Reincarnated as a Genius Prodigy of a Prestigious Family - Chapter 304

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Reincarnated as a Legendary Talent Genius of a Noble Family Episode 304

196. Because No One Dies

Lich, Saul Hanston.

One who has lived through hundreds of years.

And the founder of unprecedented secret magic, strong enough to be counted among the best not only in this Academy but across the entire continent.

Such a person shows a strange reaction to the name ‘Del Orno’.

“You’re going to explore that place?”

“Is there any reason I can’t? I heard the excavation is almost finished.”

“Excavation? You mean that excavation where they only scratched around the surface like catching mice and left the core untouched?”

He seems to know something.

“Are you saying the excavation is incomplete?”

“That’s right. They made a fuss calling it the discovery of the century back then, but if they knew what was inside, they would have stopped the excavation immediately.”

There’s something inside.

It’s a ruin where excavation is almost complete, but in reality it’s as if nothing has been excavated at all.

“You know what it is.”

“Of course I do. It wasn’t really my concern so I didn’t pay much attention, but seeing how there’s been no news since, it seems they haven’t awakened the ‘fellow’ inside.”

The story expands.

The ‘something’ inside is a living being referred to as ‘fellow’.

“I went there about 150 years ago. I saw what was inside and thought about waking it up to play around, but came back. When I became interested again later, they were in the middle of excavation.”

“Then what’s inside?”

“It’s a creature that the demons brought with them when they first set foot on this land long ago. It’s currently in hibernation.”

So it’s not a demon.

“But it’s a fellow stronger than most demons.”

“Then the reason the necklace reacts to demonic energy is…”

“Necklace?”

I briefly explained the situation.

Then Professor Cross became more curious about past events than my current situation.

“…What happened with demons in the Habarosk Mountain Range?”

“I think it said something about who it was. Anyway, it had just been resurrected so I somehow managed to defeat it and extracted that essence.”

“What the hell kind of fellow are you…”

Eyes full of disbelief.

“You even won and turned that thing’s demonic energy into essence?”

“It kept reacting to the necklace and going berserk, so I eventually destroyed it.”

“…”

“Professor, have you never seen a demon?”

“I haven’t… no.”

“I thought someone of your level would have seen one at least once.”

“…Sorry I couldn’t manage that.”

For some reason, it felt so natural that he looked like he should apologize.

“Ahem, anyway…”

Professor Cross returned to the original topic.

“If I had to guess roughly, some energy from the hibernating creature seeped into that necklace discovered at the Del Orno ruins… and the demon essence might have reacted to that energy.”

“That’s a reasonable assumption.”

“If that’s not it, it’s hard to think of other reasons. It would be stranger for an artifact found in ruins to react to demonic energy, wouldn’t it?”

Then he showed interest in the demon essence.

“By the way, you destroyed it? However you destroyed it… that’s a bit regrettable.”

He clicks his tongue.

Never having seen one, any mage would naturally be curious.

At those words, I showed him a small amount of essence I had set aside before destruction from my subspace.

“That’s…”

“Yes, demon essence.”

Then I put it back inside.

“I’ll give it to you after I return from the expedition. I might need to use it there.”

“Really?”

“Yes. After that, I don’t think I’ll have much use for it.”

Professor Cross’s lips curved upward.

But only for a moment.

“No, wait. Do you really have to go there? Really? Well, I heard you frequent the Imperial Palace – did they order you to investigate something there?”

“No. I’m just going out of curiosity.”

“…”

Well, it’s not like I feel some kind of mission.

Not some grand purpose like the Empire will be safe if I eliminate the fellow in there.

The purpose of exploration is purely for fun.

Curiosity.

And the additional goals that come with it.

“There’s someone I need to persuade, and if I persuade that fellow, another fellow won’t have to be sad anymore.”

“What, is there some love triangle among your friends?”

“Fortunately not.”

“…”

Professor Cross looked at me with a contemplative expression and said.

“Honestly, if you were any other fellow, I would have stopped you. Absolutely. Going on an ‘expedition’ to fully excavated ruins means going deep inside.”

Then he added.

“I don’t know what’s inside either. Maybe there’s not just one creature. If it’s just a simple investigation that’s fine, but if you accidentally wake them up…”

“I’ll have to deal with them.”

Maybe that’s what I’ll have to do.

It’s true I’m going for fun, but taking responsibility for it is definitely necessary too.

And I’m confident.

Especially since Priscilla is coming with me this time.

“Right. Since you’re a fellow who can say such things so casually…”

Therefore Professor Cross shook his head as if he had no choice.

“Honestly, I’m a bit excited.”

I grinned.

“I’ll tell you what I discover when I return.”

“Good. I’ll look forward to it. But still, you need to come back alive, and since you’re dealing with a fellow I have no information about…”

Professor Cross suddenly pulled out a black orb from his subspace.

“It’s a spatial freeze orb. I created it myself.”

“Spatial freeze means…”

“Interpret it literally. It’s very momentary, but it stops everything within a certain space. More precisely, it calls forth frost from the northernmost continent.”

“I’ll use it well.”

“Good. It’s best if you don’t use it, but use it if necessary.”

Professor Cross, who coolly handed over such a precious tool, waved his hand dismissively.

“Class is over, what are you doing not leaving?”

Friday.

Expedition preparations began.

As always, under Ernest’s leadership, we gathered equipment, planned routes, and established the overall expedition plan.

“Dane, this expedition won’t be easy either, will it? Originally I was thinking we’d just look around and come back… but deep exploration is a different story, isn’t it?”

“Right. We don’t know the scale inside or what might be in there. We should leave a bit earlier than planned.”

Since we’re going on the weekend anyway, we decided to depart on Friday to match when everyone’s lectures end.

“Enough dry rations… enough preserved food too. Did you say you replaced the sleeping bags with new ones last time?”

“Yeah. Leila got all luxury brands.”

“How much does one of these cost…”

The preparations were going steadily well.

While gathering the necessary supplies, I established an overall plan with Ernest.

“So we arrive Friday night, camp, then enter the next day?”

“Yeah. First we’ll camp while checking the surrounding security situation, and we need to figure out how to enter the depths.”

“Then it might take a while.”

“If finding the entrance takes a bit longer, we might need to look into next week. Or maybe even longer than that.”

As we’ve proven in every expedition, there are always variables in these damn explorations.

This is especially true for expeditions like this one where there’s no information at all and the nature has changed drastically.

So Ernest and I aimed to plan the schedule loosely while also discussing emergency situations.

“If worst comes to worst, tearing the scroll and escaping is priority, and we’ll need to use the tools Sister Arabella gave us. And… the life forms inside are definitely strong, right?”

“Probably.”

“Then how about we plan out some formations?”

I was a bit surprised.

I didn’t expect Ernest to make such a suggestion.

“Actually, I learned this in Introduction to Military Science… they said it’s good to do this when operating squad-sized forces.”

“Since you brought it up, let’s try it once.”

It was the same during the previous monster subjugation.

It was natural then, but now it seems better to nail it down completely before going.

“First, the front line: Dorian, Leila. And me.”

People who can use swords and are capable of close combat should naturally take the front line.

“Then me, Priscilla, Jenna, and Altur are in the rear?”

“No. You’re not exactly rear guard, but more like front of the rear. Roughly… it would be good to position yourself in the central area.”

“Oh, I’m in the center?”

“Yeah. You need to observe the overall situation. Support the other three with covering fire.”

We also nailed down the movement formation with this.

Along with action procedures when situations arise.

The rest have experience from what we’ve done so far, so there’s nothing much to think about.

However, Jenna is a bit different.

“Her stamina has improved a lot, but continuously using necromancy is still too much for her.”

I called Jenna over to ask about the information on spirits she can currently summon.

“How are things lately, Jenna?”

“Hmm. I’m maintaining the assassin’s spirit, and I have a decent swordsman’s spirit too. But recently I met a pretty cool spirit. He said he was a necromancer. A very long time ago.”

“…”

So he raises corpses?

“Necro… mancer?”

“Didn’t they disappear along with the black mages?”

While everyone was muttering blankly at the unexpected word, only I chuckled.

“That sounds interesting. Does he raise corpses?”

“According to him, he raises corpses and makes them explode too…”

There was someone who showed a completely different reaction to this.

“…Necromancer?”

It was Priscilla.

“I might have some conflicts.”

Jenna flinched and asked me.

“A necromancer probably isn’t okay, right…?”

“It’s fine. We should use it if necessary.”

“…Priscilla is scary.”

It’s perfect in terms of adding unexpectedness.

What I’m actually worried about is something else.

“What’s the possibility of being possessed by the spirit?”

“That only happens to weak mediums. I’m fine. Someday I’ll summon Saul Hanston’s soul into my body too.”

“That would be unfortunate.”

“Huh? Unfortunate?”

“No. Nothing.”

I chuckled imagining how Professor Cross would react if he heard this.

“So now we’ve roughly decided on positions…”

I deliberately asked Priscilla.

“Are you ready, Priscilla?”

“Me? What would I need to prepare?”

“Still. Your role is important in this expedition.”

Priscilla narrowed her eyes at those words.

“You’re not talking about waking up that life form that the demons brought a very long time ago and put to sleep, are you?”

“Of course. Why would I wake it up?”

I have my limits too.

No matter what, I wouldn’t wake it up without reason.

But…

If it wakes up, there’s nothing we can do.

Then we’ll just have to stop it.

“I’m anxious.”

“Don’t worry. No one will die.”

“I’m not worried since you’re saying that, Dane… but everywhere we go tends to have quite a few incidents and accidents.”

I acknowledge that.

But what can I do?

Incidents and accidents just follow us around.

“But we’ve solved everything well so far, haven’t we?”

As always, we’ll return without any major problems this time too.

“Anyway, let’s summarize.”

Total members: seven.

Departure: Friday night.

Purpose: exploration.

Specifically, to find the entrance to the depths of the ruins and enter inside.

“This is what exploration is originally like. Let’s decide the detailed objectives when we get there.”

“Dane, you’ve really become an explorer now.”

And if possible, gather as much information as we can.

In addition to this—

“If the life form awakens, we’ll quickly escape depending on how strong it is.”

“What if it’s at a level we can fight?”

“We’ll see how it goes and either fight, or… we could choose a different approach.”

That’s something to think about when the time comes.

There’s no need to waste time on something that hasn’t happened and we have no information about.

When even Saul Hanston doesn’t know, getting information beyond that would be impossible.

“Good. Then let’s depart.”

Now, we just need to wait for night to fall.

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