Chapter 579
“Finally, I get to see it.”
“I’m trembling!”
The Summonology students, faces brimming with excitement, put on their coats and robes and stepped outside the lecture hall.
“A Dullahan, huh.”
Simon’s anticipation was greater than anyone else’s. Avoiding his heavy gaze, Aron adjusted his coat and spoke.
“Looks like everyone’s here. Let’s begin.”
With a simple hand motion, he opened a subspace. From within, a massive leg emerged and pressed against the snow-covered ground.
Uwaaa—!
Had he turned a giant into an undead? The Dullahan Aron summoned was enormous. Its body was wrapped in pitch-black armor, and on its back hung a greatsword.
Where its neck should have been was an empty void, shimmering with black energy.
As it swung its huge arms and strode forward, the students who had rushed up for a closer look gasped and stumbled back.
“H-hurk!”
“Kyaaa!”
Screams of fright broke out here and there.
In its hand, the Dullahan clutched its own severed head.
With that head grasped by the hair, the undead swept its gaze around in a chilling, murderous fashion. Some students recoiled in horror at the sight.
“Whoa! Whoa! That’s awesome!”
“Are we going to get to use that too?”
Of course, some students, as pure necromancers, were burning with curiosity and excitement. Among them was Eshu, who bounced up and down in delight.
“Eshu.”
Simon grabbed her wrist, which had stuck out like a stone protrusion.
“It’s dangerous.”
Whoosh!
The Dullahan’s arm, still holding its head, swung right past Eshu’s nose, almost hitting her.
Her eyes widened in surprise, but then her lips curled into a grin. “Ooooh~”
“...What do you mean, ooooh?”
“Hehe, no, no~ thanks, thanks.”
Thud! Thud!
After circling once around, the Dullahan returned to stand before Aron.
Compared to zombies, ghouls, and skeletons they’d seen before, this undead was in a class of its own.
“The Dullahan has several combat advantages.”
Aron began to explain. At the same time, the Dullahan raised the arm holding its head to secure its line of sight.
“It can rely on vision while its head is detached. It possesses tremendous durability. And it can wield a knight’s aura. But today, what I want to focus on is this—”
Shrring!
The Dullahan stared forward and drew the sword from its back. Aron traced a magic circle and affixed it to the Dullahan’s back.
“—its transcendent strength and physical capability.”
Something was about to begin.
Assistants ushered the students backward as a skeleton target was brought out. Immediately, the Dullahan stomped the ground and leapt.
Boom!
The massive figure soared through the air, and upon landing, swung its blade.
Bwaaaaaang!
The forceful, exhilarating strike sent the students’ hair flying upward.
For such a massive body, its strength and speed were almost unbelievable. Each time its sword slashed through a skeleton, the creature shattered from head to toe.
Craaaack!
Finally, when it split a huge boulder cleanly in two, a booming resonance rang out.
The power was overwhelming, and the swordsmanship itself—worthy of a knight—was flawless.
“Stop.”
At Aron’s command, the Dullahan halted. Even the wind pressure from its movements had swept all the snow aside, exposing the bare ground.
“Hector Moore.”
The arrogant Hector, arms crossed as he watched, immediately straightened at the sound of his name.
“Yes, Professor.”
“What do you think is the source of the strength and speed the Dullahan just displayed?”
It was the question students feared most, Aron’s indiscriminate cold calls.
Yet Hector answered without hesitation.
“Dark Aura.”
Aura was the art of knights, who imbued mana into their blows. Dark Aura, naturally, was aura forged from Darkness instead of mana.
“Textbook answer, but wrong. This Dullahan wasn’t using aura just now.”
Hector furrowed his brow in frustration.
“Toto Amoriya.”
“Eh? Y-yes, yes sir! Um, um... sheer physical strength...?”
“Wrong.”
Aron’s gaze shifted again, this time upward.
“Simon Follentia.”
“.....”
After a moment’s thought, Simon spoke.
“Mana.”
Some students tilted their heads in confusion. Hector’s faction smirked.
“Interesting. Why do you think the source of an undead’s power is mana?”
“Just now—”
Simon pointed at the Dullahan. The Dullahan, in turn, moved its severed head to look back at him.
“I saw mana being drawn into the Dullahan.”
At that, several students began murmuring as they recalled.
“Oh, now that you mention it...”
“Feels like the mana density around us dropped...”
Aron nodded slowly.
“Correct.”
Ohhh—!
Gasps of admiration erupted around them.
Eshu exclaimed, “As expected of the Student Council President!” while patting Simon’s shoulder, and Hector clicked his tongue irritably.
“The Dullahan is often called a mana-devouring monster. Just as a necromancer breathes in mana, runs it through the Core, and turns it into Darkness, the Dullahan absorbs ambient mana, converts it into Darkness, and fuels its own power.”
Aron sketched a magic circle of pure mana in front of the Dullahan’s chest. Within a second, it collapsed and was sucked into the undead.
“Its rate of mana absorption is so overwhelming that even being near it can neutralize a mage. It’s also highly effective against priests who convert ambient mana into holiness. Everyone, try it yourselves.”
The students rushed forward, creating mana circles. The Dullahan devoured them all. The farther away the caster stood, the longer the circle lasted. Darkness-based circles, however, were unaffected.
Indeed, this undead—still used as a mainstay in modern times—was something else.
Aron continued, pointing out spots on the Dullahan’s body. This one had eleven absorption points for mana.
“Back to the main subject: you remember the ghoul’s summoning mechanism, Lino’s Golden Line, from Summon Funerology?”
“Yes, sir!”
“The ghoul sacrifices its summoning circle, then floods its body with explosive Darkness to fight with enhanced power for one to two minutes. Dullahan's burst of strength works on a similar principle.”
It devours surrounding mana indiscriminately, converts it into Darkness, and burns it as fuel—fighting like a berserker.
That is the Dullahan.
“Because of this trait, Dullahans are usually deployed for short, decisive bursts of 15–20 minutes after being drawn out of subspace. In siege warfare, they’re used to smash gates. Otherwise, they serve as key cards for pursuit and annihilation, securing retreats, or breaking encirclements. Of course, there are versions engineered to fight for two to three hours, but in that case, their peak strength diminishes.”
Aseraz Mikel raised her hand.
“I am Aseraz Mikel! Then shouldn’t a Dullahan also have an organ equivalent to a necromancer’s Core?”
“That’s correct. For reference, a Dullahan’s Darkness organ surpasses a necromancer’s Core in terms of short-term mana conversion rate.”
The students buzzed in astonishment.
“Of course, there are pros and cons. Dullahan’s Darkness organ is specialized solely for raw Darkness emission, and after about twenty minutes its efficiency drops drastically.”
At that moment, assistants approached and placed something onto the table in front of Aron.
“This is the core of Dullahan.”
Thump-thump.
It was a grotesque biological organ, like a lump of flesh. A magic circle had been inscribed on its surface.
“ Dullahan is essentially an engine that drives a massive piece of hardware, a living organ that converts mana into Darkness. A Dullahan requires two summoning circles, one of which is drawn upon this organ.”
As Simon leaned closer to examine the circle, Aron gestured, making the circle turn transparent.
“There’s no need to rush. I was going to teach this in class anyway. But from now, we’ll start a simple practical evaluation.”
“?!”
The moment he said evaluation, the students’ faces tensed.
“I will provide you with the organ of a local monster, the Bigfoot, to use as a substitute for a Dullahan’s Darkness organ. Using everything you’ve learned so far, inscribe a magic circle upon it. Try to make it function as closely as possible to Dullahan’s Darkness organ.”
The students wavered in shock, but Aron continued calmly.
“Don’t worry too much. This is a free creative process before you begin learning systematized textbook knowledge. Failure won’t bring deductions or penalties. However, any student who produces tangible results will earn extra credit.”
The assistants bustled about, setting up desks and chairs outside. Aron checked his wristwatch for the time.
“Then, prepare yourselves.”
* * *
All the students sat down at outdoor desks. On each desk lay a wide, fleshy organ.
It had already been prepared with black magic mechanisms—absorbing surrounding mana. Yet it failed to generate Darkness, the mana simply leaking away through venting holes beneath.
The objective of this evaluation was to make it emit Darkness.
“We’ll provide you with a basic setup.”
Assistants handed each desk a board with a half-drawn magic circle.
“If you want to use additional materials, feel free to grab anything from the shelves beside you.”
Shelves full of assorted materials had been set up at the side of the training field. Aron clapped his hands.
“Begin.”
The students all started drawing their circles at once. Each had only a single organ—one mistake meant failure.
“...This assignment is way too hard.”
“How are we supposed to make something we haven’t even been taught yet?”
Most of the students felt utterly lost. Some whispered their complaints under their breath.
“If we could just make a Dullahan from scratch, what would be the point of lessons or professors?”
“Exactly.”
While many gave up and sat idle, three students pressed on without hesitation—Hector, Aseraz, and Fitzgerald.
“Of course. The privileged pre-learners from wealthy houses are monopolizing it.”
“Eh, I’m done. Forget it.”
As grumbling students gave up and zoned out, others with no clue still watched the three with shining eyes.
‘Hector took Ovel.’
‘Aseraz too!’
‘So Ovel must be essential...?’
Students dashed forward to snatch the same materials Hector and Aseraz had chosen.
A fierce battle of nerves erupted, soon turning into a scramble over supplies.
“Hey, hey! Don’t fight!”
“There are plenty of materials for everyone!”
Assistants moved quickly to keep the chaos under control. Meanwhile, Simon, the undisputed number one student, still sat with arms crossed, silent at his desk.
“Simon! You’re not going to start?”
Toto Amoriya, arms full of Ovel and other supplies, shouted.
“If the ingredients run out, you’ll regret not grabbing them—”
“Professor Aron.”
Simon’s expression was dead serious.
“Why would he ask us to replicate the Dullahan’s Darkness organ before teaching us about it?”
“Eh? Well, I don’t know either.”
Simon recalled Aron’s words from the very first day of second-year Summonology.
—To craft a Skeleton Knight, one must first learn the Rune of Reminiscence and the formulas based on it. The Rune of Reminiscence also becomes a key material for the ghoul, an advanced zombie.
—To make a ghoul, you must acquire the mutation formula that alters corpses, along with the Decomposition Formula. Then, by combining the ghoul’s Decomposition Formula with the Rune of Reminiscence learned from the Skeleton Knight, you can create the magical undead “Devourer”.
Aron had filled the blackboard with countless runes and formulas for the undead they would study in their first year. Then he had drawn a line through all of them, gathering them toward the center.
—Once you’ve built all this foundation, only then can you create a third-tier undead: the headless knight, ‘Dullahan’.
“...Toto.”
Ending his recollection, Simon smirked and finally lifted his quill pen.
“Maybe the truth is... we already know the method.”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters