Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 14

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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 14.
The Overturned Train II
The overseas Delver community where I was active was called For’ever.
They said the apostrophe in the middle was the key, but I don’t recall there being any particularly grand reason for it.
Since it was a stagnant, aging game, the community did have some taboos about clique-forming, but there wasn’t an atmosphere that actively rejected newcomers.
-CHRIS: Hey. Chek.
-CHRIS: Are you going to level a Necromancer again this time?
When was that again?
One day, a user from For’ever asked me a question.
Their nickname was Chris.
On a forum crawling with all manner of bizarre usernames, Chris was one of the few whose ID was as straightforward as mine.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Probably.
-CHRIS: Hmm.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Why?
-CHRIS: If my memory’s right, I think this is the fifteenth time you’ve picked the Summoner Class.
-CHRIS: Didn’t the other jobs work out?
Summoner Class.
Even without summoning anything, it was a job that could command armies single-handedly—and the community called it that for convenience.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: I already told you.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Alchemists have trouble sourcing materials, and managing elemental spirits is no different from dealing with companion NPCs.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Meanwhile, the advantages of Necromancy are clear.
-CHRIS: Still, isn’t the penalty too steep?
-CHRIS: Eventually you’ll definitely get caught by the Kingdom, won’t you? You can’t hide your identity forever.
Well, that wasn’t wrong.
But.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: There are workarounds, like becoming an officially sanctioned Necromancer of the Kingdom.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Of course it won’t be easy, but that’s a manageable risk. Besides, there might not be a better job out there anyway.
Chris spoke after a brief pause.
-CHRIS: Isn’t it too early to jump to conclusions?
-CHRIS: For’ever has hundreds of jobs. Maybe more than that.
-CHRIS: There might be an undiscovered class that’s better than that, mightn’t there?
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: “Might be”?
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: That’s not like you. Chris. Since when did you become an optimist?
-CHRIS: I suppose.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Well, as you say, there might be such a job somewhere.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: But I’ve already enjoyed this game for five years.
-CHRIS: Yeah… I guess even you’ve gotten tired of it.
Not exactly. I’d just spent more than five years with this game, and I was starting to wonder if there was anything genuinely novel left to discover.
-CHRIS: If that’s your meaning.
-CHRIS: Then Chek. I’ll look forward to your next playthrough.
I didn’t like something about his tone—it felt like he was needling me—so I went back to the keyboard.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Chris.
-CHRIS: ?
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: I’ll break your record soon enough.
Since For’ever was a community too, there were particularly famous users—”named” players—and the most famous of them all was Chris.
There were several reasons for it.
For one, Chris frequently posted guides and tips as threads.
They were easy to understand at a glance, yet professional in tone, and even translated into multiple languages.
But that wasn’t the real reason for their fame.
-Title: But what makes this bastard Chris think he can write guides?
-Content: Has this asshole ever raised their progression even once? Does he just not play the game and just stir up trouble?
It was an absurd argument.
Chris’s guide threads were packed with details you could never know without actually playing, and besides, there was no reason not to post a guide just because you weren’t actively progressing the game.
↳You’re the one stirring up trouble.
↳I’m more curious who wrote this post?
↳Bullshit—even if Chris played with their toes they’d have higher progress than you lol
The user who’d posted the garbage thread got pummeled by the community at once, and soon deleted the post.
Up to that point, it was the sort of incident that happened regularly in communities, but what came next was extraordinary.
Chris actually responded to this ridiculous provocation.
-Title: Progression
A brief post had gone up on the forum, and embedded in its body was a screenshot I still couldn’t forget.
-Current Progress: 92%
The post had recorded the highest view count and recommendation score on the For’ever bulletin board.
It was warranted.
The figure was far higher than my own maximum record of 69%.
……
To confess at this point, Chris was the only user on the board who had a higher progress rate than me.
Competitive spirit? It would be a lie to say there was none.
But I’d thought, equally, that this bastard must be at least aware of me too.
After Chris, I’d had the highest progress rate.
Yet my thoughts were shattered the moment I saw Chris’s message.
His response to my declaration.
-CHRIS: Good luck.
Damn it.
The nerve of that son of a bitch.
* * *
I woke from the cold.
It was warmer inside than outside, and I had a blanket, but without a fire it still felt chilly.
I checked my Pocket Watch—just past nine in the morning.
‘Four hours of sleep, then.’
It wasn’t much, but I wasn’t particularly exhausted.
I’d worried the uncomfortable bedding might wear me down, but it seemed my concerns were unfounded.
This must be thanks to my raised physical specs.
Because of that, whatever my main talents are—instinct or whatever else—I want to raise my physical talent first.
Phew.
A sigh escaped me.
My body was fine, but my mind was still spinning. In the end, I’d failed to find the reason why my body had healed so completely.
Well, I did reach a conclusion.
That it was pointless to keep worrying about it.
Mmm……
Kazen stirred with a groan.
True to her delicate features, she clearly wasn’t accustomed to this sleeping arrangement.
I watched her for a moment, then grew puzzled.
Kria wasn’t visible.
‘She didn’t come all last night?’
I hoped nothing had happened.
Worried enough to venture outside the train, I saw the ferret lounging on the roof leap down toward me.
Ryu.
This creature was the very reason we’d been able to sleep so soundly last night without posting a watch.
In thanks, I gently scratched her head with my index finger, and she let out a sharp cry, clearly annoyed.
She didn’t seem to appreciate being treated like a pet, so I just tapped her shoulder gently instead.
“Good work. Get some rest now.”
Only then satisfied, the ferret nimbly hopped onto my shoulder and dozed off in that position.
Purr-purr……
‘Does she have to sleep here?’
That thought crossed my mind, but she was warm, so I let her be.
With the ferret draped around my neck like a scarf, I scanned the surroundings, and to my surprise, I found Kria quickly enough.
……
Really, there wasn’t much to search for.
She was in the same place as yesterday.
Where the archer’s corpse had been.
The odd thing was that the archer’s corpse had vanished in the meantime.
……Ah.
Sensing my presence, Kria flinched and looked at me.
Her face was still hidden behind her tangled hair, but she seemed genuinely startled.
“You didn’t sleep?”
“……I did.”
Her voice came after a brief pause.
“……I just woke up early.”
“Yeah.”
The conversation died.
Unlike Kazen, who despite her timidity talked quite a bit, Kria was remarkably taciturn.
I studied her appearance for a moment before speaking.
“Did you bury the body?”
A nod.
I’d had a hunch when I saw the dirt caked on her hands.
“That must have been difficult to do alone.”
“Not really.”
Fair enough. So be it.
She seemed to actively avoid conversation itself, so I closed my mouth as well.
Just then, a rumbling sound came from beside me, and I felt dampness on my shoulder.
……
When I looked, the weasel was sprawled out asleep, drool trickling from its jaws.
This creature really was something else.
I wanted to hurl it away on the spot, but considering it had kept watch all night for our sake, I let it be.
“It wasn’t that hard.”
“Hm?”
What did she mean?
I was confused for a moment, but after thinking it through, I realized “it wasn’t that hard” was the complete thought.
Wondering if her words had simply trailed off, I waited quietly until about ten seconds later, when her voice resumed.
“Corpses don’t rush you.”
“I see.”
It was an eerie thing to say, but… my mind had clearly taken on a strange flavor from all these recent events, because I found myself merely thinking “so that’s how it is.”
Still, does she normally talk slowly?
Waiting quietly as I suspected, I was able to gather a few more pieces of information as expected.
“The archer didn’t seem to be killed by a person.”
⁝
“A monster beast, probably a bird of prey?”
⁝
“The corpse had marks not just from talons, but also from a beak tearing into it.”
Hearing Kria’s words, what flashed through my mind was the image of the Barn Owl that had been caged.
‘The Barn Owl.’
Its level had been low, but it was a creature that nagged at me for some reason.
At some point it vanished, and I’d assumed it had been caught up in the chaos when the train derailed……
‘If that wasn’t what happened.’
Just to be sure, I parted ways with Kria and made my way to where the train wreckage lay. It took some time, but I managed to find the cage.
……
As expected, the cage was empty.
Yes, I’d anticipated that much. What I hadn’t anticipated was that the cage still had its lock fastened.
Tap.
I nudged the cage with my foot.
Despite all that chaos, it showed no signs of warping or breaking—a cage in remarkably pristine condition.
‘This damned thing.’
How the hell did it get out?
* * *
Once daylight came, I began a proper investigation of the train.
First, cars one and two.
I found no trace of anyone here either—they’d already made their way into the forest, it seemed.
The curious thing was that these two cars were in remarkably good condition compared to the other cars.
As if only they had managed to escape the disaster of the derailment.
‘Miserable bastards.’
In truth, it wasn’t unusual.
The ones traveling in cars one and two were strong individuals ranked B-grade or higher in terms of companion status. Occasionally some small-fry like the Dorman Party mixed in, but on average that was the standard.
With that level of ability, they wouldn’t have been caught up in the chaos of derailment, and moreover, they would have been able to protect their own car perfectly.
What infuriated me was that these strong ones had simply left the octopus-like creature alone out of sheer inconvenience rather than crushing it.
‘I understand the logic, but.’
The Shadow is troublesome to deal with, regardless of how strong it is.
The higher the rank of a Delver, the more they tend to avoid combat situations altogether.
‘The ones in the front cars have probably done their farming already.’
In other words, the reward they’d gain from eliminating the Shadow wouldn’t be all that attractive.
In any case—
With no casualties, there were no bodies to loot, but that didn’t mean there was nothing to salvage at all.
‘Thank goodness, this matches the setting exactly.’
Car number one.
I found the object I’d been searching for all along in the storage compartment at the very front of the train.
“Is that… could that be an Exploration Crystal?”
When I brought the find and shared it with the siblings, Kazen gasped with surprise, feigning familiarity.
As befitted a mage, apparently.
“An Exploration Crystal?”
Kria, meanwhile, tilted her head in confusion, gazing at the object in my hand—a mysterious crystal.
It was slightly larger than my palm, and a faint light crisscrossed within its depths.
This shimmer rippled like a night sea holding starlight whenever I tilted or shook the crystal—
Lowest-grade Exploration Crystal
A tool for recording the Exploration Progress of the Eternal Forest.
Current Exploration Progress: 0.0%
Remaining time: 29 days 21 hours
To be honest, this was the first time I’d actually seen one myself, so it was fascinating.
“It’s an artifact that records your exploration of the forest. When you discover rare finds in the Eternal Forest and register them with this crystal, you can fill in the Exploration Progress!”
“What happens when you fill it?”
“You can convert it into money, and depending on your results, you can receive rewards from the Royal Palace! Plus, you can use it to return to the Royal Capital!”
“Really?”
Kria looked at the crystal with wide, astonished eyes.
‘Technically speaking, it’s the Guild rather than the Palace.’
Everything else she said is roughly correct.
Of course, it’s not without its problems.
As Kazen said, the Exploration Crystal has Return Magic built into it, but using it requires meeting a prerequisite condition.
Filling the crystal’s Exploration Progress.
‘It’s an insane setting.’
Though there is a plausible reason for it.
To find the Fruit of Immortality, which lies somewhere in the Eternal Forest, as quickly as possible.
That’s the Kingdom’s objective.
To be precise…
‘It’s the King’s long-cherished desire.’
Clearly, one of the creators was deeply moved by the tale of the First Emperor of China.
In any case, due to the King’s mad obsession with immortality, the treatment of Delvers in the Kingdom isn’t bad.
Though it’s not without its risks.
‘Once a Delver, always a Delver.’
There is no concept of resignation for Delvers. Death, perhaps, but not retirement.
As long as your legs move—or even if you can no longer move them—you have no choice but to dedicate yourself to exploration.
“I’m going to enter the forest today.”
I knew this, but I declared it anyway.
I felt the siblings’ gazes converge on me and continued speaking.
“Since the train is destroyed, there’s no physical way to return to the Royal Capital. The only option left is to fill up the Exploration Progress and then activate the Return Magic built into the crystal.”
“But… couldn’t we wait here for the next train to arrive eventually?”
It would come, eventually.
According to the setting, the Kingdom continuously sends new Delvers into the forest.
But.
“The interval is once a month. Do you think you can survive here for an entire month without entering the forest?”
“That’s…”
There’s no need to hear the rest.
It’s impossible.
Without entering the forest, you can’t even obtain basic water and food.
Even if we somehow managed to survive, the Kingdom wouldn’t treat a Delver who abandoned their exploration kindly.
My conclusion is that there’s no choice but to enter—but I wonder what these two are thinking.
Kazen opened her mouth.
“Generally speaking, those who explore the forest form parties of at least five members, or comfortably seven. We, on the other hand, are merely three. Isn’t the risk burden too great?”
So that’s what she was concerned about.
When I think about it, it’s a natural question to have.
Though they appear unreliable, before joining forces with me, these two were at least part of a party with the minimum requisite numbers.
And yet—
“Yes.”
I said it with conviction.
Admittedly, three was a disheartening number.
It might well be too few heads to explore a place as unknown as the Eternal Forest.
But I have knowledge.
Experience.
Even if that experience was only an indirect encounter with a virtual world rendered in polygons and textures…….
I had saved my life with that experience.
“Of course, it depends on what we do. But I move in the direction that I personally believe offers the highest survival odds. Always.”
It was then that Kria, unexpectedly, reached a decision first.
“I’m going.”
“Kria?”
“Kazen, you should come too. You know it, don’t you? We’re going to end up in that forest no matter what.”
…….
At Kria’s words, Kazen’s pupils dilated sharply.
Seeing her like that, I found myself curious.
‘Why did these two come to the forest in the first place?’
Those who seek out the forest each have their own reasons.
Some are after money, plain and simple. Others crave glory.
Some are conscripted by the Kingdom against their will. And rarely, there are eccentrics who want to discover rare finds with their own hands.
But these two?
It seemed like none of those, though I admit it’s only speculation on my part.
“I understand.”
Kazen, having made her decision, looked at me with resolute eyes.
“Let us enter the forest together.”
“Fine. But let me be clear about one thing.”
I spoke, meeting Kazen’s gaze.
“This is a contract. Not some pact to share hardship and joy as comrades. We’ve only just met — that’s not possible. And don’t expect any loyalty that would have us die for each other. When danger strikes, each of us looks after our own life first. It means acting rationally, no matter the circumstances.”
It sounds cold at first glance, but most Delvers who form parties operate on exactly this kind of relationship.
In fact, parties who care too much about each other are the ones who don’t survive long in this forest.
I extended my hand, as if testing.
“Can you accept that?”
“……Yes. Of course.”
The moment Kazen grasped my outstretched hand.
[You have recruited ‘Kazen’ as an ally.]
[You have recruited ‘Kria’ as an ally.]
[You can now access the status windows of ‘Kazen’ and ‘Kria’.]
At last, the status window unlocked.
[Current Trust Level with the subject is low; viewable information is restricted.]
I already knew that.
Dismissing the familiar message, I immediately checked the status windows of both of them.

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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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