Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 602

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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, Chapter 602
After the weekend and two days of major coursework.
The midterm examination finally began.
Simon had done his best to put thoughts of Manus aside during that time, devoting himself instead to written study.
“Don’t be nervous. Do your best with what you’ve prepared.”
Aaron said this, placing his hand above the students’ heads. In front of each desk lay an inverted exam paper.
“Any cheating results in a zero. I won’t tell you not to try, but if you can manage it—go ahead and try.”
As befitted a Summoning Studies professor, Aaron’s method of catching cheaters was equally unconventional. Around him floated several dragonfly-like summoning creatures, each bristling with multiple eyes.
He checked the clock and spoke.
“Begin.”
It was grueling.
The major exam lasted over four hours. A test of absolute concentration where you had to endure even your body’s natural urges.
Simon focused on the heavy paper and the black writing upon it, working through each problem methodically.
During midterm week, each professor had their own unique method of catching cheaters—and there was a small entertainment value in watching them.
The Summoning Studies professors each summoned creatures that supplemented their sight and hearing; Jane calculated the classroom’s spatial dimensions and positioned instructors seamlessly across the rear and sides; Hong Peng climbed onto the lectern and looked down at the students as though pressing them beneath his gaze.
“Forgive the intrusion, everyone.”
Bahil placed a curse upon the very space of the classroom itself. The students had to take their exam in a room that had turned blood-red, trembling like figures in a horror novel.
They were even more frightened because they didn’t know how the curse operated. What if it misfired? The thought was horrifying, even for those with no intention of cheating.
“Hmm.”
So Bahil left the surveillance of cheating to his curse and casually drifted about the room, all the while eagerly poring over Simon’s exam paper.
‘This is… so much pressure!’
Simon himself felt like crying. Especially when tackling the essay questions—he could feel Bahil’s excited breath on the back of his neck as the professor leaned in so close.
Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!
Simon’s scalp tingled from being scrutinized with such intensity from behind.
The Senior Instructor Chehekle, noting that the proctor had completely abandoned his post, finally struck Bahil across the back and dragged him away to restore order.
And the most difficult subject proved to be, unexpectedly, the exam taken on the final day: Royal Etiquette.
Identify all instances where the plates and utensils are positioned incorrectly according to Baldwin Kingdom Northern-Southern Protocol.
Choose the course sequence that is incorrect. Note: the season is summer, and the dress code is black.
‘What does the dress code have to do with the course sequence?!’
Royal Etiquette’s protocols felt like some cruel aristocratic prank to him. Did one truly need such meticulous attention during a pleasant meal?
And the easiest exam came next.
“…What are you doing right now?”
Parahan, the professor of Holy Defense Magic, asked with a bewildered expression.
“Oh.”
Simon, who had covered his exam paper and was lying face-down just five minutes after the test began, lifted himself up.
“I finished it all.”
A brief flash of envious looks shot across the room, but Simon had no mind for others’ gazes. Exhaustion had accumulated, and he simply lay back down and closed his eyes.
An hour later, a clear bell tone rang out.
“It’s over!”
“Freedom at last!”
The students threw their exam papers and cheered. Despite their clean appearance, dark circles shadowed every eye, yet all seemed euphoric.
But Simon could not yet celebrate.
There remained one more test equally as important as the midterm.
‘I need to get back quickly.’
He had poured everything into the midterm; now it was time to prepare for Manus Dullahan once more.
Two days remained.
Simon headed toward Pier’s Ruins, where the Legion’s Ancient Undead were kept—not at the Mutation Club.
This is absolutely horrifying—we need to dispose of it!
In fact, when Benya learned that Simon had been injured while creating Manus Dullahan, she had protested furiously, insisting they dispose of it. But Simon shook his head.
The injury was entirely my own mistake. I don’t think we should abandon the research yet.
Benya had been concerned, but since the ownership of Manus belonged to Simon, she didn’t press further.
However, keeping it in the club’s basement was dangerous with first-year students around, so Simon decided to move Manus to the safer Pier’s Ruins.
[Kehehehe! You’ve come, boy!]
[Welcome, young master.]
[Commander has arriveeeed~]
Simon’s Ancient Undead.
Pier, Achemous, and Erzsebet greeted him warmly. The Lich Staff hovering in midair—Herseba—also swayed its form left and right in salute.
“How have you all been?”
Simon exchanged greetings with them as he walked forward.
Upon the altar in the Ruins, he could see Manus’s skull resting there.
“During the midterm exam, Manus didn’t cause any trouble, did he?”
[Krkrkr! That’s right. He stayed quiet.]
Simon slumped into his chair and began pulling out materials for Dullahan construction.
Erzsebet approached with a worried expression.
[Won’t you be exhausted right after the exam? Perhaps you should rest today.]
“No.”
Simon spoke seriously as he retrieved his work tools.
“It’s already too late. Now I have to produce results, no matter what it takes.”
Simon withdrew a zombie from his subspace storage.
“You coming? Prince.”
He addressed the Gray Ring on his left hand that way, then brought it into contact with the zombie’s body. Instantly, a crackling black lightning descended upon the zombie, and it transformed into Prince’s form.
[Hahahaha!]
Prince burst forth and stretched out his hand, pointing at Manus.
[How pathetic, Manus! How does it feel being just a head?]
Prince and Manus had once fought for dominance over the Deathland. Simon shook his head with a wry smile.
“Manus’s consciousness departed long ago.”
Regardless, Prince continued mocking Manus without hesitation.
Simon chuckled and withdrew materials from his subspace.
‘Alright, let’s start over slowly.’

* * *
Simon had managed to successfully create a Dullahan using Abaddon.
But this alone wasn’t enough to defeat Hector and Aseraz, let alone the other students who’d obtained Guardians. He absolutely had to complete Manus as a Dullahan.
‘Still, my thoughts have been organized during the midterm period.’
Summarized to its most basic form, the process of creating a Dullahan was as follows:
1) Draw two Summoning Magic Circles—one on the head, one on the body.
2) Connect the two Summoning Magic Circles with a “Synchronization Rune.”
This way, the two parts would certainly remain separated, yet the undead’s head would control the body through the Synchronization Rune.
At first glance, this seemingly inefficient method had its reasons.
‘……The explosive power and output of the Dullahan.’
When the Dullahan draws in vast quantities of mana and sends the Blackness Engine into rampage, transmitting darkness throughout its entire body, the physical form endures tremendous strain.
If a Summoning Magic Circle existed inside the body, it would be caught in the raging darkness and destroyed in less than a minute.
Like a Ghoul that shatters after using Rino’s Golden Thread, the Dullahan would become a disposable undead, usable only once.
But the modern Dullahan keeps its vital Summoning Magic Circle in the “head.” Now it was possible to let the body rampage without risk of damage.
‘Even thinking about it again, it’s remarkable.’
The original creator of the Dullahan had transformed the disadvantage of a separated neck and body into an advantage.
This was exactly what he’d learned from the special lecture by the Summoning Studies professors.
But the “Synchronization Rune” used in a Dullahan fundamentally only worked between undead whose head and body were originally the same.
This was precisely where Simon found himself blocked, unable to find a breakthrough.
“Another failure.”
Faced with the pitiful results of his practice attempt, Simon flopped backward. Then Pier approached with a laugh. [Krkrk!]
[What if you simply gave up on that “Synchronization Rune”?]
“Pardon?”
Pier plopped down beside Simon.
[I’m not deeply versed in human Black Magic, but that rune language can’t synchronize two completely different entities.]
“But—”
Simon crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
“That’s precisely the core of what makes a Dullahan. Without the Synchronization Rune and the critical formulas, you can’t even call it a ‘Dullahan’ in the first place.”
He’d considered assembling Manus as a Skeleton, but equipping another skeleton’s body wouldn’t let him exert his full power anyway.
Above all, the promise he’d made to Aaron was to create the finest “Dullahan” among his classmates.
He absolutely could not abandon Bone Dragon, his second-year final objective.
[May I offer a word, young master?]
It was then that Achemous interjected.
[For the undead, a body from their living days remains important. It’s rare to find cases where a different consciousness moves a body from another’s living days. Though, there is one exception—]
“An exception?”
[Chimera. Abominations, particularly.]
A gleam flashed in Achemous’s eyes.
[Even as an undead myself, I don’t look favorably upon such things, but Abominations—they’re made of different flesh pieces moving together, are they not?]
Hearing those words, Simon sprang to his feet.

* * *
“So you’re saying an undead’s consciousness can move another undead’s body?”
Simon stood in Grerion’s research cavern—a place he’d first visited during that initial Summoning Materials lecture, the kind of location you had to reach by carriage through a mine shaft.
The heart of the cavern was thick with humid mist, and the air reeked of sweat.
“Huff.”
Grerion was in the center of the cavern, lifting and lowering a barbell in a steady rhythm. Evenly-sized stones hung from both ends of the iron rod.
‘How is a person even lifting that?’
Simon stood watching, mouth agape.
Thud!
Grerion set the barbell down and finally approached Simon. He wiped his neck with a towel draped across his shoulders—a body noticeably leaner than before.
He’d looked like that ever since the Frigod Autonomous Region conflict; it was clearly the aftereffect of using the Chimerization technique on his entire body.
“Why are you curious about something like that?”
Simon quickly stepped aside.
Grerion hadn’t come toward him at all—he was just reaching for another tool. This time he gripped a massive lever-like device connected to the cavern wall, then began repeatedly compressing and extending it with both hands.
Crack-crack-crack!
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!
Each time, the cavern shuddered as though crying out.
“I’d think the students should be focusing on Dullahan construction right now.”
Simon forced a awkward smile and spoke up.
“Actually…”
He explained the whole situation honestly to Grerion—how his current Guardian only had a body, and he wanted to make it move using another undead’s head instead.
Grerion let out a loud laugh upon hearing this.
“What an interesting idea! Usually people entertain such thoughts but just dismiss them as fantasies, so it’s amusing that you’d come to me in earnest for help!”
Thud!
He set down the lever and approached.
“Just as Aaron said.”
“I’m sorry?”
“No, never mind. If you’re asking whether an undead’s consciousness can synchronize the body of another undead individual, then yes—under certain conditions, it’s possible.”
He pulled several books from a Subspace.
“I suppose you came thinking of an Abomination?”
How did he know?
Simon nodded readily, thinking that professors truly were different.
“First, here are the Rune Languages an Abomination uses.”
Simon’s eyes widened as he saw them.
‘This… is difficult.’
Not only was it difficult, but the system differed from the Rune Language Simon used.
“And while an Abomination might seem like a jumbled mess of different flesh, it’s actually processed through Chimera technology so that multiple bodies function as one. That’s different from moving two separate bodies.”
“I see.”
Thud!
Grerion struck the cavern wall with his fist.
“I have a question for you, Simon.”
“Yes, sir. Please go ahead.”
“Your conception is undoubtedly revolutionary.”
Grerion’s lips curved upward.
“But why isn’t your method revolutionary?”
“…!”
“Why do you keep trying to reference existing Summoning knowledge, and why do you only want to follow already-established Rune Language systems?”
Grerion raised his thick arm.
“I think your idea is a fantasy. But you’re seriously trying to turn that fantasy into reality. Why? Because you think it would be cool? Because it would impress people? Because it seems amazing once completed? None of that.”
His finger stopped before Simon’s forehead.
“It’s because you truly believe you can do it.”
“…”
“The answer is in your head. Can you honestly say you’re mobilizing every possible means at your disposal to create this fantasy Dullahan?”
It felt like being struck in the back of the head with a hammer.
His heart suddenly began pounding.
He hadn’t thought he’d heard anything particularly important, yet a spark ignited deep within his chest.
“Thank you so much!”
A smile finally bloomed across Simon’s face.
“I think I can do this.”
Grerion smiled as he watched Simon leave.
—If Simon ever comes asking for help with Dullahan construction, please offer him guidance on direction rather than technical advice.
‘……She’s calling him her direct disciple, and her diagnosis is always accurate.’
And so time passed.
At last, the day of the Practical Assessment for Single Undead Operation arrived.

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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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