Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 11

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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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Episode 11.
Path to the Forest IV
Blade Whirlwind
Type: Ranged / Area Attack
Cast Time: Instant | Range: 5-meter radius
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Summons a gust of slashing wind that attacks enemies ahead of you. All enemies within a 5-meter radius take damage. The damage scales with your Agility stat.
*TIP: In tight spaces, it’s easier to secure the maximum number of hits.
That’s the overview of Blade Whirlwind.
The main thing I’m concerned about with this skill is the vague 5-meter radius—it means I can hit at most three targets if they’re lined up close together.
Of course, given the chaos of actual combat, I’m content to assume I’ll land two.
Slash-slash-slash-crack!
The power of Blade Whirlwind exceeded my expectations.
The priest standing furthest inside was, quite literally, shredded from the wind that tore through him from behind.
The one standing after him tumbled across the ground with his right arm severed, while only Dorman at the very back managed a perfect dodge.
‘Damn.’
I’d hoped to eliminate at least two even if hitting all three was too greedy.
Is the reality really that different from the game?
‘Still, taking out the priest first is a good sign.’
Archer, priest, mage.
Targeting the ranged support first is basic strategy in any Delver combat.
‘The one with the severed arm.’
Once I finish him off, the tide of battle shifts decisively in our favor.
As if sharing the same thought, Mink rushed at the bleeding figure, but Dorman quickly stepped in to block his path.
“Leina!”
The archer vanished without a word in an instant.
Her presence simply ceased to exist.
‘Tracking that woman will be difficult.’
I kicked off the ground to finish the one-armed opponent.
“Damn it!”
The blood-drenched figure drew his sword with a grimace.
The battlefield had now split into three separate confrontations.
Mink faced Dorman, while I took on the party member with the severed arm.
And then there was the archer.
Whistle.
The moment I heard the sound of cutting air, wind suddenly whipped past from somewhere.
An arrow aimed at me wavered in its trajectory, grazing the end of my arm instead.
Thud-thud-thud.
The cutting sounds continued, but only the dull noise of arrows embedding themselves in the ground rang out.
Dorman finally lost his patience.
“Leina! What are you doing?”
“Blast it! The wind keeps throwing me off! And there’s always this light right before I shoot—!”
She’s doing well, actually.
Fortunately, unlike magical talent or Spirit Affinity, her basic instincts seemed sharp enough.
‘A Sylph and Light combo.’
Even if I can’t attack directly, I can stay hidden and make things inconvenient for them.
The problem is, a stalemate like this won’t help anyone in the long run.
Mink’s position was deteriorating by the second.
Given the level gap with Dorman, it was only natural.
‘If Mink dies, the balance crumbles.’
That meant I had to kill this one-armed bastard as fast as possible and rejoin Mink.
‘Even with one arm gone, he’s this strong?’
So he really is a 4-rank Delver.
His level is probably in the mid-to-late twenties, and his combat experience is far richer than mine.
At full strength, someone like me would’ve been dead meat.
“Nngh—!”
But he wasn’t the only one growing desperate.
The bleeding figure’s movements betrayed an urgency of their own.
I shifted from offense to defense at just the right moment and opened my mouth.
“Quite the ordeal today, isn’t it?”
“…… What?”
“Your ankle’s severed, your arm’s gone. Your foot was lucky — they patched it back together somehow — but your arm? The healer’s already dead. You’ll spend the rest of your life as a cripple.”
“……..”
The Delver — the one called Ail — closed his half-open mouth.
Sharp-eared bastard.
Did he catch on to what I was doing with the words?
But he can’t exactly plug his ears in the middle of a fight. I kept running my mouth anyway.
“Can you even stay with the party as a one-armed cripple? That Dorman character looked cold enough. He didn’t blink once when he saw the corpse of the teammate I killed.”
“…….”
“Probably once you’re back in the city, you’ll be kicked out on the spot, and he’ll bring in someone more useful.”
“Shut your mouth.”
Hearing that, I felt stronger instead.
He knows in his head that he shouldn’t react.
It’s just hard to actually do it.
Either way, keeping up the chatter in the middle of a pitched battle is exhausting for me too.
I smiled thinly and drove in the finishing blow.
“…… You called me a Delver just now. But honestly, I’m a Torch Bearer. How am I supposed to play Delver after getting torn apart by a Torch Bearer like this?”
“……!”
Is the Torch Bearer status really the trigger that sets Delvers off?
In that instant, teeth gnashed together, sparks flew from Ail’s eyes, and he took a large step forward.
Boom!
Some kind of strange current seemed to spread outward from him.
The stance — sword held high, blade angled upward…….
One arm or not, it was a practiced motion.
“Die!”
Screeeee!
A Cross Slash came flying at me in an X-pattern.
I judged the distance, batted away the first slash, and ducked under the second.
“What?!”
The moment I slipped into his guard, the path to his neck lay open.
Even someone unfamiliar with a scythe could’ve cut there easily.
Splurt!
Even as blood sprayed, deep confusion lingered in Ail’s eyes.
“How…… did you read my attack……?”
He’d realized I’d anticipated his move.
I didn’t have to answer, but I opened my mouth anyway.
“Cross Slash has big movements. Powerful, sure, but using it as a finisher…….”
I stopped speaking. Ail had already crumpled to the ground, the light gone from his eyes.
The moment I exhaled, sharp pain lanced through me.
‘Damn…….’
My wrist throbbed as if it had been broken.
I’d forced myself to deflect that first Cross Slash too hard.
Since both hits were too difficult to dodge entirely, there was no choice.
‘Should’ve used my left arm?’
That was arrogant thinking.
If I’d failed, my body would’ve been split in two.
I pushed the useless thought aside and looked toward Dorman.
The Mink was covered in blood. If I could see a health bar, it would definitely be glowing red.
I was about to move in to join him.
Thunk!
A strange, jarring sensation hit my abdomen.
I dropped my gaze to check, and there — an arrow lodged in my belly. Perfect.
“I-I’m so sorry! My Mana is……!”
The situation I’d been dreading was unfolding.
The Sylph’s duration was running out, and the mage’s Mana was empty.
“Stop talking and hide!”
A barrage of Arrows poured down in the direction where the mage’s voice had come from.
‘Rapid Fire?’
An archer-exclusive skill that could loose dozens of Arrows at once.
Accounting for Leina’s level, the incoming Arrows probably numbered between ten and twenty, but there’s not much point thinking about that right now.
I scrambled toward the nearest cover and ducked behind it.
‘What do I do?’
Hiding isn’t a solution.
The moment Dorman kills Mink, we’ve lost.
That archer bastard knows it too—that’s why he’s stalling.
‘Damn.’
I’ll have to risk bleeding out here.
I steadied my breathing, trying to ignore the pain radiating from my abdomen, and was about to bolt from cover when—
Screeeeeech…!
A beast’s death cry echoed from somewhere distant.
[The ‘Blade Mink’ has entered an incapacitated state.]
“Damn it.”
This is completely fucked.
* * *
After Mink’s final cry, the area fell silent.
Only the occasional rustle of wind broke the quiet—and to me, it felt ominous.
My wrist still throbbed, and the arrow lodged in my abdomen was a constant irritant.
I was wondering if I could even run in this state when—
“Little rat. Where are you hiding?”
Dorman’s voice.
Followed by the sound of him searching the area.
“It’s been a long time since anyone gave me this much trouble. You’re no ordinary Delver, that’s clear. What exactly are you?”
A Torch Bearer, you son of a bitch.
That said, his breathing is getting ragged.
He’s burning through stamina.
‘Or is that an act too?’
I can’t be certain of anything without seeing him directly.
“Not coming out? Fine. Keep hiding and you’ll only make things worse for yourself. Come quietly and I’ll give you an easy death. Besides, you aren’t our real target anyway.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
Why does that bastard keep spouting such obvious lies?
‘His voice sounds like it’s getting farther away.’
Should I run?
No matter how I look at it, my odds are terrible.
Dorman’s level is thirty or higher. I’m barely a level-twenty Delver,
and I struggled against one who’d lost an arm. He’s not an opponent I can beat.
So the real problem is the archer, hidden somewhere, watching and waiting.
‘…’
No time for hesitation. The moment I thought Dorman’s voice had drifted far enough, I pushed off the ground hard.
“Eleven o’clock!”
The archer’s shout was followed immediately by the sound of pursuit at my back.
‘Shit.’
How fast is this guy?
I’d opened up at least several dozen meters of distance, but I could feel him closing the gap at an absurd speed.
The whistle of wind past my ears sounded almost like Dorman’s laughter.
“Quite the sprint! Keep running hard. The longer you take to catch, the more painful your death will be.”
Vicious bastard.
By the way he kept talking, that ragged breathing was an act—a fake to lure me out.
Dorman was already treating me like a fish in his net, and honestly, that’s not far from the truth.
“I’ll start with your toes. Been experimenting—usually they don’t die until around the shins. Let’s see how long you last.”
I didn’t have the breath to answer, so I just kept running.
Feeling the distance shrink with every second, I ran through possible countermeasures, but nothing seemed viable.
Whistle.
An arrow sound cut through the air.
Could he possibly reach me at this distance?
In the game, an archer’s range topped out at maybe several dozen meters.
In a quarter-view game, attacks rarely landed on enemies off-screen.
Whistle.
Damn.
The moment the arrow grazed my ear, I was reminded once again: this is real.
With the game made flesh, the archer had gained the insane ability to land shots from hundreds of meters away in the dark.
Hitting it dead-on, even with our own forces overlapping—that took some doing.
‘Curse this fantasy world.’
Given what I’d seen of the melee fighters’ physical capabilities, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable, but I couldn’t help feeling the absurdity of it all.
At least the destination was finally coming into view.
But Dorman’s presence was already closing in fast.
The moment I heard the scrape of a blade being drawn behind me, I spun around and swung my scythe.
Clang!
The screech of metal on metal.
I’d pivoted mid-sprint, and the impact sent me rolling across the ground.
As Dorman closed in, I rolled and hurled a fistful of dirt at him.
‘Damn it.’
Dorman dodged, exactly as I’d anticipated.
Of course he did.
Cheap tricks only work the first time or two; use them too often and your opponent learns to counter. I’d burned through my bag of dirty tactics long ago.
“Khkhkh!”
Dorman laughed and swung his blade again.
This time it felt like there was no way to dodge.
Thunk—
A heavy sound, different from before, followed by the whistle of something cutting through air.
Dorman’s torso twisted violently mid-swing.
“Damn—!”
While Dorman spat curses, I scrambled to my feet and ran.
“Leina, you idiot! Who are you shooting at?!”
Leina? No.
That sound was nothing like bowstring tension.
Something duller, rougher.
‘A crossbow?’
Was there another ally I didn’t know about?
Or…
I wasn’t in a position to be certain of anything, but one thing was clear: someone had just bought me a sliver of time, and it had saved my life.
Dash!
I kept running, leaving Dorman behind.
The arrow wound in my abdomen was screaming now, but I pushed through the pain and sprinted with everything I had.
Mercifully, I didn’t sense Dorman catching up. At last, I reached my destination.
[Entering the Forest of Eternity.]
Done.
Once I was here, I might finally shake Dorman for good.
I had the terrain memorized—especially the early sections of the map—locked away in my head.
Whoosh.
But instead of continuing to run, I ducked into the brush nearby and hid.
Why?
Because I’d never planned to escape in the first place.
[Tutorial complete.]
Forest of Shadow was, true to its name, a game where the forest was the main stage.
A forest so colossal it occupied more than half the world.
FoS’s purpose was to battle the countless enemies that dwelled there, seek out rare treasures, and uncover the world’s secrets.
In other words, everything before entering the Forest of Eternity was nothing but a tutorial.
Which meant…
[Condition satisfied.]
[Achievement Shop unlocked.]
[Achievement Points are now available for use.]
Certain features only unlocked once you stepped into the forest.
[Achievement Points held: 12,615,151]
Now, it was time to strike back.

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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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