “Get lost!” and then went limp, suddenly jerking upright again with a strange cackling laugh.
Then it sagged once more, and Herseba’s voice erupted: “A mere staff?!”
This went on for about thirty minutes.
Boom!
A tremendous explosion sent the swirling darkness radiating outward in all directions.
Then silence fell.
Everyone who had retreated as far as possible toward the walls looked around in bewilderment.
Prince spoke irritably.
[Promise me, Simon. This was the last Lich you’re ever making.]
[Could it be that using such expensive materials caused the problem?]
Simon coughed and raised his head.
‘Who won?’
At the center of the explosion, he could see the Lich collapsed limply, and the staff lying on the ground.
Fortunately, the Life Vessel continued its steady thump-thump, so it appeared intact.
[Ha!]
Then Herseba’s voice rang out.
[I won! I won! I crushed that accursed staff! Kyahahaha!]
So said the staff, bouncing frantically—then it suddenly stopped, noticing something was wrong.
[What?! What?! What?! What is this?!]
Herseba’s consciousness was inside Areldelú. The staff cried out, launching itself into the air.
[How did this happen?! Why am I in this creature’s body?!]
But Areldelú’s consciousness seemed to have dissipated during the fight—the Lich’s body remained motionless.
Simon hurried over to check the Lich’s condition.
It was intact.
The Life Vessel beat normally.
[Wake up! Wake up, my body!]
Herseba sobbed frantically, trying to move the Lich’s limbs, but only the Life Vessel pulsed—the arms and legs hung limp and unresponsive.
[It’s ruined! It’s ruined! What is this?!]
In her panic, she careened through the air, and unfamiliar with this new form, crashed hard into the wall.
“……?!”
Simon’s eyes flew open at the sight.
The wall where the staff had struck it turned golden.
[Sob! Wail!]
Thud! Thud!
Each time the staff’s tip touched the wall, it transformed to gold, and even the stone fragments falling from the ceiling became golden the moment they contacted the staff, cascading down in a glittering shower.
Simon’s expression darkened with sudden gravity.
‘This is Herseba’s……!’
He’d heard about it from Benya Vanilla.
The reason Herseba’s heart had been abnormally expensive was that she had been “an entity capable of using Special Abilities” within the dungeon. And even after death, with proper measures taken, she had become a very rare case where that Special Ability manifested through the skull and heart itself.
Benya Vanilla had predicted two outcomes.
Either she’d become a Lich using ordinary Black Magic by consuming Dark Element.
‘……Or she’d become a Lich using Special Abilities with Dark Element.’
His entire body trembled with a chill.
Simon quickly checked his own condition. The surroundings were turning golden, but his own Dark Element wasn’t being consumed.
He turned his head to see Dark Element being drained from the Lich’s Life Vessel.
‘As I thought!!’
His mind raced, constructing multiple hypotheses in rapid succession.
It was said that when Special Ability users became Necromancers, they consumed Dark Element to use their abilities.
Serne, Lorain, and Neftis had all operated that way.
But just now, when the summoned creature used her ability, it was the Lich’s Life Vessel’s Dark Element that was consumed—not Simon’s own.
‘This is incredible.’
Only her mind had gone into the staff; as a Lich, she was functioning properly.
‘Wouldn’t this actually be better?’
A Lich’s greatest weakness was that if the Life Vessel broke, the Dark Element expenditure and resource cost became astronomical.
That was why Summoners either deployed Liches only at critical moments, or wrapped them in defensive Black Magic first before using them. The offensive power suffered as a result, but it was a price they paid.
But if that chronic weakness of Liches disappeared? A smile spread unbidden across Simon’s face.
[Sobbing! I’m ruined! I’m leaving!]
Herseba herself, now a staff, remained in despair regardless. She tried to launch herself into the air.
“Wait, hold on!”
Simon leaped up and grabbed the staff. Herseba still wailing, shot skyward.
‘Whoa!’
Simon gripped the staff with both hands.
Passing through the ceiling where moonlight descended, Herseba burst out of Pier’s Ruins in an instant and soared endlessly upward.
‘So high!’
Looking down made him dizzy. Simon tapped the staff’s body urgently as he spoke.
“Calm down! Herseba!”
[Do I look calm to you? My beautiful body, how could it……!!]
That skull wasn’t particularly beautiful either.
The moment he had that thought, the Dark Element in the staff cut out with a soft pop.
‘Oops!’
They’d drifted too far from the body housing the Lich; the Dark Element supply had been severed.
Simon and Herseba’s bodies lurched violently, then plummeted under gravity.
[Ahhhhhhh!]
Simon shut his eyes tight, cradling the staff, and turned his back to take the impact.
He felt himself scraping and striking trees all around. Simon gathered Dark Element across his entire body to shield his back.
Crash!
A massive cloud of dust rose from where Simon and Herseba landed.
“Ugh.”
Simon pushed himself up on his elbows, grimacing. Herseba fell silent for a moment, stunned from the impact.
Now that he looked, since Areldelú served as the base, the staff had eyes and a mouth.
‘Where are we now?’
The Forbidden Forest was larger and broader than he’d thought. And making a loud noise like that was dangerous.
There was a chance of running into Wardens on patrol, and more than that——
—Growl.
—Growl.
The Forbidden Forest had many monsters.
Werewolves drawn by the commotion were converging from all directions.
[Eek! W-wolves!]
Herseba jumped and burrowed directly into Simon’s arms.
Simon smoothed his hand across her form in a gesture of reassurance.
“Don’t worry, Herseba.”
[What—what are you doing? Get rid of it, quick!]
The moment Simon grasped Herseba in his hand, an odd exhilaration surged through him. More than anything, he felt the Dark Element flowing from her once more.
‘It’s because we’re closer to the main body again.’
Simon held Herseba steady in one hand and raised her like a blade. The werewolves crouched lower, their postures sharp with wariness.
“Herseba, we fight with your power now.”
[What—what?]
Simon smiled grimly.
“Tell me in detail about the Special Ability you possess.”

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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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