Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 385

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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 of the Necromancer School — Episode 385
A creature resembling a turtle by continental standards, its body protected by a shell of mineral scales.
Though it was somewhat large, Simon—who had hunted every manner of vicious monster across the continent—expected the fight to be straightforward.
But then.
“……Huff, haah. Haah!”
Thirty minutes into combat already.
Simon hadn’t managed to fell even a single monster yet, and he was groaning with effort.
-Clack!
-Clack-clack!
The skeletons surrounded the creature and swung their blades, but the moment they struck the mineral shell covering its entire body, they bounced away uselessly.
Behind them, a skeleton archer loosed arrows, and beside it a Skeleton Mage unleashed Dark Blaze. Neither arrows nor magical fire made any impression on the monster.
Its defense was practically impenetrable.
‘Gate Opening!’
While the skeletons drew its attention, Simon targeted the creature’s joints with the Overlord’s Tentacle Blade.
The blade scraped sharply across the monster’s limb but left not so much as a scratch. Not just the shell, but every inch of its skin was composed of mineral-like material.
‘Then what about—’
Simon stepped back and completed a magical circle, extending his finger. If physical attacks won’t work, then curses will decide this.

Ting!
But the mineral covering this creature’s entire body deflected even the curse.
“……What on earth is this thing?”
He hadn’t expected all his attacks to fail so completely.
At that moment, the monster burst through the skeletal ranks and charged straight at Simon.
Simon quickly concentrated Dark Element into both legs and opened a Subspace.
“Help me out, Herseba!”
[Little one!]
A staff flew from the Subspace and landed squarely in Simon’s grip. At the same moment, he pushed off hard with his knees and leaped into the air.
The Life Vessel’s Dark Element recovery rate was slower than an ordinary human’s core. It pained him to summon her this early, but he had no choice.
Hanging in the air above the creature, Simon brought Herseba down with all his strength toward its shell.
“Aurification!”
Clang!
But.
Even Herseba’s anomaly failed to turn the shell to gold.
[Ow! That hurt, little one!]
“Gugh!”
The failed strike sent Simon tumbling across the shell’s surface.
‘How is this even possible?’
Physical attacks wouldn’t work, magic wouldn’t work, curses wouldn’t work, and even anomalies bounced off uselessly.
And it was just one ordinary monster—not even a Dungeon Master.
The frustration of seeing every technique he’d worked so hard to master fail him nagged at the edges of his mind, but Simon quickly set his emotions aside and focused.
‘This is a dungeon.’
Before coming here, Simon had read extensively about dungeons in the Kizen Library. Interestingly, every dungeon explorer he’d read seemed to emphasize one particular thing above all else.
It wasn’t the strength to protect yourself, nor the experience to read a dungeon, nor the intuition to make sound judgments.
It was what people commonly called “mental fortitude.”
-A dungeon is a separate world.
-Do not assume that the rules governing your previous world will naturally apply here.
-A creature that walks proudly across the land, however large and mighty, becomes weaker than a handful of sluggish sea anemones if it falls into the ocean.
-Reset all your common sense and think anew.
Just as something began to crystallize in his mind, the monster noticed Simon perched on its shell and began thrashing about violently.
“Whoa!”
Simon flailed his arms to keep his balance. One slip and he’d be crushed beneath its massive feet.
[Unh! Uhhgh-nn? Ugh-mnyah!]
Herseba clamped her jaws around the fabric of Simon’s shirt to keep from being flung away, crying out through gritted teeth.
“Let’s pull back for now. I need time to think!”
There was no need to force the issue or stubbornly pin it down right this moment, he decided.
Simon drew Herseba into his Subspace, then fired Cloud toward a distant tree.
The emerald cord wound around the trunk, and Simon pushed off the monster’s shell with both feet, swinging up and away along the line.
The creature was still thrashing, unaware that Simon had left its back.

* * *
Rocksum.
Kizen Grand Hall.
“This is absolute chaos.”
Conrad, the announcer, clicked his tongue in dismay.
A low-quality feed from an observer had just been pulled from the dungeon and displayed on the screen, and the sight was nothing short of a total disaster.
The students had been brimming with confidence. They’d grown immeasurably since their first year admission, and they carried a profound pride in their own abilities.
But that pride and confidence shattered to pieces within mere minutes of entering the dungeon.
The Kizen students who had bounded about so boldly, declaring they’d capture the Dungeon Master, couldn’t even defeat a single small rabbit-like monster and were now drowning in frustration.
The more arrogant and overconfident students were the ones who showed this tendency most acutely.
“Die, die!!”
“Why won’t it go down? Why?!”
A student frantically unleashing Dark Flame Arts at a monster, burning through their dark energy reserves in a frenzy.
“Aaaaaargh!”
There was also a student who’d fought recklessly from the start and broke their arm within hours, now fleeing in defeat. Parents in the audience let out sighs of disappointment.
“Professor Hong Peng! What are your thoughts on this situation?”
“In the ‘prairie’ where I was born and raised, there’s a saying.”
Hong Peng continued in a measured voice.
“When you enter the prairie, follow the prairie’s law.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
“There are many continentals who come to the prairie yet try to disturb villages and despoil nature by flaunting their native titles and wealth. It’s a saying for such people.”
In the prairie, there is no hierarchy. Above there exists only the great natural world, and beneath it stand equal, individual people.
“The same applies to these students who have entered the dungeon.”
Hong Peng rested his chin on his hand and released a soft sigh.
“Those who enter the dungeon must follow the dungeon’s law.”

* * *
Day two in the dungeon.
Crunch. Crunch.
Simon sat on the ground, chewing a high-calorie chocolate bar.
‘I’ve been rationing, at least.’
The provisions he’d brought would only last two days.
At this rate, if he didn’t hunt monsters to eat, he might actually starve to death. Having savored the precious calorie bar, Simon now turned his attention to an artifact lying on the ground beside him.
A device called the Life Spring Artifact—if left anywhere while he slept, it would absorb moisture from the air and convert it into drinkable water.
Kizen had provided one to all students, but it had to be returned after the exam. Losing it meant paying two thousand gold.
‘At least I don’t have to worry about water.’
Simon drank the water that had accumulated in the artifact with gratitude. His thirst vanished instantly, and his condition improved.
He carefully transferred every last drop of remaining water into his water skin, then rose to his feet.
“All right, let’s try again!”
Simon spoke to himself as if making a solemn pledge, and approached a tree in front of him.
After a full day, he’d come to realize that nearly all flora and fauna in this world were covered in some mysterious substance called “mineral.”
In the case of plants, it extended from the roots through the branches, even to the fruits and leaves.
While the hardness and elasticity varied slightly depending on the part, it was all composed of the same mineral material. The interior was constructed so that it couldn’t be carelessly damaged.
‘Moreover, why do the plants in this dungeon look so unsettling?’
They bore faint traces that resembled eyes, a nose, and a mouth, which made him uncomfortable for no clear reason.
Simon pushed aside his wandering thoughts, then placed his hand against the mineral bark. Carefully, he tried to channel dark energy through it.
Ting-! Ting-!
Blue-green energy burst outward, crackling. The mineral repelled or expelled any form of external force whatsoever.
If there were any way to penetrate the dark energy, he could confirm a strategy, but he was blocked at the source from the start.
‘It’s not a defense mechanism. The material itself simply repels any force from outside the dungeon.’
Simon withdrew his hand from the tree and drew a Magic Circle on his palm.
Call Fire
He held the small flame to the tree’s surface, waited, then touched it again.
The surface was hot, but shortly after, it expelled even that heat and returned to its original state. There was no charring or any sign of contraction.
Cold Bolt
Cold was the same. It seemed temperature couldn’t overcome it either.
Beyond that, Simon tried applying electrical shock and even poured the contents of a Potent Poison Potion on it, but nothing worked.
At this point, it was practically invincible mineral.
If this new material spread beyond the dungeon, wouldn’t it cause a continental upheaval?
Of course, it was common knowledge that things brought out of a dungeon lost their efficacy dramatically outside it.
“…What do I do now?”
He was deep in thought when a sudden crack echoed through the air, and Simon’s brow furrowed.
The mental connection had been severed.
Since it meant one of the Skeletons he’d stationed for reconnaissance had been destroyed, Simon spun around urgently.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The turtle-shaped monster he’d first encountered when entering the dungeon was charging straight at him.
Of course, it wasn’t the same individual he’d fought before. This was the most populous monster species in the forest.
“Out of the way!”
Simon leaped into the air, channeling Dark Element through his feet. The turtle monster rushed past him and drove its head into a tree.
Crack!
The mineral-encrusted tree that Simon couldn’t have hoped to destroy was pulverized and toppled in a single blow.
Simon landed and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
‘Its raw power isn’t overwhelming, though.’
Perhaps the dungeon’s flora and fauna could actually harm each other.
The monster turned its head toward Simon and charged again, kicking up clouds of dust.
‘Huh?’
Simon’s eyes widened. He could see that the ore covering the monster’s forehead was cracked.
…….
Watching this, Simon—who had been lost in contemplation—finally lifted the corners of his mouth into a smile.
“Could that be it?”
Whoosh!
Simon rolled to the side to evade, then pulled a fruit from his Subspace—the one he’d collected on the first day.
He’d been storing it, thinking he’d eat it once he learned how to break through minerals.
“With this!”
Simon extended his arm. The bones of the Skeletons standing by in the area rapidly covered his right forearm.

He temporarily amplified his arm’s strength using Bone Armor, then gripped the fruit and hurled it with all his might.
Crack!
As the fruit collided with the monster’s head, it shattered into pieces—and at that same instant, the mineral casing on the creature’s skull fractured severely.
Thunk. Tap.
Watching the debris fall, Simon confirmed his hypothesis.
“In the dungeon, follow the dungeon’s rules.”
Simon walked over and lifted the tree the monster had just demolished.

Roar!
A combat spell he hadn’t used in a while. Dark Element surged through Simon’s entire body, maximizing his physical capabilities. As the enormous tree lifted effortlessly, he charged toward the rushing monster.
Leap!
He bounded and climbed onto the creature’s shell.
“Haaaaaaaa!”
With all his strength, he brought the tree crashing down onto the carapace.
Boom!
The moment tree and shell collided, the minerals flashed brilliantly—and both shattered to pieces.
“That’s it!”
The two minerals barely responded to external force, but when they struck each other with sufficient impact, a strange resonance occurred, causing both to fracture proportionally.
He’d discovered it because the monster had driven itself into the tree. He’d been fortunate.
Simon pressed his two index fingers together, aiming them at the monster’s exposed flesh beneath the shattered carapace.
Then he unleashed a volley of Curses he’d prepared.

Only the outer surface was protected by ore; the interior was fully susceptible to Black Magic.
As Exgust’s stacks accumulated, the wavering turtle monster soon collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
“I’m sorry.”
Immediately, six tentacle blades burst forth from the Subspace around Simon.
“I’ll make it painless.”
The blades drove into the monster’s head at terrifying speed.
As the creature finally went limp, Simon dropped to one knee, breathing heavily with exertion.
The backlash from Dark Energy Internal Eruption left him exhausted and gasping, yet a deep smile played across his lips.
“Now I’m getting somewhere.”
It felt like he’d taken a significant step forward in this dungeon.

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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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