Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 579

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Summoning Genius of the Necromancer School 579
“At last we’ll see it.”
“I’m nervous!”
The Summoning Department students filed out of the classroom with eager faces, pulling on their coats and robes.
‘A Dullahan.’
Simon’s anticipation burned hotter than anyone’s, and Aaron, deliberately ignoring the weight of his gaze, adjusted his coat and spoke.
“Everyone’s here. We’ll begin.”
With a simple gesture, he opened a Subspace. A massive leg emerged from it and pressed into the snow.
Wow—!
Had he fashioned an Undead from a giant? The Dullahan Aaron summoned was enormous. Its body was swathed in black armor, and a Greatsword hung across its back.
Where its neck should have been, there was only empty space, and across that severed surface, dark energy roiled.
As it walked, swinging its massive arms in wide arcs, several students who rushed forward to get a better look suddenly cried out and staggered back.
“Ahhh!”
“Kyaaaa!”
Shrieks of alarm echoed from all around. What the creature held in its hand was its own head.
As the Undead swept its gaze around, gripping its own skull by the hair, a few students blanched at that chilling, Undead-like display.
“Wow! Wow! That’s incredibly awesome!”
“We can use that too now, right?”
Of course, there were students who burned with genuine curiosity and fascination as Necromancers. Among them was Eshu, bouncing excitedly from foot to foot.
“Eshu.”
Simon grabbed her wrist as it jutted out like a stray pebble and pulled her back.
“It’s dangerous.”
Whoosh!
The Dullahan’s arm, holding its head, swept through the space just in front of Eshu’s face. She nearly got struck.
Her eyes widened in surprise, then her lips curled up and she let out an “Ooh~” sound.
“…What’s ooh about that.”
“Hehe, no no no~ Thank you, thank you.”
Thump! Thump!
The Dullahan circled around and returned to Aaron’s side.
Compared to the Zombies, Ghouls, and Skeletons they’d seen so far, this Undead felt like it operated on an entirely different level.
“The Dullahan possesses several combat advantages.”
Aaron began his explanation. At the same time, the Dullahan raised the arm holding its own head straight up, securing its field of vision.
“Its reliance on sight despite its head being severed. Its superior durability. Its ability to wield a knight’s Aura. But what I want to explain today is—”
Shing!
The Dullahan fixed its gaze forward and drew the Greatsword from its back. Aaron traced a Magic Circle and affixed it to the Dullahan’s back.
“Its transcendent physical strength and bodily prowess.”
Something was about to begin.
As the teaching assistants ushered the students back, they produced a Skeleton as the target. The Dullahan immediately kicked off the ground and launched itself into the air.
Boom!
The massive frame soared high into the sky, and as it landed, it swung its blade.
Swaaaaang!
The smooth, satisfying strike sent every student’s hair flying upward.
The power and speed were almost impossible to believe from a creature of such bulk. Each time the sword passed through a Skeleton, the creature shattered from skull to toe, scattering into fragments.
Crack!
When it cleaved the target stone cleanly in half at the end, a thunderous resonance erupted.
Raw power was a given, and its swordsmanship as a knight was executed without a single wasted motion.
“Stop.”
At Aaron’s command, the Dullahan stilled. The wind pressure alone from its movements had scattered all the accumulated snow around it; the ground lay bare and pale.
“Hector Moor.”
Hector, who had been watching with his arms crossed in a posture of arrogant superiority, straightened immediately when his name was called.
“Yes, Professor.”
“What do you think was the source of that Dullahan’s power and speed just now?”
The students’ worst nightmare—Aaron’s indiscriminate questioning.
Yet Hector answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Dark Aura, sir.”
Aura is a technique where knights plant Mana. Dark Aura, naturally, is the concept of an Aura created not from Mana, but from the Shadow Element.
“A textbook answer, but wrong. This Dullahan did not employ an Aura just now.”
Hector’s nose wrinkled. It was the look of disappointment.
“Toto Armory.”
“Huh? Oh, oh yes yes! It’s Toto Armory! Um, um—! The superior strength of the body…….”
“That’s wrong.”
This time Aaron’s gaze shifted upward to Toto.
“Simon Polenthia.”
“…….”
Simon paused, thinking, then spoke.
“Mana.”
Confused expressions rippled through the crowd. Hector’s faction snickered openly.
“Interesting. And why do you believe mana is the source of power that undead produce?”
“Just now.”
Simon pointed toward the Dullahan. The Dullahan shifted the head cradled in his grasp, turning to look at Simon.
“I saw the mana around us getting sucked into the Dullahan.”
Several students murmured as if they’d noticed something as well.
“Oh, now that you mention it…”
“The mana density around us does seem to have dropped…”
Aaron nodded slowly.
“Correct.”
Ooh!
Exclamations burst from the gathered students.
Eshu cheered, “Just as expected from the Student Council President!” and patted his shoulder, while Hector clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“The Dullahan is often called a mana-devouring beast. Just as necromancers draw mana through breathing and convert it to shadow through their core, the Dullahan draws all ambient mana into itself and transforms it into shadow to fuel its power.”
Aaron drew a Magic Circle of pure mana in front of the Dullahan’s chest. The circle’s structure collapsed in less than a second, sucked into the Dullahan.
“Because the volume of mana it absorbs is beyond imagination, any mage can be rendered powerless simply by approaching it. It’s also effective in battles against priests, who convert ambient mana to holiness. Everyone, try it yourselves.”
Students rushed forward and drew mana Magic Circles, which the Dullahan absorbed completely. The farther the distance, the longer a circle could be sustained, but shadow Magic Circles proved immune to this effect.
It was clear that even in modern times, undead used as frontline combatants were different in fundamental ways.
Aaron continued his explanation while gesturing along the Dullahan’s body. This particular Dullahan had a total of eleven points where it drew in mana.
“Returning to our main subject—do you remember Lino’s Golden Line, the Ghoul Funeral Magic technique taught during Summoning Funeral Magic classes?”
“Yes!”
“Ghouls sacrifice their Summoning Circle, instead spreading explosive shadow across their entire bodies to gain tremendous power for one to two minutes. Think of the Dullahan’s explosive brute strength as operating on a similar principle.”
A berserker undead that devoured all surrounding mana indiscriminately, burned that converted shadow as fuel, and fought with savage fury.
That was the Dullahan.
“Due to these characteristics, Dullahans are typically deployed for brief, intense bursts of fifteen to twenty minutes after being summoned from the Subspace. In siege warfare, they’re used to shatter city gates, and beyond that they serve roles in pursuit-and-annihilation, route securing, and encirclement breaking—the Dullahan acts as a key card that can shift the tide of battle. Of course, there exist Dullahans engineered to fight for two or three hours, but in such cases their instantaneous output is diminished.”
Aseraz raised his hand.
“Aseraz Mikel here! Shouldn’t the Dullahan possess an organ equivalent to a necromancer’s core?”
“Correct. Notably, the Dullahan’s Ebony Organ surpasses a necromancer’s core in short-term mana conversion efficiency.”
The students murmured in surprise.
“Of course, there are trade-offs. The Dullahan’s Ebony Organ is specialized solely for shadow emission, and its efficiency drops sharply after about twenty minutes of use.”
At that moment, the teaching assistants approached and set something on the table before Aaron.
“This is the Dullahan’s core.”
Thump-thump.
It resembled a massive mass of flesh—a living organ with a Magic Circle inscribed upon it.
“A Dullahan is the engine that moves that enormous hardware, the biological organ that converts mana into shadow. The Dullahan requires two Summoning Magic Circles, and one of them is drawn upon this organ.”
Simon stepped closer to examine the Magic Circle, and at Aaron’s gesture, the circle became transparent.
“There’s no rush—I planned to teach this in class anyway. Now we’ll begin a practical assessment.”
“?!”
The mention of a practical assessment made tension flash across the students’ faces.
“I’ll provide you with the organ of a local monster that can replace the Dullahan’s Ebony Organ—Bigfoot’s Organ. Using everything you’ve learned so far, inscribe a Magic Circle upon Bigfoot’s Organ. Make it as similar as possible to a Dullahan’s Ebony Organ.”
The students stirred with unease, but Aaron continued calmly.
“Don’t worry too much, though. This is a creative free-form exercise before you’ve studied established textbook knowledge. There will be no penalties or disadvantages for failure. However, I will award bonus points to those who achieve results.”
Teaching assistants busied themselves setting up tables and chairs in the outdoor area. Aaron checked his wristwatch.
“Then, prepare yourselves right away.”

* * *
The students settled into their seats at the outdoor tables. Each table held a single flat biological organ.
Already fitted with a dark magical apparatus, the organ drew in the surrounding mana, but it could not generate shadow—instead, the mana simply leaked out through an outlet below.
The goal of this practical assessment was to make this organ produce shadow.
“We’ll provide the basic setup.”
Teaching assistants placed wooden boards with partially drawn Magic Circles on each student’s table.
“If there are materials you’d like to use, feel free to take whatever you need from over there.”
A shelf holding various materials stood beside the practice area. Aaron clapped his hands.
“Begin.”
The students began drawing magic circles in unison. They had only one biological organ to work with—a single mistake and everything would be ruined.
“……This assignment is way too difficult.”
“How are we supposed to make something we haven’t even learned yet?”
Most of the students felt overwhelmed. A few muttered their frustrations under their breath.
“If everyone could just casually make a Dullahan, what would be the point of classes or professors?”
“Exactly.”
As quitters began dropping out all around the room, three figures moved without hesitation—drawing every eye.
Hector, Aseraz, and Fitzgerald.
“Looks like the wealthy kids with their head start are running the show.”
“Yeah, I give up.”
The students who grumbled like that set down their quills and went slack, but others—knowing nothing themselves—watched with bright, eager eyes.
‘Hector grabbed an Opel.’
‘Aseraz did too!’
‘Is Opel essential?’
The students scrambled to their feet and collected the same materials the three had taken.
A fierce contest of glances erupted, followed by actual scuffles over who would secure the supplies.
“Now, now, please don’t fight!”
“We have plenty of materials!”
While the teaching assistants worked to control the chaos, Simon—ranked first in the entire year—remained exactly where he stood, arms crossed, silent.
“Simon! Aren’t you going to start?”
Toto arrived with an armful of materials, including an Opel, and spoke up.
“In case we run out, I figured we should grab these while we could……”
“Professor Aaron.”
Simon’s expression had turned serious.
“Why would he ask us to make a Dullahan’s Ebony Organ when he hasn’t even taught us how yet?”
“Uh, yeah? I have no idea.”
Simon was recalling what Aaron had said and shown on the first day of the second-year Summoning Studies course.
—To craft a Skeleton Knight, you must acquire the Rune of Remembrance and the formulas based on it. The Rune of Remembrance you learn will then serve as a crucial component in creating Ghouls, the superior form of Zombies.
—To make Ghouls, you must master the Transformation Formula that induces mutations in corpses, and the Decay Transformation Formula. After that, by combining the Ghoul’s Decay Transformation Formula with the Rune of Remembrance learned from Skeleton Knights, you can create the magical undead known as the Devourer.
Aaron had explained repeatedly, writing countless undead formulas and Rune Language on the board that would be covered the first semester. Then he connected all of them with lines, drawing everything toward a single focal point at the center.
—Once you’ve built all these fundamentals, only then will you be able to create the third-tier undead, the headless knight, the Dullahan.
“……Toto.”
Once his recollection ended, Simon smiled faintly and finally picked up his quill pen.
“We might already know the way, actually.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————