Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 31

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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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Chapter 31.
Forest Resting Place Ⅰ
It was back when I was actively enjoying the PoP community.
Among the various users in the community, there was one who unusually insisted on acting friendly with me.
-Dance Dance: Hey there, Check.
His nickname was Dance Dance.
There wasn’t any particular reason for it.
It was just that from the moment I learned we were from the same country, he’d maintained that attitude consistently.
Well, nothing strange about that.
In a foreign land, patriotic fervor tends to bubble up out of nowhere.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: ?
Of course, I generally showed him a cold demeanor, and there was a valid reason for this too.
Dance Dance was a blowhard.
From what I heard, before I appeared on the forums he’d been spouting nonsense about being a famous idol or some such drivel that no one believed.
That ridiculous talk stopped dead once I showed up.
‘Did he think it’d be easier to get caught by someone from the same country?’
Either way, whether he had thick skin or simply lacked perception, Dance Dance never seemed bothered by my blatant coldness and kept up the pretense of friendliness.
That day too, this fellow approached me with a trivial question.
-Dance Dance: So, if you had to clear PoP, how far would you go?
……What’s that supposed to mean?
As in, would I commit a crime to clear the game?
Sensing my confusion, I surveyed the forum’s atmosphere before responding. The activity was definitely more frequent than usual.
As I scrolled down, I quickly found the source of the buzz.
-Title: How high have you pushed your Infamy score while playing PoP?
Infamy. A penalty stat in PoP that accumulates whenever you commit criminal acts.
-Post: I think I’m around 1200? I like to play pretty cleanly overall
↳Wait, are you insane? When I killed like 30 NPCs I was only at 200
↳You’re a newbie lol. If you keep playing, 1200 stacks up naturally while you’re just breathing. Anyway, you just bribe the town guard and it clears right away
↳Huh? Mine didn’t clear
↳What’s your job?
↳Dark Mage
↳Ah.. my condolences
In truth, the forum users probably never actually spoke like that.
Poll Ever was an overseas site, after all. Since it’s an old memory, I’d appreciate it if you’d understand these are reconstructed memories in my head.
-Post: The structure of PoP makes it impossible not to backstab NPCs. Sure, your reputation takes a hit, but that’s secondary. You have to survive first, right?
↳Facts and logic. And honestly, betrayal goes to the swift anyway lol. If I don’t do it, nine times out of ten those bastards stab me first
-Post: I’m telling you, the ones you should fear most in this game are the ones smiling while extending their hand. I kill every single one of those types. They could be Shadows, after all?
↳So were they Shadows?
↳Nah, nine out of ten are just NPCs
↳Absolute madman lol
-Post: I abandoned all my companion NPCs and bolted from Goblin Prairie. If you don’t know it, memorize this: allies in PoP = just extra lives
↳If you’re running from Goblin Prairie, something’s seriously wrong with your fingers
“Hmm.”
Apparently, I was wasting life on trivial gossip today as well.
Then the forum devolved into comparing who had the highest Infamy score and which of them had done the most despicable things to NPCs.
‘Typical Poll Ever.’
With a game that vast, it occasionally heats up over random topics like this.
-Dance Dance: It just got me curious. Being one of the forum’s four eccentric players, I wondered how high you’d pushed your Infamy score
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: And you?
-Dance Dance: Me? Maybe around 500?
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: That’s low
-Dance Dance: Of course it is. Unlike those forum people, I don’t throw my life away into the game. PoP is definitely fun entertainment, but there are other things to enjoy in my life too
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Ah. I see. Dancing and singing, that sort of thing?
-Dance Dance: ..Let’s drop that subject.
Embarrassed, apparently.
I snorted, but it was true—Dance Dance had relatively little playtime compared to other forum users.
Still, he showed his face on the forums frequently, though he’d vanish mid-conversation or disappear for months at a time.
-Dance Dance: So? What’s your highest record?
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Well…… probably around 50,000?
The reply came back after a slight pause.
-Dance Dance: Really? A hundred times mine?
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Does it matter if it’s a hundred or a thousand? Once you hit twenty thousand, you can’t enter the kingdom anyway. After that, it’s just meaningless number games.
-Dance Dance: Still, fifty thousand is pretty extreme. Did you kill a king or something?
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Close enough. I killed the Saint of Abel Order.
-Dance Dance: Insane. How’d that happen?
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: She was a Shadow.
-Dance Dance: Ah.
Even now, I think back on that run with some regret.
The progression was going so well that I expected to set a new personal record, but those Order fanatics kept interfering at every turn.
I looked into it out of suspicion, and wouldn’t you know it—the Saint was in a Shadow state.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Of course, I’ve killed plenty of things that weren’t Shadows either. I’ve done everything the game’s freedom allows.
-Dance Dance: Like what specifically?
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: The usual stuff people post about on forums—abandoning allies and fleeing, or selling them out. When I sensed relationships souring, I’d just quietly kill them and loot their gear. I’ve had runs where I took contracts from the Underworld and worked as a hired assassin.
-Dance Dance: Wow. You’re garbage.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Look who’s talking. You can’t claim you’ve never done anything like that.
-Dance Dance: Fair point. I remember this wandering merchant messing with potion prices, and I thought, ‘What nerve.’ Ended up killing him and burying him in the forest.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: Right. Everyone does stuff like that.
I tapped out a message on the keyboard.
-Hangang Water Check Artisan: In a game this open-ended, you’re probably rarer if you haven’t killed at least one NPC.
* * *
[You have wandered through the same region for a long time without a guide.]
[Status abnormality: you have fallen into Wandering.]
I walked through the darkened forest.
All I had to rely on was the faint glow of moonlight.
Crunch.
The wind gusting unevenly, the crumble of dead leaves, the snap of branches underfoot—each sound rang out with unnatural clarity.
It hit me anew: forests are genuinely miserable places.
The light was gone, just blackness painted over everything, yet it felt like an entirely foreign space.
Whooooo—
Every time a sound like that echoed, I couldn’t help but tense up.
When the undergrowth near me rustled, I’d stand motionless and wary for minutes on end…….
Squeak!
After staring long enough, a fist-sized rat would scurry out and vanish back into the forest’s darkness.
“…….”
My nerves were being ground down bit by bit.
I’d underestimated walking as something simple, but moving through a dark forest on high alert came with far more mental fatigue than I’d bargained for.
‘Is this something else I’m learning?’
How it differs from the game.
Right. This is how you grow—bit by bit, lesson by lesson.
Even as I comforted myself with such pathetic thoughts, the fundamental cause of my suffering remained unsolved.
I yawned for the countless time.
‘……My eyes are stinging. I’m going to go blind at this rate.’
If I forced them open, objects split into twos and threes.
[You have wandered through the same region for a long time without a guide.]
[Status abnormality: you have fallen into Wandering.]
I know, I know.
I was clearing yet another message I’d lost count of.
“Hey, Keindel…….”
A strained voice came from behind me.
“Let’s rest for a bit. I’m dying…….”
“…….”
So that’s why she came in so hot at first—her limits had arrived earlier than expected.
I was about to say no, but one look at her face and the words died in my throat.
“……Five minutes. Then we keep going.”
“Uuuugh…….”
Seigurena let out a groan and collapsed where she stood, her entire body drenched in sweat as if she’d just sprinted at full speed.
‘Because she used Holy Opening, it’s inevitable.’
Of course, using Holy Opening didn’t destroy your body like careless mana expenditure might, but it came with a downside just as devastating.
‘Monstrous stamina drain.’
Push it to the limit and you collapse on the spot. Depending on the character, you might not be able to move for days.
I could force her awake, sure, but her condition would deteriorate, and if she picked up a debuff her stats would tank.
Worse, she might develop as a trait.
So really, Seigurena was holding up surprisingly well.
‘Shouldn’t I be worrying about myself instead?’
The moment I stopped walking, exhaustion crashed over me.
Suddenly I remembered the Fragment Knife in my pocket.
One of the items I’d picked up in the Corpse Cave. Nothing special—I was just wondering if stabbing my thigh with it might chase away the sleep.
‘…Shit. I’m losing it.’
The thigh is a critical point on the human body.
A wrong stab could kill me from blood loss, or at minimum cripple my ability to walk.
Not the kind of thing to joke about, even in passing.
“…How much further do we have to go?”
“Just a bit more. We’re almost there.”
“Almost there? How many times have you said that already—”
Seigurena’s voice turned sharp before she cut herself off. Her face was painted with exhaustion and irritation.
Not surprising, really. I’d expected her patience to snap long ago—at this point, she’d held out longer than I’d dared hope.
I fidgeted with my watch and spoke.
“We really are almost there now.”
“Where exactly are we going?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“Somewhere safe…? Is there even a place like that in this forest?”
Of course there was.
That’s why we were killing ourselves like this.
“Why are you in such a hurry? Can’t we just sleep for a bit and move tomorrow?”
“Sleep here? Who’d stand watch?”
…
Seigurena fell silent.
She understood too.
If we let our eyes close now, we’d both collapse into sleep so deep we wouldn’t wake again.
Neither of us was in any state to keep watch.
“If you’ve got energy to argue, use it to stand. Walk another second instead of wasting breath.”
Seigurena sighed and staggered to her feet.
We walked through the forest without another word.
All the while, I kept calculating the remaining time.
‘…Two or three hours left, maybe.’
Yes. Time was what mattered now.
The next steps weren’t measured in distance—they were measured in time.
That was the only way to reach our destination… the .
‘The Forest Resting Place.’
A Hidden Map accessible only by meeting specific conditions—and a Safety Zone.
There were several ways to reach the Resting Place, but the method I was aiming for relied on the debuff.
‘First, this has to be your first visit to the . Second, you have to wander in a Wandering state for fifty hours or more.’
Meet both those conditions, and the forest itself would guide you to the Resting Place.
‘It was easy in the game.’
Fifty hours just flew by—you’d move the mouse a little and it was gone in a blink.
‘…Two or three hours left.’
I reminded myself of the time again.
Given our physical state, it might as well have been asking us to last two or three more days.
Especially with Kria on my back besides.
Thump.
In that moment, Seigurena—who’d been walking behind me—simply collapsed.
“Seigurena?”
I called her name, but got no response.
“…Damn.”
A sigh escaped me, but I went back to check her condition first.
At least she wasn’t dead—she’d just fallen asleep mid-stride, face-first on the ground.
“Get up. Sleep here and you’ll die.”
I shook her shoulders, tapped her cheeks, but nothing—no response. Seigurena had fallen into the kind of sleep from which the dead themselves might envy her escape.
Another sigh came out.
‘Now I have to carry her too?’
With Kria unconscious too?
‘Or maybe…….’
There is another way.
A dark, murky thought that had been churning through my mind all along.
In truth, I’ve faced this situation countless times while playing.
‘Party annihilation on the horizon. Game Over looming.’
In moments like these, what takes absolute priority?
The player character’s survival.
Obviously.
Allies can die by the dozens and it barely matters, but if my character falls even once, the game ends. So――
“…….”
Abandoning Seigurena and Kria here and walking away—isn’t that the supremely rational choice?
⁝
[You have wandered the same area for an extended period without a guide.]
[Status abnormality: you fall into Wandering.]
⁝
[Current party status reflected.]
[Status abnormality: Wandering stacks.]
⁝
[Current status: Wandering (3)]

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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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