Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 18

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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 18.
Woodman Colony Ⅲ
The Woodman Colony is one of the less dangerous maps in the early reaches of the Eternal Forest.
The Woodmen that appear here are fundamentally slow, rarely gather in groups larger than ten, and are relatively docile at night.
‘A place where stable growth and farming are guaranteed.’
Yet there remained enemies worth worrying about.
If you could call them enemies. They were a Field Event, technically.
‘Wood Revenge.’
The moment I recalled the damned event’s name.
[Field Event, Wood Revenge has commenced.]
[While the event progresses, all Delvers who have invaded the Woodman Colony cannot leave the field.]
[Find a solution and escape the Colony.]
Escape. Right. Perfect.
“Kaindale?”
“One moment.”
I sifted through the various pieces of information in my head, first recalling the trigger conditions for Wood Revenge.
‘…Hunting down more than ten thousand Woodmen within a month, wasn’t it?’
This was the reason for my carelessness.
Over the course of a week without proper rest, we’d managed to kill roughly two thousand Woodmen at most. Nowhere near enough to meet the condition.
Which meant…
“Cria. Scout the perimeter once more.”
There had to be other parties nearby.
* * *
A moment later, Cria spoke.
“There are three parties in the vicinity.”
“Besides us?”
“Yeah. But something’s odd. I’m sure there was no one around just moments ago…”
They must have been drawn here naturally, to where the Black Tree stood.
Just like we were.
“Kaindale. Now would you mind explaining what exactly is happening in this forest right now?”
Kazen spoke with exasperation in his voice. Kept in the dark without proper explanation, he’d clearly begun to feel uneasy.
‘An explanation of the situation…’
Come to think of it, sharing information like this was something I wouldn’t normally need to do in the game.
I let out a short, expressionless laugh before opening my mouth.
“Each region of the forest has its own rules that mustn’t be broken. The Woodman Colony is no exception.”
“We broke a rule? I don’t recall doing anything particularly strange…”
“Simply put, it’s the consequence of killing too many Woodmen.”
Kazen spoke with a blank look on his face.
“So… you’re saying the forest got angry because we felled too many trees?”
He had an unnecessarily poetic way of putting things.
It wasn’t entirely wrong, so I nodded along.
“And how do we escape?”
“Well…”
There was a way, of course.
That was the nature of this game.
Even in situations that seemed to have no solution, there were always a few escape routes built in.
It was why PoP, despite constant criticism for being a terrible, doomed game, maintained a solid player base.
‘The problem is whether I can meet those conditions right now.’
If I’d become a Necromancer as planned, my survival rate would have improved meaningfully…
But unfortunately, I’m a Summoner—a class I never asked for.
‘I’ll have to use the Achievement Points, then.’
There were only three total purchases available in the Bronze Shop.
I hadn’t expected to spend two of them on the first expedition, but this wasn’t the time to be thrifty.
With the current situation, survival odds were less than ten percent even at best.
“Kaindale. Something’s approaching from that direction.”
Cria’s warning jolted me back to awareness.
“Another party?”
“No. It looks like a Woodman, but something’s off about its appearance. Its shell is red, and somehow…”
“More human-like than usual?”
Cria flinched, then nodded.
‘Damn it all.’
They move fast.
“What should we do? Should we prepare for combat…?”
“No.”
Let me think this through.
We’ve killed roughly two thousand Woodmen. Kazen got squeamish at the end and we fell short of our quota, so there’s probably a margin of error of a hundred or two here…….
Cria said there were three other parties nearby.
‘That leaves roughly eight thousand remaining.’
Three parties besides us.
Whether those three split the kills evenly or one party hoarded five or six thousand—I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter either.
The key point here is that we’re absolutely not the party that hunted the most Woodmen.
In other words―
“They’re almost here! Kaindale?”
I spoke to Cria and Kazen, who were clearly panicking.
“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say. From now on, don’t move. Stay absolutely still.”
We are not their first target.
“What do you mean by―?”
“No time to explain. Understand? No matter what those things do, don’t move, and―”
I cut myself short. A chill had run down my spine.
Then―
Rustle.
They emerged from beyond the brush.
‘Hell.’
The sight was enough to make me curse instinctively.
If the Woodmen we’d killed so far looked like walking trees, these things resembled nutcrackers carved by clumsy hands.
Grotesque hollows, I suppose you’d call them.
In any case, deeply unsettling to look at.
Crack, crack.
They all moved with their joints twisted unnaturally, contorting their bodies excessively, and as they did, a name written above their heads caught my eye.
[Lv.50 ‘Woodman Avenger’]
Level fifty at the outset is absolute madness.
They weren’t designed to be fought in the first place, so of course it made sense—but facing them directly, my breath caught in my throat.
The Avengers lingered around us for a while, observing intently.
‘Just keep moving past us.’
I prayed with all the desperation I could muster, but reality, as always, doesn’t unfold so easily.
One of the Avengers suddenly went rigid.
[…….]
Its gaze had fixed on Cria. Its eyes were barely more than lines etched into wood, but judging from the tilt of its head, there was no mistaking where it was looking.
The Avenger closed the distance to Cria in a single stride.
“……!”
Kazen, startled, reached for his Crossbow, but I pressed down gently on his shoulder.
In that instant, the Avenger extended its hand toward Cria.
A Woodman’s thumb was blunt in form—like a stamp carved from wood.
Press.
The Avenger used that thumb-shaped appendage to press firmly against Cria’s neck.
“…….”
Despite the contact with the creature, Cria didn’t budge. I found myself thinking she was admirably composed, but looking at her face, it seemed her body had simply frozen in terror.
[…….]
After that, the Avengers departed.
I remained silent until their presence had completely faded from perception, then finally spoke.
“……All right. You can move now.”
“Cria!”
Kazen hurried to check on his sister.
Near the place where the Avenger had made contact—her neck—a strange symbol had been carved into her skin.
‘Damn it.’
So it comes to this after all.
I was exhaling a silent sigh when Kazen turned to me.
“What exactly is this mark? What did that Woodman do to Cria?”
“It’s a Stigma.”
“……A Stigma? What is that, exactly?”
“I mentioned it before. The black tree had two fruits bearing on it.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“In simple terms, the Black Tree is demanding two sacrifices right now.”
“Sacrifices? Surely you don’t mean…”
I nodded and continued.
“If we offer two sacrifices bearing the Stigma, the other people caught up in this can save their lives.”
“We can’t abandon her.”
Kazen spoke instead of Cria, whose complexion had turned ashen.
It was a resolute tone I hadn’t expected from him.
‘That’s the way to do it.’
I had no intention of offering Cria as a sacrifice either.
Even if offering a sacrifice would save lives, it would save only their lives—nothing more.
“Then hide the Stigma. And don’t let anyone see it. Soon we’ll be joining up with another party.”
“…Yes, understood.”
Kazen turned up Cria’s collar and pulled the hood over her head.
It was makeshift, but the Stigma wouldn’t be visible at a glance now.
‘So what now?’
Honestly, I couldn’t predict what would happen from here on.
The temperaments of the other Delvers I’d encounter, their knowledge, experience, numbers—there were too many variables to account for.
‘I’ll have to adapt on the fly.’
The moment I’d made my decision.
A rustling sound came from behind us.
“Aha! Just as I thought!”
Several figures then emerged from the undergrowth.
“Didn’t I tell you? I sensed a presence here?”
“You were right.”
A group appeared as if they’d been waiting.
How the hell did these bastards find our location?
The answer was simple.
Beside the man who was showing off stood a Spirit the size of a human face.
A Sylph—a mid-tier wind Spirit.
‘Damn.’
That creature must be why Cria’s reconnaissance was discovered.
“…”
Cria’s face went pale when she realized the truth, but it wasn’t really her fault.
Spiritists are one of the rarest professions to encounter. In terms of ratio, they’re even scarcer than mages.
I’d thought it unlikely I’d run into one, so I’d ordered a scout—but this happens anyway.
Still.
“We have no intention of becoming hostile, so there’s no need to be wary.”
The real problem wasn’t some Spiritist.
A man stood before us in gleaming armor and golden hair, his sharp jawline and calm baritone voice making him look like a textbook example of a knight.
I recognized him immediately.
‘It’s the White Knight.’
A named NPC far too familiar to me.
What puzzled me was why a high-tier named like him was lingering in a beginner’s zone like the Woodman Colony…
But looking at the composition of his party, the reason became clear.
‘A training mission, perhaps?’
Deep in the formation, surrounded by Delvers in a protective formation, stood a blonde noblewoman whose gaze was as sharp as a blade.
She certainly looked fastidious—though that might be my prejudice.
Perhaps her appearance belied a gentle temperament underneath…
“Laurent. What is it?”
“We’ve found new Delvers and I thought we should speak with them.”
“Delvers? By their appearance, they look like beggars to me.”
So much for trusting appearances.
I sighed to myself, but Laurent spoke again.
“…At the very least, we should verify. Can you show us your Exploration Crystal?”
Since it was the response I’d anticipated, I nodded and produced the crystal.
“Here it is.”
“Pardon me.”
Laurent examined the crystal carefully before asking me a question.
“A lowest grade Exploration Crystal.”
“Is there a problem with it?”
“No. If I seemed rude, I apologize. And… the crystal itself appears to be in working order.”
……
“Then shall I show you mine now?”
With that, Laurent drew a crystal from his breast pocket.
“Ah…”
Kazen let out an admiring breath. He couldn’t help it.
Unlike ours, which flickered like a lamp on its last breath, the crystal Laurent produced radiated a brilliant, prismatic light—the brilliance of a premium gem.
‘A Highest Grade Exploration Crystal.’
When would I ever scrape together something like that?
The thought of what functions were embedded in a Highest Grade Exploration Crystal stirred an involuntary envy in me.
“Lady. The Exploration Crystal is still functioning. These are not Stragglers.”
“Is that so? Surprising.”
Those whose Exploration Crystals ceased functioning and who failed to return were called Stragglers.
Delvers who reached that state were scorned and despised by their peers, and if luck turned against them, even their lives were forfeit.
The moment a Delver became a Straggler, a kind of missing person report was filed against their status.
‘And resolving that missing status is its own work.’
Yet you couldn’t simply leave them be.
An uncertain status meant they couldn’t access even the kingdom’s basic facilities.
So the grade of the Exploration Crystal mattered.
The more expensive the crystal, the exponentially longer one could remain in the forest.
‘This kid’s clearly just a party ferrying baggage.’
There was no other reason an NPC of this caliber would be wandering around the Woodman Colony.
Laurent looked at me.
“It seems a Calamity has occurred somewhere in this region…”
……
“May I propose something? How about we cooperate until this matter is resolved?”
A Calamity—what those in the PoP world called a Field Event.
It was exactly as I’d anticipated, but I feigned ignorance and asked.
“Cooperate?”
“Yes. I’m remiss in introducing myself. I am Laurent, a member of the Farsus Knights—the kingdom’s blade.”
“Laurent Lefebvre! The White Knight of the Empire!”
Before I could even respond, Kazen’s face lit up.
So this fool had heard of the White Knight Laurent’s fame as well.
“Kaindale…!”
Kazen turned to me with an expression of earnest hope.
I didn’t need to see it that badly.
“…Fine. Let’s do it.”
Naturally, I’d already intended to join.
“Good thinking.”
Laurent nodded, and Kazen released a relieved sigh as the tension drained from him.
Cria’s expression brightened noticeably as well.
……
But did these two really know?
The dangerously peculiar nature hidden beneath this White Knight’s seemingly upright façade?
Perhaps we were walking from the wolf straight into the tiger’s jaws.
“What is your name?”
The White Knight’s gaze turned toward me.
His eyes were calm, yet I felt an inexplicable pressure behind them.
“Kaindale.”
“Kaindale. You appear to be the leader of this group. Do you happen to know anything about this Calamity?”
……
I ran my tongue across my parched lips and spoke.
“…Better than most.”

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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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