Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 442
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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 — Episode 442
The Naga assault had transformed the festival-bright Parona Peninsula into a nightmare.
The blue moonflowers that had bloomed along the streets were now stained crimson with blood.
The marketplace that moments ago had echoed with laughter and chatter now screamed with terror.
Simon’s arm moved in a frenzy. At each gesture, eight Skeletons scattered outward, and with a sharp *click-click-click*, the armor materialized onto the bodies of fleeing tourists.
As Simon gestured again, their bodies lifted into the air and drifted safely over the ridge beyond.
“Run!”
Simon shouted.
He stripped the Bone Armor from those who’d regained their senses and bolted, only to layer it onto the next group of residents, then sent them fleeing — a cycle he repeated without pause.
The priority was clear: evacuate everyone to the Lord’s Castle where Merin was holding the line. Dick and Kamibarez would be doing the same at their respective positions.
‘How in the world did it come to this?’
Simon channeled the Dark Element through his legs and kicked out at the approaching Naga’s abdomen. The creature flew backward and crashed into a nearby vendor stall with a splintering *crack*.
Behind that stall, Simon spotted several more Nagas. He braced himself instinctively, but they moved past him as though entranced, fixed on some forward course, indifferent to their dying kin.
‘The Nagas move in a definite direction.’
They weren’t hunting down fleeing people with any persistence.
It was purposeful movement rather than predation — a march toward something. The chaos erupted only because the city stood in their path and people scattered in panic, drawing their attention in all directions.
‘Dick said the Naga Queen had come.’
For numbers this large, there should have been at least twenty Naga Queens that entered the peninsula. Yet Simon hadn’t spotted a single one.
‘Something’s off.’
With that thought in mind, Simon found himself standing before the Parona Deimos Museum.
He’d returned here again.
Simon approached the museum entrance and tried the door.
*Clank. Clank.*
It was locked.
More precisely, a chain wrapped around the door handle, secured by a padlock.
*Clank. Clank.*
Simon shook the door again, mapping out the padlock’s position by sound.
‘About here.’
He pressed his right fist against the door, closed his eyes, and infused it with the Dark Element.
Drawing his fist back slowly, he set his stance. It had been a while since he’d used Hong Peng’s penetrating technique.
*Crack!*
The impact struck true against the padlock beyond. A sharp *tink* sounded as the broken mechanism fell to the ground.
As Simon pushed the door open with force, the chain unspooled with a long *whoosh* and the door swung wide.
“…!”
Guards lay sprawled across the museum floor.
Simon quickly shut the door behind him and bound the handle with the chain to block any Nagas that might try to enter. Then he examined the fallen guards.
‘Not dead.’
All of them were unconscious.
Marks showed where they’d been struck — the back of the head, the jaw, the abdomen. It was strange for wounds that looked like the claw-tearing attacks Nagas were known for.
Simon pressed his lips together and moved forward with deliberate steps.
‘There’s definitely an intruder here. But why break into the museum? Why knock out the guards?’
To steal something valuable in all this chaos.
If that was the case, there was only one object in this museum worth stealing.
—An invaluable paleontological treasure, truly beyond price! The teeth were damaged, so the museum director had them filled with actual gold! It’s a masterpiece you can only see here at the Parona Deimos Museum!
‘The fourth floor!’
Simon bounded up the stairs with quick strides and threw open the fourth-floor door.
*Clank!*
‘A relief.’
Simon exhaled. The most precious object — the Deimos Skull — was still intact.
But relief didn’t last long.
‘!’
A glint of silver flashed toward him from the side.
*Whoosh!*
Simon arched his back by instinct.
Extreme focus kicked in — time slowed, perception sharpened to crystalline clarity.
In his field of vision: the keen edge of a spear. Tracing the shaft, his eyes finally caught the figure wielding it — a blond-haired man.
As the spear shaft passed by him, Simon’s left hand clamped onto it and twisted the point slightly off course.
*Thud!*
The spear point struck true, piercing the body of another man approaching from the left.
‘There’s more than one.’
He swept his right leg up to knock the knee of the man holding the spear, then seized the weapon and swung it. Two men in front fell, sliced by the blade.
All four men looked identical.
Whoosh! Bang!
The men vanished at Simon’s attack, scattering like coal dust. At the same moment, a sharp cutting sound rang out from above.
Crash-crash-crash-crash!
The chandelier from the ceiling descended toward Simon. He raised his left fist lightly above his head.
Clang!!!
Simon’s fist drove straight into the center of the falling chandelier.
The chandelier shattered with a tremendous crash, and glittering shards scattered like grains of sand across the floor.
“What are you doing?”
Simon lowered his fist, speaking in a flat voice.
“Malcolm Randolph.”
From the shadows of the darkened exhibition hall came the sound of stifled laughter.
A boy with features identical to those of the men who had attacked Simon stepped out of the darkness and revealed himself.
“It’s been a while. Simon Polentia.”
Simon’s suspicions had proven correct, and his brow furrowed slightly.
An artificial Naga tribe attack.
Museum infiltration.
And Malcolm Randolph.
That meant, in the end—
“This whole Naga tribe attack was orchestrated by the Randolph Gang, wasn’t it?”
Malcolm merely smiled without answering.
“Get your head straight, Malcolm. You’re Kizen.”
“No.”
Malcolm’s expression hardened abruptly.
“Not anymore.”
Simon’s mind raced in response to those words.
“You’re planning to leave Kizen?”
“I’m a man of the organization. When performance falls short, one must bear the responsibility.”
Responsibility—Malcolm spoke those words while brushing back his bangs.
“My ranking dropped from tenth to one hundred twenty-eighth, and I caused damage to the organization through the liquid bomb scandal. I’m simply accepting the consequences. And this entire snowball effect—”
His murky eyes turned toward Simon.
“It all started with my Duel Evaluation against you.”
……
“Isn’t it ironic?”
At Malcolm’s question, Simon’s gaze dropped slightly.
“……Damn it.”
Simon’s attitude provoked Malcolm.
“What, you’re pitying me now?”
That was not why he had said it.
At least, not from Malcolm’s perspective.
Human behavior is governed by convention.
When someone greets you good morning, you answer with a good morning. When a lady offers her hand, a gentleman kisses it.
Sometimes, even without any agreement, the next words are already prescribed.
This was one of those moments.
Simon should have said this:
That this wasn’t a matter of blaming others.
That falling from Kizen, a place where merit alone rules, was a problem of his own ability.
Had he sneered and mocked, it might have been better.
“I—”
Simon’s lips opened.
“I’m not pitying you.”
A vein throbbed visibly in Malcolm’s forehead.
“You’ve really perfected the art of getting under people’s skin, haven’t you?”
Malcolm’s neck flushed with blood.
“I know, I know, I’m aware of it! That my strength isn’t enough! That my effort was insufficient! I shouldn’t have pushed myself during your damn Duel Evaluation, and now look at me. But the human heart is such a fickle, treacherous thing.”
His eyes grew dark and sinister.
“Why do I keep wanting to blame you?”
Whoosh—!
Malcolm’s form blurred into multiple afterimages before scattering in several directions. Simon’s eyes sharpened with focus.
“Malcolm, get a hold of yourself!”
“I heard your friends talking just now. They were calling you President. Don’t tell me you actually became student body president?”
Simon closed his mouth.
“What, really? Looking at your face, it’s definitely true, isn’t it? Ha! Look at you, thriving so damn well.”
Malcolm’s shoulders trembled.
“At the start of the semester, there wasn’t such a huge gap between us. One person gets treated like he’s worthless, ends up slipping back into petty theft. The other’s on a winning streak, all the way to student body president of Kizen. Man, I guess two people can end up in completely different lives even before they’re twenty.”
He spilled his bitter words in a stream, then staggered and pressed his forehead.
“…Look, it doesn’t matter. This is the only path left for me. If I fail, the organization will kill me.”
Bang!
Bang-bang-bang!
Twenty doppelgängers lunged at Simon.
“You’re going to step on me and climb up again for your own ambitions, aren’t you? It’s a hassle if there’s too much collateral damage with the student body president of Kizen being here. Right?”
Whack!
The leading doppelgänger drove a fist wreathed in Dark Element at him.
“Malcolm. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
“Some student body president lecturing me!”
Whoosh!
Simon sidestepped with nothing but a subtle shift of his shoulders, staying rooted in place.
Whoosh! Boom!
Another fist came in succession, but he evaded it with minimal movement—bending his knees, tilting his head at slight angles.
“Damn you! Don’t toy with—!”
Crack!
Simon’s leg came up, sweeping the shouting doppelgänger’s jaw.
Thwack! Boom!
Fists flashed in afterimages, striking the doppelgängers’ noses and shoulders. Two more dissolved into powder.
Grab! Grab!
Doppelgängers attacking from behind seized Simon’s legs.
“Gaaahhh!”
The last four doppelgängers rushed forward with hidden spears.
“Gate Opening.”
Simon murmured softly, and six Subspaces opened around him.
Crack-crack-crack!
Shriek-shriek!
Overlord legs of metal and bone shot forth, their blades cutting through the surrounding doppelgängers and curling upward like petals shielding their master.
All the doppelgängers vanished, and the masterless spears tumbled to the ground with a clatter.
“About time you brought that out.”
Malcolm’s true body, watching from behind, went rigid.
Hiss—
Between the six serpentine, undulating blades, Simon stood perfectly unscathed.
“Malcolm. Withdraw now while you still can, and call off your puppets.”
“I already told you! There’s no other path left for me!”
Malcolm created new doppelgängers and sent them forward.
“If you want something, crush and seize it! That’s the way of Kizen!”
Malcolm showed no sign of backing down.
There was no choice. Simon summoned the Overlords back into his Subspace, then drew a Magical Circle in his palm. He continued layering the pattern along his ribs while simultaneously releasing new undead.
“Rise.”
Six standard Skeletons appeared, along with one Skeleton Archer and one Skeleton Mage.
Snap!
Simon flicked his palm down—all the Skeletons’ connections severed and they crumbled to dust. He flicked his palm up, and hundreds of bone fragments exploded skyward.
Bone Nail
The bone shards scattered in all directions, piercing into the bodies of the approaching doppelgängers.
Each fragment moved under Simon’s command, and every doppelgänger was riddled through and erased.
‘The doppelgänger’s weakness is structural integrity.’
They could be destroyed without much force—even minor effective hits would shatter them.
While preparing Advanced Dark Magic, deploying Bone Nail for defense proved sufficient.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Twenty doppelgängers dissolved even faster than when he’d used the Overlord.
Malcolm gritted his teeth and summoned twenty more Doppelgängers, sending them forward.
‘And the second weakness.’
Simon extended his hand behind his back.
Snap!
As if he’d been waiting for it, the bow wielded by the Skeleton Archer came into Simon’s grip. In his other hand, an arrow materialized.
He nocked it at blinding speed.
Whistle!
He fired an Enchanted Arrow. Malcolm, concentrating on controlling his Doppelgängers, ducked his head in haste to evade.
Thud!
The arrow lodged in the wall, quivering before it stilled.
‘If he lifts his feet to dodge, he can’t control the Doppelgängers. His evasion becomes unstable.’
“You little bastard!”
Simon entrusted his defense to Bone Nail and instead repeated the motion of firing arrows in quick succession, each one a light feint.
His archery was formidable. Every arrow came at Malcolm’s head.
“Ugh!”
Malcolm finally altered his strategy. He pulled a Potion from his Subspace and hurled it; the Doppelgängers caught it and rushed forward.
‘A liquid bomb?’
Even as the Doppelgängers were pierced by Bone Nail, they hurled the Potions they gripped into the air.
Shatter! Shatter!
The Potions broke of their own accord, and the scattered liquid clung to the Skeleton’s bone fragments.
The bone shards floating in the air trembled weakly, then fell to the ground.
‘This is—’
“Kabala Poison!”
Malcolm unleashed more Dark Magic, his voice sharp.
“It neutralizes the residual Dark Element in the bones, rendering them unable to be restored for a time! Did you think I hadn’t prepared for a Summoning genius?”
As Bone Nail was neutralized, Malcolm pressed both palms together and pushed forward in a deliberate motion.
A finishing move of sorts—one he’d planned to use in the second-year Duel Evaluation.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
Ten Doppelgängers burst forth in a mangled, fused form. Moving like a centipede on feet and legs, it charged at Simon with impossible speed.
‘I’ve won!’
Malcolm’s lips quivered with exhilaration.
‘Even if it’s sliced by an Overlord blade! Once it scatters into small pieces—’
Crash!
But it wasn’t a blade.
Black flame spheres collided with the Doppelgänger Chimera in succession, erupting in explosions that burned it to ash.
Whoosh.
Simon raised his index finger with a composed expression.
Four Skeleton Mage skulls shot skyward. Emerald smoke wreathed them, forming the image of a small sun.
The advanced Dark Magic Simon had been preparing was neither chaos nor a guard formation.
Against Doppelgängers vulnerable to wide-area spells, nothing served better than Skuldron unleashing Dark Flame Arts in relentless barrages.
“Let’s end this, Malcolm.”
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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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