Chapter 578
The base camp where the Summonology Department’s training base was to begin.
Because Keyzen’s notoriety was so well known, the moment the students heard the word “base”, their first reaction was suspicion.
They imagined he’d probably just toss them a tattered tent with holes, tell them to handle meals, sleep, and even fire-making on their own, then disappear.
But—
“...This is better than I thought?”
Amid the snowy pines stood picturesque log cabins.
Snow had piled neatly on the rooftops, and warm smoke rose from chimneys. There was even a water fountain, and a place prepared for cooking.
“Look, a puppy!”
“So cute!”
A white-furred puppy was panting happily, wagging its tail. Led by Eshu, the girls rushed over.
At the center stood the largest log cabin, bigger than most of Keyzen’s classrooms, and surrounding it were smaller cabins—enough for all fifty-two students to spread out without issue.
Because the place was cleaner than expected, laughter and chatter spread warmly, though some students still kept their guard up.
“Don’t be fooled, idiots.”
“You just saw monsters out there.”
At that moment, Aron halted and turned to face the students.
“Attention.”
The students instantly closed their mouths and focused on him.
“Good work getting here. I understand the excitement, but we’re not here to play. Since we arrived later than planned, we’ll begin the special lecture immediately.”
The head assistant, hugging the attendance book to his chest, stepped forward.
“Students, move to the classroom building! The rest of the assistants, gather up. Those assigned to reinforce the barrier, move out now.”
The students poured into the central cabin. Simon’s 10th group followed as well.
“Guys! Isn’t this place amazing? A base here! It’s the best!”
Eshu hopped excitedly, unable to hide her thrill. Simon nodded with a smiling face.
“Yeah. Looks fun.”
“...B-but, there’s definitely some hidden mission.”
Toto glanced warily around. Loraine, however, closed her eyes, her expression pensive.
“What’s wrong, Loraine?”
“No, nothing.”
Simon’s group entered the building. Eshu pressed her mittened hands to her cheeks and squealed.
“Waaarm! I love it!”
The heat of a fireplace already filled the room. The students quickly shed thick coats and winter robes before sitting to chatter.
Soon after, Aron and the assistants entered as well. They discussed details of the camp among themselves, and the students up front strained their ears, wondering if there might be a secret mission hidden in their words.
“How’s the barrier?”
“Stable. Plenty of monsters wandering outside, but no real threat.”
“If the numbers swell, cull them.”
“Yes, sir.”
After issuing orders, Aron climbed onto the podium. The assistants brought in a large blackboard and mounted it against the wall.
Srrrk—
Perhaps warm himself, Aron shrugged off his coat.
The impressive winter coat came off, revealing the same short-sleeved shirt and loose shorts he always wore. The students stifled laughter.
Taking up a piece of chalk, Aron slowly wrote across the board.
<Dullahan Special Lecture>
“First, I’m glad to see the entire department gathered here for this lecture.”
The students clapped and smiled back. The mood warmed at once.
“Let’s start with a light question. Who can tell me the primary materials used to create a Dullahan?”
Shoop!
Aseraz Mikel, ranked first in written exams, shot her hand into the air, but Fitzgerald Ingels in the front row beat her by a hair.
Aron pointed at Fitzgerald.
“Fitzgerald here. Ogre Lord, Abaddon, Guardian.”
“Correct.”
Fitzgerald adjusted his glasses smugly and sat down.
“But the most important material is missing.”
The glasses that had risen slipped crookedly.
“There exists an ingredient more powerful than the three you mentioned. A Dullahan crafted from it is a true masterpiece. Who knows it?”
The classroom fell silent.
Even those who had studied ahead for midterms only knew by rote: Ogre Lord, Abaddon, Guardian. Beyond that, nothing.
“The greatest ingredient for a Dullahan—”
Aron broke the silence.
“—is human.”
“?!”
Students exchanged uneasy glances. Eshu rubbed her arms as if chilled.
“As you know, most Summoned Undead necromancers use are modeled after Natural Undeads. Zombies, skeletons, ghouls—these already exist in nature as undead beings.”
But—Aron emphasized.
“A Dullahan does not exist in a natural undead state. It is an undead that humans themselves created—born of their own desires and profit. That is a Dullahan.”
Since nothing like this appeared in the textbooks, the students leaned forward, hanging on his every word.
Aron gestured to the student in the front row.
“Joseph. Tell us the most distinguishing feature of a Dullahan.”
The boy, startled at being called on, sprang up.
“J-Joseph Varga! Uh... the question...”
“I asked about its most distinctive feature.”
Fifty-one pairs of eyes turned to him.
He clearly hadn’t studied, but his mind raced desperately. Then suddenly, he remembered.
“I-it’s the neck! They don’t have a head!”
“Correct.”
Tak, tak—tak.
Aron began sketching something on the board.
“We have three important points. A missing head. Humans as the primary material. An undead created directly by humans. Now—do you sense the secret of the Dullahan?”
The classroom went deathly quiet. Aron’s drawing skills weren’t great, but the image was clear.
Two tall pillars. A blade hanging between by rope. A wooden frame with holes for head and arms.
“That’s...”
“No way.”
It was a guillotine.
The students grimaced, and Aron, who had even sketched a crude picture of a decapitated body, set the chalk down.
“It all began with necromancers stealing these headless corpses for research, that was the start of the Dullahan.”
There was once an era when knights and mages ruled the continent.
At that time, necromancers were nothing but third-rate, persecuted and hunted like witches, forced to hide in the deepest shadows.
But necromancers had no intention of living miserably forever. To oppose the overwhelming numerical superiority of knights, they repeatedly researched how to turn fallen knights into undead.
Of course, it was not easy.
No matter how powerful a knight’s corpse they obtained, once made into undead, the knight’s strength and skill were lost. Whether a mere soldier or an aura-wielding knight, once reduced to a skeleton, they were all the same.
As one by one, necromancers abandoned the study of “turning knights into undead”, there was one necromancer uniquely obsessed—he refused to give up.
He studied knights alone. When he ran out of knight corpses, he went to execution grounds or black markets to acquire the headless bodies of executed knights.
Though the continent was embroiled in wars, fully armored knights seldom fell in battle. More often, they were captured because their heavy armor prevented escape, or condemned to the guillotine as victims of political strife and power struggles.
By contrast, headless knight corpses were relatively easy to acquire. And so this necromancer studied how to turn them into undead.
His peers mocked him. Since undead required a summoning magic circle etched into the skull, headless corpses were thought worthless—that was the common sense of the time.
But he stood firm.
—Laugh at me now if you will, but history will prove my research.
Five years after he began his study of knights, results began to emerge.
“His idea was as follows.”
Aron sketched a head and a headless torso on the board, then drew summoning circles on each.
“The idea was to use two summoning circles: one for the body, one for the head.”
Gasps spread among the students.
They had always thought of the Dullahan as simply a powerful undead. Hearing such detailed explanations for the first time, their focus was absolute.
“But at first, the result was only two weak undead, the torso and head moving independently. To fix this, the necromancer researched and researched again.”
Tak!
“And then—Gemini. What we call the Rune of Linkage—he realized it must serve as the main rune.”
The moment he looked up, Aseraz Mikel already had her hand raised.
Aron chuckled and pointed at her.
“Aseraz Mikel here! The Rune of Linkage, Gemini, is used in modern times for large-scale communication magic or teleportation arrays. It connects two separate magic circles together.”
“Well done.”
Aseraz sat down proudly, while Hector, who had raised his hand too late, kicked a stray twig on the floor in frustration.
“Thus, the Dullahan was first made using the components of a communication spell. Just like a transmission spell links sender and receiver, the head and torso were linked together.”
Aron drew a connecting line between the torso and the head on the board.
“This was the most primitive form of the Dullahan. Over time, formulas and runes improved until it evolved into its present form, where two summoning circles are perfectly synchronized as one.”
Lowering the chalk, Aron swept his gaze over the students.
“And so, out of the stubborn idea that ‘if there are many headless knight corpses, then we’ll use them’, the Dullahan was finally created—and at last—”
His voice echoed through the hushed classroom.
“—it ended the age of knights.”
Students gasped, some unable to hide their excitement.
“The Dullahan became necromancers’ ultimate weapon against knights. It took three or four knights to defeat just one. And the knights slain by a Dullahan were in turn remade as Dullahans.”
The very notion of an undead more powerful than its living form was, at the time, a complete breaking of common sense.
“The fall of the once-invincible Talhern Empire is counted among the historic events that symbolize the end of the knight’s age. The emperor sent fifty thousand troops to Keyzen—and those fifty thousand returned as undead, turning their blades toward the imperial capital in the Rose Brigade. At the forefront of that army—stood the Dullahan.”
The more battle-hungry students cheered loudly.
“Even now, Dullahans remain highly significant in the world of necromancers. To say a summoner can command a Dullahan is to prove oneself a summoner of considerable skill.”
Now cheers erupted even from the back of the classroom. The lecture hall boiled with heat.
“And now, you have the same opportunity. During this special lecture period, I expect each of you to complete your very own Dullahan. That is all.”
WAAAAAH!
A roar of excitement burst from the students, fired up by Aron’s perfect motivation and his sharp opening to the special lecture.
With a faint chuckle, he turned his back.
“Everyone, outside. It’s time to demonstrate the Dullahan.”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters