Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 540

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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 540
Twenty minutes remained.
Simon moved with purpose.
He’d defeated Pierre at the 1st Group Altar, claimed the red artifact, then leisurely searched the surroundings for more treasures before returning to the starting point with twenty minutes to spare.
Rather than risk entering directly, he circled wide and ascended the hillside overlooking the altar. A wry smile tugged at his lips.
“As expected.”
With his main base stripped bare and no choice but to return empty-handed, Hector had adopted a single strategy.
He was dug in at Simon’s Group altar, refusing to budge.
Scores for this exam were calculated at the moment it ended — based on the artifacts resting on each group’s altar at that precise instant.
No matter how many artifacts you possessed, they meant nothing if they weren’t on your altar when time expired.
In other words, Hector was trying to draw Simon out.
“……Hector seems genuinely serious about this.”
Looking back, Toto was approaching, breathing hard.
“Toto!”
“I’ve been watching for any opening, but he barely moves from the altar’s perimeter.”
A scorched-earth strategy — a mutual suicide pact.
At this rate, both the 1st Group and 10th Group would walk away with zero points.
“Hello there, chairman! And death knight boy!”
Eshu caught up as well. Toto’s face flushed crimson in an instant.
“I’ve told you not to call me that!”
“Haha! Sorry, sorry! But Hector’s people are still at our altar! Looks like we’re gonna have to fight, chairman?”
“No choice. The artifacts?”
Eshu grinned and summoned his ghoul, which then spat out several artifacts onto the ground, including the 13th Group’s red artifact.
“Well done. You got the 13th Group’s red artifact too.”
“Of course! Oh, but where’s Lorain?”
“She’s holding the rear guard. She’s probably fighting Pierre right now, so let’s go in just the three of us.”
“Got it!”
Simon stretched, extending his limbs fully.
“All right, let’s begin the——”
“Simon Folentia!!”
A voice like a thunderclap made them all jump, eyes snapping downward.
“You call yourself first place and still resort to cheap tricks? Stop scheming and fight me! Face me with real power and take the altar!”
“……Oh my.”
Eshu wiped sweat from his brow.
“He’s radiating serious killing intent.”
“If we’re not careful, we’re dead.”
Toto trembled, his lower lip quivering. Simon merely smiled calmly and stepped forward.
“Let’s go.”
“Y-yes! Right behind you, Simon!”
Simon descended the hillside and revealed himself. The moment Hector saw him, his eyes twisted with fury.
“……You.”
“Hello, Hector.”
At Simon’s arrival, the other two members of Hector’s group tensed visibly, dropping into combat stance.
“Where are your ghouls? We both know time is running out.”
Hector spoke with crushing authority, and Simon answered with a serene smile.
Snap!
In a heartbeat, Simon’s ghoul emerged through the mist from behind, enshrouded in funeral magic.
One of Hector’s group members, seeing it too late, cried out.
“Hector! Behind——!”
Crash!
Hector’s gorilla-like ghoul rocketed forward and drove Simon’s creature into the ground like a nail. Both Eshu and Toto went pale as they watched the creature’s head cave in on impact.
‘He destroyed a ghoul wrapped in funeral magic……!’
‘In a single blow?’
“I’ll say this once. Simon Folentia.”
Rumble——!
Hector’s entire body erupted with an unsettling darkness aura. His three other ghouls mirrored their master, unleashing the same black element in waves.
“Come at me for real this time.”
……
Simon slowly raised his right arm.
“If you wish.”

* * *
“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”
Pierre Berkler was sprinting toward the 10th Group’s Altar, where Hector was locked in combat.
“No! Hector! You can’t fight them on their home ground! Damn it all!”
He had to warn them, and fast.
Simon’s Ghoul possessed a weapon beyond imagination. It was the sort of technique that could only end in disaster if you didn’t know about it, and if you got caught in it, there was no escape.
“I have to tell him—ah!”
Screech!
In that instant, a Ghoul dropped from the tree and lashed out with its claws. Pierre’s Ghoul barely managed to raise a forepaw to block.
Pierre shouted as his Ghoul skidded backward.
“Who’s there?”
Whoosh.
A girl with black hair emerged from behind a tree.
Pierre’s expression darkened instantly.
‘Lorain Arkbold. Of all times!’
“Sorry.”
She looked down at him coldly, her crimson eyes unmoved.
“I can’t let you pass.”
“Get out of the way!”
Pierre sent out a Mental Connection, and Lorain didn’t back down either.
Both of their Ghouls lunged simultaneously, their claws scraping and clashing in a shower of sparks.

* * *
Click.
Simon raised his right arm.
Hector lowered his stance, alert, while the other two members of 1st Group exchanged puzzled looks.
“What are you doing?”
“Aren’t you summoning your Ghoul? If a test-taker stands alone for a minute without a Ghoul, that’s a rule violation….”
Then.
Simon’s palm began to slowly close, his fingers curling inward.
‘?!’
Hector’s expression twisted grotesquely as he watched, then he shouted in urgent warning.
“Run! Get back!”
“…Rise, Corpse—”
Churn-churn-churn!
In a single heartbeat, three Ghouls thrust their heads up from the ground around the Altar.
At the same moment, Simon clenched his fist.
“—Poison Explosion.”
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
The Ghouls’ bodies ruptured in unison, and a sickly green vapor erupted across the Altar as though a massive chemical weapon had been detonated.
“Ugh, what is this?!”
“The Ghouls exploded?!”
By layering overload and Funeral Magic on a Ghoul, then detonating it alongside decomposition gas, Simon’s new secret art unleashed all the toxic matter within outward in every direction.
Hector quickly covered his mouth, as did the other two.
‘Did he just use Corpse Explosion?’
What Simon had used was undeniably Dark Magic, but since it was an Exam for Ghouls—techniques that applied directly to Ghouls rather than cast by the summoner, like Funeral Magic—it was permitted.
Though the green vapor spread across a considerable area, fortunately it bore no lethal force. The group members remained unharmed, as did the Ghouls.
‘The Ghouls…?’
They froze in place.
As if time itself had stopped.
The Mental Connection held firm and the Summoning Magic Circles remained intact, but the Dark Element couldn’t flow through properly.
“Kabara’s Poison—the natural enemy of summoned creatures,” Simon explained.
He spoke without emotion.
“Kabara’s Poison drops Dark Element sensitivity to an extreme. Normally it’s liquid, but I remade it to function as a gas.”
“Grrrgh!”
Hector tried to move his Ghoul as he backed away from the poisoned vapor, but it wouldn’t budge.
“You!”
Crash!
And seizing the confusion, Toto’s Ghoul surged forward—naturally, it was one Simon had personally treated with immunity to the poison.
Toto’s ghoul passed through the poison smoke and dropped all the artifacts it had collected onto the altar. Among them was the red artifact from Hector’s side.
“Simon!”
Hector’s eyes blazed with fury, as though he might lunge at Simon at any moment. One member of the 1st Group pulled free from the poison smoke and summoned a new ghoul.
“Bring back the artifact!”
His ghoul charged into the poison smoke, but it couldn’t hold out for long and came to a halt before the altar. Then Toto’s ghoul tore it apart by the throat.
“Ugh!”
The severed mental connection made him stagger. The member beside him clicked his tongue.
“……this is ridiculous. It’s right in front of us, and we can’t take it.”
“What is this? The ghoul’s moving like a Corpse Explosion!”
Simon, finally seizing the advantage, turned to face him.
“Give it up, Hector.”
“…….”
“You’ve got about fifteen minutes left.”
Hector bit down hard on his lip.
“This poison smoke will linger in the air for about twenty minutes, and I still have three Poison Ghouls at my disposal. Are you going to keep trying?”
“Hector, don’t play games with yourself!”
“If it’s come to this, I’ll see it through to the end…….”
“……that’s enough.”
Hector squeezed his eyes shut.
Blood dripped steadily from his trembling fists. He knew it as well as anyone.
“I’m withdrawing.”
The match was already decided.

* * *
Simon’s strategy had been the deciding factor.
With Professor Byeol-Ya and Benya’s cooperation, Simon had acquired a new technique called the Corpse Poison Explosion, and he had devised a plan to utilize it to its fullest potential.
He had known from the start that Hector would attack relentlessly. By giving the red artifact to the 4th Group, Simon could predict with confidence that Hector would return empty-handed and instead fortify Simon’s own altar. The specifics of this exam’s rules made such a strategy entirely feasible.
And the detailed rules of this exam were as follows:
-A test-taker may control a maximum of three ghouls simultaneously. Once a ghoul is summoned, it cannot be returned to the Subspace.
A single three-ghoul control limit.
In other words, so long as you don’t establish a mental connection, it’s possible to summon other ghouls in advance. Toto had tested whether this rule actually worked, and Simon had buried three ghouls in the ground near the altar.
Afterward, Hector claimed the 10th Group’s altar.
At the twenty-minute mark, Simon triggered a Corpse Explosion with the buried ghoul and enveloped the altar in poison smoke.
Fortunately, the wind hadn’t blown strongly, and he had plenty of expendable ghouls left.
A victory formula executed flawlessly.
Hector accepted his defeat and withdrew from the altar. It was a swift decision, true to his nature. Had he clung to the artifacts any longer, the situation would have spiraled further out of control.
During the remaining time, Hector focused on securing other artifacts and returned to his own altar.
Meanwhile, the 4th Group and 13th Group were still fighting tooth and nail, and the outcome was the 4th Group managing to defend their artifacts. Of course, they hadn’t secured many additional artifacts during the struggle.
At last, time ran out.
1st Place – 10th Group (40 points)
2nd Place – 4th Group (32 points)
3rd Place – 1st Group (9 points)
4th Place – 13th Group (5 points)
It was a complete victory for the 10th Group.
“We won! We woooooon!”
Eshu bounced with joy, swinging his arms wildly. Toto and Lorain beamed with happiness, and Simon let out a sigh of relief.
It was a victory earned by everyone executing the strategy perfectly. As they exited the Arena, other students watching on the screens offered their applause.
“Well done.”
Aaron lined up the students who had just finished the exam and gave them a debriefing.
“The 10th Group succeeded because each and every member fulfilled their role.”
Simon’s new technique and strategy.
Lorain’s disruption and defense.
Toto’s ability to relocate monsters and secure artifacts.
Eshu’s deception and clever raiding included.
“A Corpse Poison Explosion using ghouls, then…….”
Aaron looked at Simon as though he’d created something bizarre once again. Simon laughed awkwardly.
‘Still, this technique has considerable academic value. If I register it with Pentamonium, it’ll sell like wildfire.’
The conventional Corpse Explosion has a serious drawback: the zombie serving as the bomb moves at an extremely slow pace. But Simon’s new technique overcame that risk by employing ghouls instead.
Funeral Magic activated on a ghoul’s ultra-high-speed movement, followed by a gas explosion—an entirely new type of secret technique.
Beyond that, it was possible to vary the poison itself, and even to lurk underground before detonating. The applications were endlessly adaptable.
“No need to say more. Grade A+. Good work.”
“Thank you!!”
The four of them high-fived one another, breaking into bright smiles.
And though the 4th Group’s atmosphere wasn’t quite as effusive as the 10th Group’s, it was still excellent. They hadn’t claimed first place, but they seemed delighted to have knocked out their rivals in the 13th Group and climbed to second, surpassing Hector’s 1st Group.
“Thanks. Even if you did use us, I won’t forget the help you gave us this time.”
The 4th Group Leader grinned widely as he said it.
It was Hector’s turn for feedback at last.
“Hector Muir. The ghouls you developed weren’t inferior to Simon’s explosive ones at all. Your versatility was superior, in fact.”
Aaron crossed his arms.
“But why you lost to him—you know that better than anyone, I’d wager.”
“…Yes.”
Hector clenched his teeth and lowered his head.
If Hector hadn’t been consumed by rage when he saw the 10th Group’s Altar emptied, if he’d instead stayed level-headed and tracked down the other group that stole the artifact before crushing them—the outcome might have been different.
As the briefing wound down, two more matches had already begun simultaneously elsewhere.
Wooooaaahhhhh—!
Exclamations burst from the watching students each time someone made a spectacular play. Simon’s curiosity drew him toward the screens as well.
“Huh.”
The strongest group in this entire exam.
The 8th Group—Aseraz and White—had just appeared on the screen.
“What is that?”
Lorain, who’d followed behind him, widened her eyes in surprise.
Everything visible on the screen was blanketed entirely in white.

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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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