Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 533
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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 533
“Begin practice!”
“Let’s go!”
As Simon thrust his arm forward, his ghoul surged toward the modified skeleton with savage intensity.
The skeleton braced itself, hefting its axe into a ready stance.
‘Rush in carelessly and I’m dead.’
Simon lowered the ghoul’s posture even further, then sent it charging with the hand that wasn’t wielding the axe—no, wait, the skeleton didn’t carry the axe in that hand.
Whoosh!
The axe swept in a vicious arc. The ghoul barely ducked low enough to slip past, rolling behind the skeleton’s back.
Crack!
The modified skeleton couldn’t spin around immediately. Its waist rotated first, then its legs followed.
‘Slower than I thought—that pivot’s sluggish. And.’
Its front, armored and protected, stood far sturdier than its undefended rear.
‘Using the ghoul’s mobility to strike from behind—that’s the heart of this exercise!’
Just as the skeleton finally turned to track the ghoul’s movement, Simon sent the ghoul darting forward again, cutting past the skeleton’s rotation and coming in from the opposite angle.
Perfect timing stolen.
‘Now!’
Snap!
The ghoul kicked off the ground and leaped. Its fangs aimed straight for the skeleton’s exposed nape—clearly its most glaring weakness, completely unarmored.
As the ghoul’s jaws opened and its teeth drove toward the neck—
Crack-thud!
‘!’
The axe blade had materialized in an instant, burying itself in the ghoul’s skull.
He’d been caught completely.
The ghoul crashed down with a heavy thud, and the skeleton brought the axe down triumphantly, smashing the ghoul to pieces.
“First attempt failed. Student Simon Polentia’s remaining ghouls: eleven.”
Behind them, the Senior Instructor who piloted the modified skeleton spoke in an utterly calm voice.
Simon grimaced and pressed his hand to his forehead.
When a summoned creature was destroyed completely, the psychic backlash struck the necromancer connected to it as well.
Looking around, several other students already wore dazed expressions or knelt on one knee.
Hector was no exception.
They’d all been hit.
“Next.”
The Senior Instructor spoke quietly.
“Please summon your second ghoul.”
……
Other instructors echoed the same instruction. The students gritted their teeth, opened their subspace, and drew out fresh ghouls.
Simon pulled out his ghoul and lowered the hand he’d been pressing to his head.
‘I didn’t have time to cast Funeral Magic.’
In the moment the ghoul bit at the skeleton’s neck, he’d meant to trace a diagonal line through the summoning circle and use Funeral Magic to sever the neck cleanly.
But his move had been read.
Worse still, the ghoul’s speed was lacking.
‘Change tactics.’
Simon’s mind worked sharp and fast.
‘Even at my current level, Berserk lasts maybe a minute—but that’s enough. No matter how the opponent reacts, I’ll cast Funeral Magic first, then attack.’
The Senior Instructor, hands clasped behind his back, raised his right arm.
“Whenever you’re ready, come at me.”
His voice was absurdly at ease.
Simon’s lips curved into a smile as he raised his right arm sharply in response.
The ghoul crouched low, scraping the earth roughly beneath its feet, and shot forward.
‘Play the long game. Warm up first.’
To cast Funeral Magic properly, the Dark Circulation flowing through the summoning circle had to be perfect.
Only when every rune and equation functioned flawlessly could Rino’s Golden Line be drawn, transmitting all power correctly.
‘Warming up, warming up.’
Simon’s ghoul circled the modified skeleton, its movements precisely calibrated not to step beyond the arena’s boundary.
All the while, it bled darkness into the circle, preparing to trace a line along one corner of the magical formation.
-Tap!
Finally, the skeleton broke and rushed forward, axe raised.
‘Evade!’
Swoosh! Swoosh!
In the instant the Ghoul narrowly dodged the axe blade, its summoning circle blazed into sharper relief.
The entire circle—the ecosystem that comprised the Ghoul itself—operated at full capacity with not a shred of restraint, its will to victory laid bare across the battlefield.
Simon grasped that the moment had arrived.
—Draw the line with boldness!
Professor Lin and Professor Rune’s voice echoed in his memory.
A slow, hesitant line would only sever the circle by his own hand. For the Dark Element to mistake this new mark for a fresh conduit, he had to cut with instantaneous precision.
‘Here goes!’
Simon moved the Dark Element and sliced through the Ghoul’s summoning circle in a single stroke. The force that had circulated through the entire circle like an ecosystem now flowed along the freshly carved line.
‘Is it working?’
The effect came immediately.
The Ghoul’s eyes transformed.
He could feel the Dark Element surging through every fiber of the undead creature.
Burst!
Propelled by an explosive surge of Dark Element, the Ghoul rocketed across the arena floor and vaulted behind the Modified Skeleton’s back. It leaped high, seized the creature’s neck with its fangs, clamped down on its spine with its hind legs, and wrapped its front limbs around its arms.
“He’s got it!”
“Simon did it!”
“Hector too!”
The watching students erupted in cheers.
While the other five had already lost their Ghouls and sat defeated, Simon and Hector had both succeeded in mounting their creatures onto the Modified Skeletons’ backs.
The Modified Skeletons thrashed violently.
“They’re the real aces!”
“Just a bit longer!”
Simon and Hector, sweat pouring down their faces, glanced toward each other. Both snapped their eyes forward in unison.
‘I’ll be faster!’
Just as their concentration reached its peak—
Boom!
The Ghoul’s Funeral Magic duration expired first. Unable to withstand the Modified Skeleton’s fierce resistance, the Ghoul slammed to the ground. It plummeted with the axe, and with a sharp crack, its head split open.
Splinter!
Moments later, Hector’s Ghoul met the same fate, suppressed and shattered. Both boys grimaced and staggered.
The Senior Instructor’s cold voice rang out once more.
“Second attempt failed. Student Simon Polentia’s remaining Ghouls: nine…….”
Then it happened.
Boom!
The Ghoul’s body, which had crashed to the ground with its head shattered, suddenly exploded like a punctured balloon. Even the Senior Instructor flinched, and startled gasps erupted from several onlookers.
‘An explosion?’
Of course, there was little force behind it. The Ghoul’s remains simply scattered across the Modified Skeleton.
Simon caught his breath and steadied himself.
“One more attempt, please.”
“…….”
The Senior Instructor’s eyes narrowed.
‘What was he trying to do?’
As the students murmured among themselves, Professor Lin and Professor Rune leaped forward.
“Excellent work, excellent! These two young ones just demonstrated something quite promising.”
“Shall we all examine why the others failed?”
The twin professors unfurled a magical circle in the empty air.
“The five young ones who failed earlier all made the same mistake.”
“They drew the line ambiguously and faltered.”
Drawing a line as if to cleanly bisect a summoning circle that had taken such painstaking effort to create demanded considerable courage and decisiveness.
The other students had all either drawn their lines too slowly or hesitated, leading to failure.
“These two young ones who managed even a crude approximation of Funeral Magic drew their lines boldly! But—”
The twin professors displayed the magical circles of Simon and Hector simultaneously.
Both lines were perfectly straight.
“That was the problem—too bold!”
“You mustn’t draw a single straight line. Instead, you must follow the inner structures and emerge with a gentle curve—an S-shaped pattern!”
Simon nodded in understanding, while Hector clicked his tongue in frustration.
‘It’s easy to say, but actually doing it in real combat isn’t so simple.’
The Senior Instructor stood with arms crossed and spoke.
“Prepare the next Ghoul, then.”
All seven students summoned fresh Ghouls once more.
Everyone’s face had gone pale, and they bore expressions of barely holding on. To cast Funeral Magic, a strong psychic connection with the summoned creature was required, and the Necromancer experienced the same sensation of being cleaved by the axe as their summon did.
The mental blow was simply too great.
The watching students shook their heads in sympathy.
“……Everyone has at least nine rounds of ammunition, so technically we can attempt nine times.”
“Whether their minds can take it is another question.”
Even amid this, Simon clenched his fists with renewed determination.
Already his third attempt.
His goal was to pass this assignment and enter real combat with at least nine Ghouls in tow.
‘Let’s do this.’
His third try began. Simon circled the Ghoul around and around, evading the strikes.
Every aspect had improved compared to his previous attempts.
Now that he was reading the attack patterns, he could dodge the Modified Skeleton’s blows more boldly, and he could raise the Ghoul’s magical circulation rate and condition more swiftly.
‘Now!’
The moment he sensed the timing was right, Simon drew a line across the Ghoul’s magical circle without a shred of hesitation.
Boom-boom-boom!
A massive burst of Darkness erupted from the Ghoul’s body and charged forward like a shell. The Senior Instructor was taken aback.
‘A frontal assault?’
No feint, no maneuver—it charged straight in. The Modified Skeleton brought its axe down with both hands, but the Ghoul passed through, leaving a dark trace like spilled ink in its wake.
Crack!
The watching students gasped. The skeleton’s arm, still gripping the axe, was now caught firm between the Ghoul’s jaws.
“Whoa! So fast!”
“When did it—!”
The Ghoul spat out the arm and dropped low.
The Modified Skeleton drew its secondary weapon—a short sword from its belt—and began to swing.
Clang!
A Ghoul properly infused with Funeral Magic simply batted the blade aside with raw muscle strength.
Roaaar!
The students, absorbed in Simon’s display, erupted in cheers. As if flanking maneuvers were now unnecessary, the Ghoul simply clambered atop the Modified Skeleton and bore down with crushing force.
‘For all that the Funeral Magic succeeded, he charges straight in regardless—as though I hadn’t even bothered to point out the rear as a weak spot.’
The Senior Instructor bit his lip.
‘Time for a lesson in arrogance.’
Whoosh! Snap!
A force of attraction surged through the Modified Skeleton’s frame; the arm the Ghoul had left on the ground reattached to its shoulder, and both arms seized the Ghoul in a powerful grip.
‘Student Simon’s magical circle is again nearly straight—not quite S-shaped. Within a few seconds, the Funeral Magic’s duration should expire.’
However.
Far from mere seconds, almost a full minute elapsed, and the Ghoul’s power remained undiminished.
Its eyes blazed with teal-blue Darkness, and its entire form rippled with an endless dark ink-like aura.
‘How is this possible?’
Crack!!
The Ghoul drove its head forward, slamming the Modified Skeleton’s forehead.
The skull shattered completely, and it viciously crushed the skeleton’s summoning circle underfoot.
With victory secured, the Ghoul tilted its head skyward and let out a fierce, triumphant howl.
The first success of this practice session had arrived.
The students cheered loudly in congratulation. Hector, who had clung stubbornly but fallen short this round, slammed his fist into the ground.
“……Impressive.”
As the psychic connection forcibly severed, the Senior Instructor clutched his forehead, unable to deny what he’d witnessed.
“Student Simon Polentia, you pass—”
But.
His focus had not yet broken.
Simon’s pupils wavered, his concentration fixed not on the immediate task of felling his opponent, but on something else entirely.
‘What is he doing?’
“Instructor.”
Then Simon, his eyes still dazed, opened his mouth.
“Watch out.”
An uneasy feeling washed over the Senior Instructor as he erected his Dark Shield. Immediately, a sharp sound erupted, and a massive cloud of dust billowed up around the Ghoul.
Rumble-rumble-rumble—
“Phew.”
Simon finally exhaled deeply and checked the time.
‘One minute, fifteen seconds.’
He had been measuring the duration of the Funeral Magic.
“Wait, Simon!”
“What did you do?”
Rune and Professor Lin approached. Simon turned to face them.
“I was attempting to extend the duration of the Funeral Magic.”
“How?”
Simon explained without hesitation.
“The way a zombie uses Corpse Explosion—I drew the circle from the beginning in an overloaded state. Then I circulated the churning Dark Element movements from the ghoul’s entire body and fed them back into the magic circle to maintain the effect.”
The instructors’ eyes widened.
Even the students who hadn’t fully grasped Simon’s theory understood at once.
This was far too dangerous. The twin professors thought the same thing.
“The idea has merit, but—the risks far outweigh the benefits.”
“No more techniques that dangerous from now on.”
“Yes, I apologize.”
In any case, Simon successfully advanced to the main exam, leaving behind no fewer than nine ghouls.
Another student immediately filled Simon’s vacant spot.
“Simon! Good work!”
As Simon returned to his seat, Toto approached from nearby.
Simon immediately withdrew a ghoul from his Subspace.
“Toto.”
“What?”
“Me.”
Simon’s eyes grew serious.
At first it had been only an experiment to extend Funeral Magic’s duration.
“But I think I could detonate ghouls too.”
“Huh?”
Toto looked at him again as though he were a madman.
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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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