Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 478

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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 478
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The cavern through which the train descended was extraordinarily deep, and there was no way to gauge where it ended.
‘There was a place like this inside Rocksum.’
And the deeper they descended, the more unsettling sights came into view—monster heads strung together on ropes hanging in clusters, or long grotesque entrails moving in serpentine coils like snakes.
“Eek!”
Toto, trembling with fear, clung tightly to Simon’s arm while uttering an endless stream of frightened squeaks.
“…S-Simon. When this class is over, will we actually make it back to see daylight?”
“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”
Simon smiled calmly, attempting to soothe him, but Toto still flinched at every small sound. Beside him, Hector sat with his chin propped on his hand, utterly unmoved.
—Ugggghhhhh!
—Kyaaahhhhh!
From the train that had departed ahead came an enormous scream. It echoed into the distance, reverberating through the cavern.
“Something else is up ahead!”
Toto’s face went ashen.
Screech-screech—screech-screech-screech—
Simon caught the sound of the rails and the shift in grade, then stretched his legs to brace against the back of the train. Hector, sensing what was coming, gripped the train with both arms to anchor himself firmly in place.
“Toto.”
“What?”
“Hold on tight.”
Just as Toto was about to respond, his hair shot upward.
What came into view beyond that was the track plummeting at a steep angle into darkness.
Whoooooooosh!
Without warning, the train lurched into a rapid descent.
“Kyyyaaaahhhhh!”
Starting with Toto, the students screamed.
As the small-framed Toto threatened to fly off, Simon grabbed his left arm while Hector furrowed his brow and clutched his right shoulder.
“Uuugghhh! Aaahhhhh!”
“Just a little longer! Hold on, Toto!”
Screech-screech—screech-screech-screech—
Soon the train’s speed gradually slowed, then came to a stop. The teaching assistants from Summoning Materials Science spoke up.
“Well then, students. Please disembark.”
The students rose unsteadily, one by one. Simon helped Toto, whose soul seemed to have fled his body, while Hector simply walked away on his own with a whoosh.
‘Where is this?’
It resembled the sort of dark altar that appeared only in epic tales.
In the center of the circular space stood a massive altar, surrounded by tables arranged in a ring. Upon them lay various undead materials, or hung suspended from long hooks connected to the ceiling.
Candles burned on the walls, and a shallow channel cut into the floor carried groundwater in a gentle stream. The crevice was narrow enough that there was little danger of accidentally stepping into it and wetting one’s shoes.
Simon could not fathom what would transpire in such a place, what kind of class would unfold here.
Soon the final train arrived and the remaining students disembarked, their faces twisted with dread as they beheld the oppressive atmosphere of the cavern.
“Now then, students. Please step away from the tables.”
The teaching assistants came forward to direct the students, then stood against the wall with their hands clasped respectfully before them.
“Professor Grerion is now entering.”
From a spot some distance from where the students stood, in an area devoid of light, a blue flash suddenly flickered.
Simon recognized it as the glow of a Teleport Magic Circle.
Boom—
Boom—
Heavy footsteps echoed through the cavern. The students could make out a massive silhouette approaching from the darkness.
Soon muffled screams burst from various points among them.
A muscular man, his torso bare, drew near with a mountain of a blood-soaked wild boar monster shouldered across his back.
‘That person…’
‘…is a professor?’
Boom—
Boom—
Overwhelmed by the atmosphere, the students could barely breathe. With each step he took closer, the cavern’s resonance grew louder.
When the man finally set the monster down on the altar,
Bang!!
the entire cavern shook.
Simon’s eyes grew serious.
‘There are traces of combat.’
He must have been fighting right up until after stepping through the Teleport Magic Circle. His skin was covered in small wounds, and the monster’s legs still twitched intermittently—a sign its breath had not yet fully ceased.
Snap!
Grerion turned and retrieved two Dissection Knives hanging from the cave wall.
The blades clinked against each other with a sharp metallic ring, and he approached the writhing monster with one of them in hand.
Thwack!
He plunged the knife into its belly.
Screeeeeech!
In one smooth motion, he carved downward, splitting the abdomen wide open. Vapor rose in cloudy wisps, and the stench of blood filled the air—the students flinched.
The dissection demonstration continued.
Professor Grerion’s Dissection Knife moved without hesitation. Each time he manipulated the blade and withdrew his hand from within, the organs—still pulsing and beating—tumbled out with a wet, rhythmic flutter.
Whoooosh!
Behind him, a torrent of Shadow Aura erupted. The aura traced magic circles in the air before inscribing them onto the materials scattered across the floor.
Crack! Snap!
Dissection Knives of varying sizes and purposes spun and rotated in tandem with Grerion’s Shadow Aura, descending with perfect precision whenever he reached out.
Extraordinary multitasking.
“Chimera, Agandero.”
He took the material he’d just extracted from the monster’s body, grafted it together with several components suspended from the ceiling, and dropped the assembly onto the floor. An organ crowned with eyes began moving of its own accord, scuttling about.
“Chimera, Worzack.”
“Chimera, Admo.”
He was constructing chimeras directly from the fresh materials of the hunt.
He grafted legs onto zombies missing limbs, and filled the hollow bodies of empty undead with fresh contents to set them moving again.
Crack!
Snap!
Every student stared in bewildered silence as chimeras large and small accumulated across the floor.
Severed legs moved of their own volition, arms wrapped in black liquid became monster tails, and he assembled abominations from the organs of different creatures, each one animated and writhing. He even severed the head of the wild boar monster that remained and grafted a third head onto a two-headed chimera, creating a triple-headed monstrosity.
After wiping blood from his face, he set down his knife. In mere moments, a single corpse had yielded twelve chimeras.
Twelve chimeras born in an instant from one monster’s corpse.
Though the work was complete, the students, overwhelmed by the sheer display, could not bring themselves to applaud.
“I am Grerion.”
At last, he spoke.
“You.”
Grerion extended his hand. Toto, singled out yet again, began hiccupping and went rigid.
“Y-yes, yes! My name is Toto Amori—!”
“Define chimera for me.”
Toto’s face hardened as he racked his brain.
“It refers to a being formed by the combination of two or more organisms—!”
“The most common textbook definition. Now you.”
The female student next to Toto opened her mouth.
“A chimera is an undead creature of multiple powers artificially created by a Necromancer through grafting.”
Grerion nodded and continued his heavy footsteps across the floor.
Then he stopped, turned his head sharply, and gazed in the direction where Simon stood.
“The chimera is an organism of extreme pragmatism.”
His eyes gleamed with terrible intensity.
“A Necromancer with two or more types of creatures or undead at hand can construct even the mightiest of monsters. Especially for summoners whose summoned creatures are rapidly exhausted—it is the most vital element.”
He gripped his own creaking neck and shook it gently side to side.
“During my active years, when I ran out of summoned creatures, I raided a livestock farm on the outskirts of my territory, assembled ten pigs from that place, and slaughtered an entire fortress.”
“…!”
“Necromancers have such battles too.”
His mouth twisted into a grin.
“What is this class called?”
“Summoning Materials Science!”
“It’s part of the mandatory curriculum, so I can’t change it—but I don’t care for that name.”
He surveyed the students slowly, his gaze sweeping across the entire classroom.
“I’ll call it Chimera Design Theory instead. In my class, you’ll study materials science, yes—but I’ll teach you how to use that knowledge to craft powerful chimeras. All the materials knowledge in my lectures exists for one purpose: creating formidable chimeras.”
He picked up a strip of flesh from the still-writhing monster and laughed darkly.
“Welcome to the forbidden domain.”

* * *
For modern summoners majoring in Summoning Studies, chimera construction was an indispensable discipline.
There had been an era called the “Chimera Era,” testament to how highly developed Necromancer chimera-crafting techniques had become. The countless rune languages, formulas, and techniques derived from chimera studies had profoundly influenced nearly every school of Summoning Magic.
In other words, most of the summoned creatures that Kizen’s 2nd Year students would encounter required knowledge of chimera-related techniques to summon—which dovetailed perfectly with Aaron’s Intermediate Major Summoning curriculum.
Of course, beyond such textbook reasons, Simon saw no harm in learning chimera craftsmanship.
“Begin the grafting.”
Fortunately, the first chimera lesson didn’t involve handling live animals or monsters.
Before the students lay a potted flower and an aquatic plant in a tank.
The first chimera assignment required grafting the roots of an aquatic plant onto a common houseplant. The goal was to create a flower that would thrive even when floating on water. The key was to preserve the nature of both plants while drawing out the aquatic plant’s advantage of thriving in water without withering.
The core challenge was maintaining the properties of both plants while simultaneously harnessing the aquatic plant’s ability to grow in water without perishing.
“Press the cut surfaces of both plants together, wrap them with Mana Tape to secure, then cast Acceleration Magic. As the cut surfaces heal, water, nutrients, and plant hormones will transfer between the two plants.”
Simon calmly joined the flower and aquatic plant, then placed the graft on the water’s surface.
Toto, working beside him, attempted the same thing but the flower withered quickly and the roots sank beneath the water. Simon’s flower, by contrast, remained perfectly alive and flourishing.
‘Success!’
Simon withdrew his hand from the plant, a satisfied smile crossing his face.
‘Chimera craftsmanship. This class is actually enjoyable too.’
Chimeras allowed two species to simultaneously exhibit their respective advantages.
Through simple grafting alone, one could create a plant with potatoes growing on the roots and tomatoes on the stem. Add Black Magic to the process, and if the grafted materials were Undead, one could achieve dynamic transformations that surpassed human imagination entirely.
Biological chimeras required grafting between similar species with little rejection response, but Undead suffered little to no such rejection regardless of what they were mixed with.
Of course, their operational lifespan couldn’t be guaranteed.
‘Now I really feel like a proper major.’
The depth of techniques taught in the 2nd Year was indeed a world apart from merely handling Skeletons and Zombies back in the 1st Year.
“Creating chimeras requires vast knowledge,” Grerion explained.
Grerion continued his lecture.
“There are no two identical chimeras in this world. Even if you crafted a thousand of the same two monster species, the formulae involved would inevitably differ. What matters most in creating a chimera is a perfect understanding of the organisms being used as materials—before any question of talent. Now, memorize every handout I distribute.”
Groans escaped from students throughout the classroom.

* * *
After all the students had left, the assistants began tidying up.
The area was soaked in blood from dissecting the colossal monster. Grerion worked alongside the assistants, cleaning the surroundings. At his direction, the chimeras shambled with squelching sounds toward the depths of the cave.
Snap!
Suddenly, a blue light flashed from the far end of the cave. The sound of a Teleport Magic Circle activating.
Grerion rose to greet his visitor.
“You’re here. Aaron.”
Aaron swept back his long shaggy hair as he approached and bowed his head.
“It’s been a while, Professor.”
“From a greenhorn to professor of 2nd Year Summoning Studies. Time certainly has passed.”
Grerion chuckled warmly. Aaron settled into a seat and released a tired sigh.
“How were the students?”
“I hear many talented ones came to the department this time. There were indeed quite a few notable faces.”
Hector, Aseraz, Lorain, Serne. And Simon, the current Student Council President.
“What was your impression of Simon?”
“Nothing particularly outstanding.”
Grerion answered plainly.
“It’s only the first lesson, and he’s merely grafted plants together. Hard to judge. Assistant! Bring Simon’s work here!”
“Yes, sir!”
An assistant brought Simon’s plant in the tank. The two professors examined it closely.
“Completed, but ordinary. Perhaps he lacks talent for chimeras.”
He removed the plant from the tank.
Then he unwrapped the tape wound around it.
“……!”
His eyes widened.
The cut surfaces were fused together almost perfectly.
“He used something other than the Black Magic I taught.”
Thinking this made sense, Aaron smiled.
“That’s typical of him.”
“What?”
“When I was teaching Skeleton Mage summoning, he was the one creating Liches.”
Hmm—Grerion’s eyes gleamed with interest.
“So that’s it, then.”

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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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