Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 578
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Necromancer School’s Summoning Genius, Episode 578
The Base Camp where the Summoning Department’s training camp begins.
Because Kizen’s reputation was so notorious, students who heard the word “training camp” were skeptical from the start.
They thought Kizen would probably just toss them a tent with holes in it, then disappear after instructing them to figure out meals, sleep, and even fire-making on their own.
But.
“It’s… actually not bad?”
Between white snowy trees, picturesque log cabins spread out before them.
Snow lay gently on the roofs, and warm smoke rose from the chimneys. There were water stations where they could get drinking water, and places to prepare food.
“Look, a puppy!”
“It’s so cute!”
A white-furred dog panted happily, wagging its tail. Led by Eshu, the female students rushed over to it.
The largest log cabin in the center was bigger than most of Kizen’s lecture halls, and with many smaller buildings beside it, there seemed to be plenty of space for all fifty-two of them to spread out.
Perhaps because the place was cleaner than expected, warm laughter echoed from various spots, though some students still remained tense and cautious.
“Don’t be fooled, you lot.”
“We saw monsters out there just now.”
Then Aaron stopped walking and turned to face the students.
“Listen up.”
The students fell silent at once, their eyes fixed on Aaron.
“You’ve worked hard getting here. I understand the excitement, but we didn’t come to play. Since we’ve arrived later than expected, we’ll start the special lecture right away.”
The Senior Instructor, clutching the attendance ledger to his chest, stepped forward.
“All students will proceed to the lecture hall! The rest of you instructors, assemble. Those of you assigned to check the Barrier, move out immediately.”
The students filed toward the largest central building. Simon’s team of ten did the same.
“Everyone! Isn’t the atmosphere here amazing? A training camp in a place like this! It’s perfect!”
Eshu, unable to contain her excitement, bounced around. Simon nodded along with a smile.
“Yeah. This’ll be fun.”
“……B-but, I have a feeling there’s definitely a hidden mission or something.”
Toto glanced nervously around. Lorain stood with her eyes closed, her expression troubled.
“What’s wrong, Lorain?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Simon’s team entered the building. Eshu pressed her fur-gloved hands to both cheeks and squealed.
“So warm! This is amazing!”
The heat from the fireplace had already spread throughout, making it toasty. The students all removed their thick coats and winter robes, taking their seats and chatting away.
Soon Aaron and the instructors entered as well. They were discussing various things about the training camp facilities, and the students in the front rows perked up their ears, wondering if there might be some secret mission.
“How’s the Barrier status?”
“It’s holding well. There are quite a few monsters roaming outside, but it shouldn’t pose any major problems.”
“Keep an eye on things. If the population increases, reduce the numbers slightly.”
“Yes, sir.”
After giving instructions to the instructors, Aaron climbed onto the platform. The instructors brought over a large blackboard and hung it on the wall.
Whoosh—
Apparently warm, Aaron removed his coat as well.
The moment he shed that impressive winter coat, his usual short-sleeved shirt and baggy shorts appeared beneath. The students stifled their laughter.
Aaron picked up the chalk and began writing slowly on the blackboard.
“First of all, I’m glad to see all the students from the department here for this special lecture.”
The students clapped their hands and smiled back. The atmosphere started warm from the beginning.
“Then let’s start the lesson with an easy question. Can anyone tell me about the main materials used to make a Durahan?”
Snap!
Aseraz, the top note-taker in the school, shot his hand up quickly, but Fitzgerald in the front row was just slightly faster.
Aaron called on Fitzgerald.
“Fitzgerald. Ogrelord, Abaddon, and Guardian.”
“Correct.”
Fitzgerald smugly pushed his glasses up and sat back down.
“But the most important material has been left out.”
The glasses he’d been pushing up slipped awkwardly to one side.
“There exists a material more powerful than those three mentioned earlier. A Durahan made from this material is truly a premium product. Does anyone know it?”
The lecture hall fell silent.
Even the students who had studied for the midterm examination had only memorized the main materials of a Durahan as “Ogrelord, Abaddon, and Guardian.” They knew nothing of any material beyond those three.
“The finest material for a Durahan—”
Aaron broke the silence and spoke.
“Is human.”
‘?!’
The students exchanged glances, murmuring among themselves. Eshu stood rigid, her shoulders taut.
“As you all know, the summoned Undead that Necromancers use are mostly modeled after ‘Natural Undead.’ Zombies, Skeletons, Ghouls—they all already exist as Natural Undead in the world.”
But.
Aaron let the word hang in the air.
“The Durahan has no ‘Natural Undead’ form. It’s an Undead that humans created directly for their own desires and interests. That is what the Durahan is.”
Since this knowledge appeared nowhere in their textbooks, the students leaned forward with rapt attention, waiting for Aaron’s next words.
Aaron gestured to a student sitting in front.
“Joseph. Tell me the most important characteristic of the Durahan.”
The student, caught off guard at being called on, jolted upright in surprise.
“Joseph Varga, sir! I, um…… the question…….”
“The most important characteristic of the Durahan.”
Fifty-one pairs of eyes converged on the stammering student.
Though he seemed unprepared, Joseph’s mind spun desperately. Then something flickered across his face, and he opened his mouth.
“N-no neck, sir! It has no neck!”
“Correct.”
Tap-tap. Tap.
Aaron began sketching something on the blackboard.
“Three crucial characteristics of the Durahan have emerged. No neck. Human remains as the primary material. An Undead created directly by human hands. Now—do you sense the secret of the Durahan?”
A heavy silence fell over the classroom. Aaron’s drawing skill was unremarkable, but the features were rendered unmistakably.
Two tall pillars, a blade suspended between them by rope, a wooden frame with openings for a face and two hands.
“That’s…….”
“Surely not.”
It was a guillotine.
The students grimaced. Then Aaron, having sketched a stark and brutal image of a severed corpse, set down his chalk.
“The beginning of the Durahan was precisely this—researchers who stole and studied severed bodies.”
In ages past, there was a time when knights and mages ruled the continent.
In those days, Necromancers were little more than third-rate practitioners and targets of persecution. They fled deep into the shadows to escape the witch hunts.
The Necromancers had no intention of enduring such misery forever. To stand against the knights who vastly outnumbered them, they pursued relentless research into transforming fallen knights into Undead.
It was not easy.
No matter how powerful a knight’s corpse they obtained and converted into Undead, they could not preserve the knight’s original strength and capability. A common soldier or an Aura-wielding knight became virtually identical once reduced to a Skeleton—indistinguishable.
As Necromancers one by one abandoned the research of “creating Undead from knights,” there was one Necromancer who remained obsessed with the pursuit.
He studied only knights. When his supply of knight corpses ran dry, he ventured to execution grounds and black markets to procure the headless bodies of decapitated knights.
It was an era of fierce conflict, yet knights encased in thick plate armor rarely fell on the battlefield itself. Their heavy armor made retreat difficult; instead, they often found themselves captured as prisoners or fell victim to feudal strife and political machination, meeting their end on the scaffold.
Headless knight corpses, by contrast, were comparatively easy to obtain. The Necromancer devoted himself to studying how to transform these corpses into Undead.
His peers mocked him. The prevailing wisdom of that era held that headless corpses were worthless—since Undead required a ‘Summoning Magic Circle’ to be inscribed upon the skull.
Yet he remained undaunted.
—You may laugh at me now, but history will prove my research.
Five years after he began his study of knights, results began to emerge.
Success was within reach.
“His idea was this.”
Aaron sketched a simple drawing of a head and a headless body on the blackboard, then inscribed a Summoning Magic Circle on each part.
“The concept of using two Summoning Magic Circles—one for the body, one for the head.”
Murmurs of admiration rippled through the classroom.
Until now, they had only understood the Durahan as a particularly powerful form of Undead. Hearing such detailed explanation was entirely new, and their focus reached its peak.
“However, the result was merely two separate, uncoordinated Undead—a body and a head moving independently and uselessly. The Necromancer refined his research further to overcome this limitation, and―”
Tap-tap.
“He arrived at the conclusion that he needed to use Gemini—the so-called ‘Synchronization Rune’—as the primary Rune Language.”
The moment he lifted his head after saying this, Aseraz Mikel was already waiting with her hand raised.
Aaron let out a short laugh and pointed to her.
“Aseraz Mikel, go ahead. The Synchronization Rune Gemini is used in modern large-scale Communication Magic and Teleport Magic Circles. It serves to link two magical circles together.”
“Well done.”
Aseraz settled back into her seat with a satisfied expression, while Hector, raising his hand too late, absently kicked at a wood splinter on the floor.
“The Durahan, surprisingly, was originally constructed using materials from Communication Magic Circles. Just as Communication Magic links sender and receiver, it was designed to bind the head and body together.”
Aaron drew a line on the blackboard connecting the torso to the head.
“This is the most primitive form of the Durahan. Over time, the equations and Rune Language improved, and it evolved into the current form—two Summoning Magic Circles synchronized as one.”
Aaron lowered the chalk and surveyed the students around him.
“So the Durahan, born from such foolish persistence—’If there are so many headless knight corpses, I’ll use those’—finally―”
Aaron’s voice echoed through the classroom, heavy with silence.
“Ended the Age of Knights.”
Throughout the classroom, excited students gasped aloud.
“The Durahan became the ultimate weapon for Necromancers to face against knights. Confronting a single Durahan required three or four knights, and any knight slain by a Durahan was promptly raised as another Durahan.”
The notion that an Undead could exist stronger than the living entity it once was—this shattered conventional wisdom of that age.
“The fall of the once-invincible Talhern Empire stands as a landmark historical event, marking the end of the Age of Knights. When the Emperor dispatched an army of fifty thousand to Kizen, those fifty thousand became Undead themselves, turned their cavalry mounts around, and attacked the imperial capital as the Rose Retrograde—and Durahans led that formation.”
Male students with martial temperaments erupted in cheers.
“Even now, the Durahan holds tremendous significance in the Necromancer world. When a Summoner claims to command a Durahan, it is proof that I am a skilled Summoner—a mark of that caliber.”
Cheers echoed from the back rows as well. The classroom’s atmosphere grew fevered.
“This opportunity has come to you now. During this special lecture series, I hope each of you will master your own Durahan. That concludes my opening remarks.”
Waaaaaaah!
At last, the excited students erupted in wild cheers.
Having delivered the perfect motivation and crowned the opening lecture with crisp finality, Aaron turned with a slight smile and walked toward the door.
“Come outside. I will now demonstrate the Durahan for you.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————