Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 506

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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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The Summoning Genius of the Necromancer School — Episode 506
Basement Level 1 of the Gold Mine Dungeon.
This was the one place that actually felt like a dungeon—a space utterly unlike anything above. The floor was gone, replaced by a churning sea of crimson that heaved and swelled in every direction.
And likely, this sea had never been crimson at all. Human corpses drifted about with unsettling frequency.
‘…They must have dumped the failed test subjects down here.’
The path to Simon’s next destination—Basement Level 2—lay at the far end of a central thoroughfare that cut straight across this repellent sea.
The thoroughfare connected to numerous side passages both large and small, and from each of them, Immortal Soldiers poured in without end.
“Prince! Send zombies toward seven o’clock to hold them back!”
[Roger!]
“Erzsebet! Weave a barrier of web across the side bridge!”
[Understood!]
The more they fought, the fewer Legion Undead kept surging forward.
There was no choice about it. With three levels below them, they had to conserve their strength and fight with discipline, using their forces efficiently.
‘But that aside…’
Simon lifted his head.
‘What’s wrong with the space here?’
A river of blood flowed in the level above, yet it didn’t fall. The seawater from this level was rising up to flow beside it. It was proof that the space itself was grotesquely warped.
Of course, expecting a dungeon to obey continental law or physics made little sense either.
“Simon, the path is broken.”
At Kassan’s words, Simon snapped to attention and stopped short. The thoroughfare ahead was indeed severed.
‘Nirthy’s work.’
The road had just been shattered—fragments still bobbed on the sea’s surface. And several hundred meters beyond, the thoroughfare resumed.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Even now, Immortal Soldiers continued to pour down the central passage where Simon stood.
[What now, Simon?]
Prince asked.
“We’ll leave this to the Legion and cross quickly on our own.”
Simon kicked off the ground first, launching upward, and landed on a fragment drifting in the crimson sea.
Sway!
The fragment wobbled precariously under his weight, beginning to sink. Simon leaped to the next one.
“Ugh, this is dangerous.”
[Hah! There’s no need to struggle like that!]
Erzsebet seized the web she’d anchored to the ceiling and soared upward. She quickly bound Kassan and Prince to it as well, then grabbed Simon and pulled him into the air.
She led the way, with the three of them dangling from her web.
“Well done, Erzsebet!”
It was an astonishingly smooth passage. The path to Basement Level 2 appeared in the distance.
‘We’ve got this! Just a little further…!’
[Everyone, be careful!]
Pier’s cry cut through.
The blood sea erupted before them as they traveled along the web. From within it, a long creature wreathed in bright crimson magma surged forward, its maw yawning open.
‘No!’
Erzsebet swung her arm wide. The three bodies were hurled clear, and the creature came down on Erzsebet alone, driving her into the opposite floor.
Simon, landing on a fragment in the river, cried out in panic.
“Erzsebet!!”
[Leave this to me and keep going!]
She was already pushing the creature back with her web, fighting free.
Simon, Kassan, and Prince exchanged nods and ran across the sea, using the drifting fragments as stepping stones.
Erzsebet picked herself up and faced the creature that had struck her down.
[What in the world is that thing?]
A chimera resembling a worm, its skin weeping magma instead of sweat.
Though wounded by the magma and writhing in pain, the dungeon’s regenerative effect kept its wounds closing continuously.
An immortal chimera that could exist only in this Gold Mine Dungeon—eternally immortal, eternally suffering.
[Sad, really. Since we’re both Undead—]
Erzsebet opened both arms wide.
[Let me grant you a peaceful end!]
As she crossed her arms, the web she’d already woven in the air suddenly cinched, trapping the chimera.
But the magma flowing from its body melted through the web. The chimera broke free from the restraint and charged at Erzsebet.
Crash!
[Ugh!]
The impact drove her back into the floor once more.
The Chimera kept pressing Erzsebet forward, its jaws gaping wide. She held her ground with sheer arm strength alone.
Erzsebet’s web continued to coil around the Chimera, but the flowing lava melted it away as quickly as it formed. The elemental matchup was terrible.
[Sigh.]
She exhaled as if resigned to her fate.
[I hate this.]
Crack-crack-crack—
Her pale white face fractured, and flesh of a different hue burst through.
Crack! Snap!
Her waist rippled and softened, then spider legs erupted from it, planting firmly against the ground.
With eight legs driving into the stone, Erzsebet hurled the monster away through sheer force alone.
[Even for a moment, I despise being anything but beautiful.]
She lifted the creature by raw strength and drove it into the ground. Lava sprayed in all directions as the Chimera shrieked.
It had been ages since she fought in her true form. Her dark-blue web engulfed the space around her.
[I’ve changed my mind. Before I vanish, you’ll pay the price for angering me.]

* * *
With Erzsebet’s help, Simon and his party reached Basement Level 2 of the dungeon safely.
If Basement Level 1 had been a fortress to repel invaders, this second level resembled a massive detention facility.
Prison cells lined every corner, and the undead citizens of Tarados spilled endlessly from open cell doors, rushing toward Simon’s group.
[This is endless, seriously!]
Prince charged forward, drawing his fist back with all his might.
[Hidden Card Punch!]
Boom—!
The undead soldiers flew like autumn leaves caught in wind, crashing against ceiling and wall. Yet their mangled bodies were already regenerating.
“They’re recovering faster now.”
Watching a zombie with broken legs spring back to its feet, Kassan clicked his tongue.
“We should split up here.”
Simon spoke while consulting the map.
“There’s a ‘Secret Experiment Wing’ on Basement Level 2. And on Basement Level 3 is Nirthy’s personal research laboratory. Kassan, you head to Level 2 as planned and find the ‘Sword’ for me. I’ll send Prince with you.”
“Understood.”
“I’m heading down to Level 3 to settle things with Nirthy.”
Prince looked at Simon in surprise.
[What? Just you and Pier? That’s enough?]
“It’s enough. And—”
Simon extended his right hand and opened a Subspace.
“You forgot we have one more, didn’t you?”
Simon immediately grabbed the staff that burst forth from the Subspace and drove it into the ground.
‘Aurification!’
The dungeon floor flooded with golden light, then cracked and erupted into shards. Immortal Soldiers standing on the ground were caught in the wide-area attack and sent flying.
“Let’s do our best this time too! Herseba.”
[Leave it to me! Trust only in me! Little one.]
Herseba lifted the aurified ground into the air once more, sending the Immortal Soldiers tumbling away.
“Simon, once we finish our part, we’ll head down to Basement Level 3.”
“Got it, Kassan! See you in a bit!”
Kassan and Prince pressed forward while Simon took a slight detour and found the stairs leading down to Basement Level 3.
-Screeeech!
-Grrrrgh!
Perhaps Nirthy’s final gambit—undead soldiers poured from the open cells, forming a tidal wave of bodies.
‘Think you can win with numbers?’
Simon grasped Pier’s Greatsword in his right hand and Herseba in his left.
The power of an Ancient Undead and those rivaling it.
Nothing could feel more reassuring than this.
‘Aurification!’
Simon transformed the floor to gold using Herseba’s Authority.
Then the Sword of Ruin descended, scraping and grinding across the aurified ground as it advanced.
‘Slash!’
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash—!
Pier’s Slash, massive as a mountain, tore across the floor and spread outward.
The Slash itself formed the first wave. Then the shockwave of golden fragments scattered in its wake formed the second.
A path opened instantly through the horde of undead, and Simon ran down the trench carved by the Slash.
‘We’re almost there!’
Ahead of him lay the stairs descending into Basement Level 3, the final level.

* * *
“Thank… thank you so much!”
“I thought we were going to die trapped like this.”
Surface Level 2 of the dungeon.
Before the residents could become test subjects, they’d been confined to a holding area on Surface Level 2.
Serne held back the Immortal Soldiers with her feathered troops, shepherding the residents out of the dungeon to safety.
“This way, everyone!”
“Keep your heads down and move quickly!”
She was directing the evacuees by manipulating several residents with her feathers, though Serne herself lounged in the rear with her arms folded, letting out a long, drawn-out yawn. “Heeeah…”
“I’m exhausted.”
For someone in a dungeon, she showed not the slightest tension—the leisure of the truly strong.
She plucked away the sleep crust from the corner of her eye and yawned again.
“Simon, really—assigning me such drudgery.”
“Um, um, miss…?”
Her half-lidded gaze shifted sideways. A small, grubby child shuffled hesitantly toward her.
“Thank you for saving our mommy and daddy!”
The child bowed deeply. Serne stared at them for a moment, then waved a dismissive hand.
“Here.”
The child held something out with grimy hands.
A hard, stone-like piece of bread.
“It’s for you, sister!”
The child pressed the bread into Serne’s palm and bowed earnestly, then scampered back toward their parents.
“…”
She examined the bread with an expressionless face.
It was genuinely hard as stone.
Only the end was slightly damp, smeared with saliva—the child must have managed to survive by dissolving it slowly on their tongue, unwilling to waste it.
“Serne Eindarc.”
Then.
From the shadows came the sharp clip-clop of footsteps as someone approached.
The evacuees scattered in panic at the sight of them.
“What?”
Serne smiled slightly.
“Luck’s with me today. The boss was here all along?”
Nirthy—the chief administrator and head researcher of the Tarados Cult’s branch.
Their face was obscured by shadow. Serne drew out her feathers, gripping them in her hand.
“Serne Eindarc. Eighteen years old, second-year at Kizen. Adopted child by origin, yet current official heir to the Ivory Tower.”
Serne’s brow furrowed with displeasure. Nirthy continued with a smile.
“I’ve wanted to meet you for some time.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Your journey from adopted child to swallowing the entire Ivory Tower whole was quite impressive. I found real inspiration in it.”
Nirthy placed a hand on their waist.
“But your conduct since entering Kizen has been one disappointment after another.”
“…”
“The heir to the Ivory Tower, dragged away as a hostage, forced into Kizen’s school uniform—and you endured that shame for a full year without raising a hand. I thought you meant to collapse the school from within, but now it seems that’s not it at all.”
Her tongue flickered like a serpent’s.
“Why is that? Did Kizen’s power overwhelm you into despair? Or did that uniform somehow become something to be proud of—something to boast about? Now you’re obediently freeing prisoners like the perfect captive they wanted you to be!”
Nirthy laughed—ho ho ho—and extended a hand.
“Forget such foolishness. Join hands with me instead.”
Serne’s expression darkened as she regarded the offered hand.
“You want me to side with you?”
“You’ve seen this place—you must understand what the Cult’s experiment is truly aimed at.”
“Immortal Soldiers who never die.”
“Exactly. Within this dungeon, that was all we could manage—but now we can deploy Immortal Soldiers beyond it as well.”
Nirthy spread both arms wide.
“Those Immortal Soldiers that the great lords feared so! Even Kizen itself cannot defeat undead soldiers that refuse to die or vanish! You’ve seen it yourself, haven’t you?”
“Mm—”
“We share a common enemy in Kizen. The Immortal Soldiers’ first target is Kizen itself. Serne, if you help me, we can accomplish so much more.”
Nirthy laughed, a thin, reedy sound.
“This experiment is nearly complete. It only needs a little more time. When the promised day arrives and the Ivory Tower and the Tarados Cult rise up together……!”
“I think you’re laboring under a misunderstanding, monkey woman.”
Serne folded her arms and smiled.
“I assure you, your toys won’t be able to touch Kizen.”
“Toys. Did you say?”
Nirthy bristled with indignation.
“And you said my conduct since arriving at Kizen has been disappointing, but I disagree.”
Serne waggled her finger.
“I’m quite satisfied with this life right now~ There’s only one move that can bring down Kizen. The reversal is right beside me, close to my side. The path I chose cannot be wrong.”
“……Don’t be absurd! There is no better move than the Immortal Soldiers I created and the Tarados Cult’s plan!”
“There is, actually.”
She laughed.
“Simon Polentia. The future continent will soon be reorganized around him. There is no blow more fatal to Kizen than stealing Simon away from that tediously immortal Death Witch and her daughter.”
“A mere promising youth, worth more than me and the Tarados Cult?”
“Of course.”
Serne raised the feather she held in her hand.
“And if you’re thinking of making me some sort of offer——”
Crack!
Her feather tore through Nirthy’s abdomen.
“Surely it would be courtesy to come in person, wouldn’t it?”
“Kagh!”
Nirthy’s body turned ashen, then crumbled into dust.
“You’ll……regret this……!”
Thud!
Serne stamped her boot heel on Nirthy’s head, her ivory-colored hair rippling as she turned and walked away.
……
Yet in her left hand, she still held the hard bread the girl had given her.
Staring at it for a moment, Serne flicked it over her shoulder.
“You eat it.”
The flying bread landed in the palm of the person she was controlling with her feather.
Watching him devour it voraciously, Serne’s lips curved upward as she walked on with a light step.

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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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