Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 388

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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 388
The riddles of the dungeon are slowly unraveling.
He’d long wondered how the monsters here replenished their energy without consuming food, and now he knew: when their strength ran out, they transformed into plants, rocks, or other natural matter of the dungeon.
Then, after waiting in that state for a time, some unknowable presence would directly touch them with white nerve-like tendrils, transferring energy to them.
Simon believed this unknowable presence was the Dungeon Master—the boss monster. Only such a being could orchestrate the ecosystem of this world.
And there was a way to come into contact with that presence.
‘Act like a monster.’
If he sat still, maintaining concentration without moving, the presence he suspected to be the Dungeon Master would send white tendrils resembling nerve cells.
But the moment they made contact, the Dungeon Master would realize Simon wasn’t a monster and flee. Still, a vivid impression of the direction it had gone remained seared into his senses.
He simply had to keep walking in that direction. It was a kind of compass.
Whenever he lost the sense or became confused, he’d repeat the process, deceiving the Dungeon Master and recapturing the trail.
It had taken considerable trial and error to piece this much together. His initial idea of covering his body with minerals had proved meaningless.
The conditions were strict: remain motionless for at least an hour, maintain steady breathing without losing focus, avoid sleeping, and perform the ritual in places thick with trees and plants.
And so, on the tenth day.
“Mm.”
Simon opened his eyes, sensing the Dungeon Master’s movement once more, even as he meditated.
It felt as though he was drawing truly close now. The impression left after contact grew stronger with each attempt.
‘I should eat something, at least.’
Hunger gnawed at him from all the meditation, so Simon filled his belly with meat left over from his last hunt.
It never tasted good, no matter when he ate it. Knowing that the monsters here transformed into plants only made it worse.
‘……which explains why the texture feels more like chewing mushroom than actual flesh.’
Worse still, the monster flesh would turn soft and withered like wilted plant matter within mere hours.
Its shelf life was barely a day. Which meant he had to hunt at least once daily.
“Ugh.”
After finishing his meal, Simon stretched lightly. The direction was set, and he’d soon need to find prey for this evening’s dinner.
Scattered across the forest floor in his view were footprints, tangled and numerous.
‘Let me just follow these……wait.’
Simon’s eyes widened, and he knelt down.
The prints on the ground were sharp and clear—a single, even pair of footsteps, freshly made.
What startled him more was that these were not the monster tracks he’d grown weary of seeing.
‘These are shoe prints!’
Someone from Kizen was nearby. Simon immediately gave chase, following the tracks.
The soggy ground preserved the prints well, and as he pressed on, the depth of the indentations grew more pronounced. It was evidence someone had recently stayed here.
Soon he burst free from the dense forest.
Whiiiiish—
Dazzling light flooded his vision, and wind swept past in a rush.
There, a girl stood with sky-blue hair streaming behind her. As she brushed the strands from her ear with a soft gesture, she too sensed his presence and turned.
“……Huh?”
The girl’s eyes widened rapidly. Surprise lasted only an instant before undisguised joy and emotion burst across her face.
“Si……!”
“Simon!!!”
But someone beat her to it, rushing forward first.
Toto threw himself at Simon, clinging to him and spilling tears of joy.
“……To, Toto?”
“Whimper-sniff! Simon! I’m so happy to see you! I was really scared!”
All the while, Toto cast a sidelong glance at Merin, whose face flushed crimson.
“Hey! Don’t go putting words in my mouth!”
“Eek!”
Toto ducked behind Simon. Simon smiled broadly.
“You two never change.”
“……Give back the emotional weight of my reunion. Seriously.”
Merin pressed her forehead with one hand, muttering to herself, then looked at Simon.
Ten days had passed, and she’d expected the boy to be rough with overgrown stubble and a grimy face, but Simon remained neat and composed, even freshly shaved.
Come to think of it, he’d been like that during the island survival assessment too—the type who seemed capable of thriving anywhere he was dropped.
“Do you have more companions?”
Simon shook his head at Merin’s question.
“No—you two are the first people I’ve met.”
Merin’s eyes sparkled as she extended her hand.
“Then would you like to work together with us? Of course, only if you’re willing…….”
Simon clasped her hand and smiled. His grip was neither tight nor weak, but perfectly warm and pleasant, his white palm settling over hers.
“Of course I do.”
A crooked smile slipped across Merin’s lips. Ever since arriving in the Dungeon, she’d felt nothing but lost—but meeting Simon filled her with a reassurance she couldn’t quite name.
Toto was here too, of course, but he was someone Merin herself had to protect, rather than rely upon.
“W-well, of course I’m the leader! Any objections?”
“Ha! Do as you please.”
The three of them shared what had happened so far and pooled the information they’d gathered.
They all knew the method to defeat the mineral monsters and the fact that the monsters transformed into plants.
Merin and Toto didn’t know the Dungeon Master’s location, but they’d been moving according to certain observations they’d made.
“If you look closely, the roots of the trees are all tilted in a single direction.”
“Really?”
At Merin’s words, Simon narrowed his eyes and examined the nearby tree roots.
“……Hmm, I’m not quite seeing it.”
“If you look very, very carefully, the direction is subtly the same.”
Simon scratched the side of his head.
“If it’s that subtle, isn’t that meaningless information?”
“You could think of it that way, but—!”
Merin spread her arms wide.
“What if that condition held true for every single tree here?”
That the roots of plants are tilted toward one side is unremarkable.
But if three hundred trees in the forest all tilted the same way—if two hundred ninety-nine of them did—the story changes. It gains meaning.
“It’s not really a grand discovery, but it was all we managed to learn, so we’ve just been following this direction.”
Simon nodded.
“Well done.”
The Dungeon Master’s white tentacles creep across the ground and up through it, supplying nutrients to the plant-transformed monsters. It made sense that the roots’ direction might lean that way.
Of course, plant roots can shift easily depending on natural conditions like the terrain’s slope, wind, and light, so it wasn’t a hundred percent certain clue—but by establishing some definite direction and moving with purpose, they’d been able to meet Simon after all.
Simon shared the information he’d gathered in turn.
“You can make contact with the Dungeon Master?”
Merin’s and Toto’s eyes went wide.
“I want to try!”
Merin quickly sat with her knees together and closed her eyes. Toto beside her, curious as well, leaned his back against a tree and shut his eyes.
But.
Wiggle, wiggle!
Less than thirty minutes in, Merin’s shoulders were already bouncing with boredom. Toto had fallen asleep outright, drool running from the corner of his mouth.
Simon let out a rueful laugh.
“Both of you failed.”
Even if someone knew the method, it seemed difficult for those with scattered attention or who slept easily.
Though the two had failed, Simon had made contact with the Dungeon Master once more and reconfirmed the direction.
“I’ll show you the way. Let’s move.”
“Right!”
For now, their priority was to go directly and prove Simon’s hypothesis, then pinpoint the Dungeon Master’s location.
The three of them moved forward with purpose.
As they drew closer to where the Dungeon Master was, the monsters grew larger and more numerous. Since they’d cling relentlessly if spotted, they had to wind around carefully, avoiding monsters as much as possible.
“Simon! The path ahead is crawling with monsters!”
Toto, who had gone to scout, reported back. Simon nodded.
“We need to conserve our mineral weapons. If we climb up this Mountain Slope here, I think we can avoid combat. What do you say?”
Simon pointed upward as he spoke. Merin looked up as well, her brow furrowing.
“……It’ll drain our stamina, but I suppose we don’t have a choice.”
“Wait a moment.”
Simon opened his subspace.
Six skeletons that emerged split into several pieces, clinging with a wet slap to each of the three bodies.
“Here, with this equipped, climbing should be easier.”
“A full-body bone armor!”
Toto’s eyes gleamed with admiration as he looked at Simon.
Whoosh, whoosh.
With the bone armor fully equipped, Simon swung his arms to test it, then demonstrated first.
He stretched both arms to grasp the protruding holds, planted his right foot on a solid point, and climbed swiftly upward.
“Come on, Merin!”
“Oh, right!”
Merin immediately tested the bone armor’s exoskeleton effect, grasping the protruding points of the sloped terrain and pulling herself up.
“This is great! I’m scaling right up without any effort!”
Merin adapted in an instant as well. Though her coordination was somewhat lacking, Simon reinforced her directly with Bone Armor, so there was no problem.
“Hey, slowpoke!”
She glanced back over her shoulder, delighted.
“Why are you so slow? Hurry up!”
But when Toto, following behind, made eye contact with Merin, he flushed and hastily looked away.
“What’s wrong with—”
A moment later, Merin’s expression shifted as something dawned on her.
Thwack!
Caught by her back kick, Toto slid over the cliff’s edge.
He had to scramble back up the wall and reach the top before Merin.
“…Simon, that was really rough.”
Toto, his face bearing the mark of her footprint, spoke with a woeful expression.
“…Ha ha.”
Toto, naturally timid by disposition, would have found Merin’s temperament difficult to manage.
“D-do you think Merin actually dislikes me?”
His confidence utterly shattered, Toto spoke in a dejected tone. Simon shook his head.
‘Whatever the case may be.’
Merin was a thorough meritocrat who valued results above all else. Yet here she was, earnestly competing for first place in this Advancement Exam, and she was protecting Toto—who might very well be dead weight—carrying him all the way through.
That alone told the story.
“Merin isn’t good at being honest, so she sometimes says or does things she doesn’t mean.”
Simon continued.
“If you treat her a little more casually, you’ll understand—”
“That’s impossible from the start!”
At Toto’s complaint, Simon laughed aloud.
The three of them climbed to the cliff’s peak using the power of Bone Armor.
“Wow, we really found a place that looks like where a boss would be!”
Merin bounced excitedly, her joy bubbling over. They could look down at the panorama of a jet-black mountain range unlike anything they’d seen elsewhere in this dungeon.
“Come on, let’s head down. Be careful.”
Simon was about to lead the way when Toto pointed at the sky.
“H-hey, you two. Something’s coming over there.”
“Huh?”
Simon looked up.
He thought it was a bird, but it wasn’t.
“…!”
It was a black dragon.
Flutter!
A great dragon descended, its black wings perforated with countless holes fluttering as it beat them. The wingstrokes alone generated a fierce wind.
“Kyaaah!”
“Get down!”
Simon raised a shroud of Darkness around himself, supporting Merin and Toto as they pressed themselves to the ground. Soon after, the black dragon landed its feet at the summit of the desolate ridge where the three stood and folded its wings.
‘Of all places, here—!’
Simon bit his lip.
The black dragon’s form began to shrink, and the scales that had been embedded seamlessly across its body jutted out, dangling loosely.
Its reptilian snout receded, replaced by a sharp human face, and its pointed teeth became evenly aligned.
“Simon Polentia.”
The form completed its transformation into Hector, whom everyone knew.
“…Hector!”
Merin sprang to her feet, summoning Magical Circles in both hands.
“You know student-on-student combat is forbidden in the dungeon, right?”
“Combat is forbidden, of course—but a little painful tumble down this slope wouldn’t count as combat, would it?”
“You—!”
Simon raised his arm to stop Merin as she moved to charge forward.
“What do you want?”
Though Hector had an excessive competitive drive and a reckless temper once angered, Simon didn’t take him for a thoughtless person.
Hector met Simon’s gaze.
“You must have found where the boss is.”
“…”
“Show me the way.”
Was he trying to cooperate in clearing the dungeon?
Simon felt inwardly relieved, but Merin snorted and crossed her arms.
“What makes you think you’re so pretty that we’d need to follow you?”
Hector’s lips quirked up without a word.
He’d follow along all the way through, whether Simon guided him or not. Simon looked at him and spoke.
“I need all the firepower I can get. Let’s work together on this boss fight, Hector.”

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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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