Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 32

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 32.
Forest’s Respite II
I thought I’d hit my limit countless times before.
Dragged suddenly into the world of PoP, I’d faced death more than once.
But now I understand.
Until now, I’d never truly reached my limit—not in any real sense.
Because standing at the edge of death and being driven to the edge of exhaustion were similar, yet entirely different.
[Warning! Your body has reached its limit.]
[Rest immediately.]
My thighs burned.
My knees and ankles trembled as if hammered, and with each step my calves screamed as though they might split open.
‘I want to wash.’
My entire body was drenched in sweat.
I wanted to submerge myself in lukewarm water, wash the matted hair from my head, cleanse myself, maybe spray on cologne I actually liked.
Then maybe this godforsaken stench clinging to me would finally fade.
[Warning! Your body has reached its limit.]
[Rest immediately.]
I ignored the warning and kept walking.
Unsteady, ready to collapse at any moment, bearing two deadweight bodies across my shoulders.
‘This is killing me.’
An unconscious body was no different from a log.
Carrying two such logs, it was no wonder my entire frame creaked and groaned.
‘What the hell are you doing?’
I asked myself, but no answer came.
There was nothing I could say in my defense.
‘Hey, you idiot. Are you even sane?’
The voice in my head was swearing at me now.
Still, I had nothing to say back.
My current actions stood in direct opposition to my usual playstyle.
[You have wandered in the same area for an extended period without a guide.]
[Status abnormality: Wandering has taken hold.]
How much time had passed?
I had a pocket watch in my jacket, but I didn’t have the luxury of taking it out.
Right now, every ounce of focus had to go toward keeping my unsteady feet moving forward.
Thud.
‘Damn it.’
Apparently, even that wasn’t enough.
My foot caught on nothing, and I went down hard—face-first into the dirt.
My nose stung, and my tongue tasted the gritty, bitter flavor of soil.
“…….”
This is absurd.
I needed to get up, but my heavy body refused to cooperate.
This was the first time I’d experienced pure physical helplessness—and it unsettled me more than I wanted to admit.
I thrashed a few times before collapsing again.
[Warning! Your body has reached its limit.]
[Rest immediately. Permanent damage may occur.]
Rest? Not a chance.
Staying flat on my face here was as good as being dead.
If a monster appeared now, I was finished—literally.
‘First, I need to breathe.’
I steadied my breathing.
In through my nose, out through my mouth—several times over. As my breath returned, I managed to haul my creaking body upright again.
“Hah…….”
I hoisted Cria back onto my shoulder and wedged Seigrena against my hip.
This position gave me the best balance I could manage.
“……Kaindel.”
Cria’s voice reached me at that moment.
When did she wake up?
‘Just now, maybe? From the impact when I fell?’
The shock of hitting the ground could have jolted her awake.
“That’s enough…….”
Enough of what?
I thought better of asking—it felt like wasting energy—and closed my mouth.
But I couldn’t let the next words slip past me.
“……You can just leave me behind.”
“What?”
“You’d be able to walk so much farther on your own.”
She made it impossible not to respond.
“So what, you want me to abandon you?”
“……I can hide up in a tree, or in the undergrowth. Somewhere safe. Once you reach the destination alone and catch your breath, you can come back for us in the morning.”
“That’s absurd. You know how little sense that makes.”
The breeding ground is transforming even now.
I can’t predict what this realm will become in the hours ahead.
There’s no guarantee anywhere that we’ll survive until morning.
“So then……? It makes sense for me to keep dragging you both along like this?”
“…….”
She’s eloquent, I’ll give her that.
Consciousness barely returned, and she can barely move a finger, yet here she is.
“……You said it yourself, Kaindel. Our relationship is bound only by contract—we don’t owe each other our lives. When danger strikes, the priority has to be your own survival.”
But her trembling voice strips the words of all conviction.
“You said to always act rationally in the forest…….”
That’s right. That’s my playstyle.
So why am I doing this now?
I’ve abandoned allies countless times while playing. Deceived them, betrayed them, stabbed them in the back. I was especially wary of those who approached with smiles.
Even after my own verification that someone was trustworthy, I treated them the same way. There was never any guarantee that trust would hold, not until the very end.
‘I’ve killed so many.’
Not for any grand reason.
I pretended not to see someone dying to save a single Potion. I ignored a mage coughing blood so I could preserve a single point of mana.
I sent guides into obvious traps. When I coveted their gear, I struck from behind.
I’ve struck first many times on suspicion alone.
And what did they say to me each time?
“You cursed wretch!”
“Abel will never forgive you.”
“May you fall into hell……. You filthy criminal……!”
But when I was the one struck from behind?
“You believed that, you idiot?”
“Haha! You fool. In the forest, creatures like you die first.”
“Don’t take it too hard. Here, the deceived are the real fools.”
They poured out standardized curses like that.
But the real point isn’t the curses themselves. It’s that they were standardized.
Like a beverage dispenser that spits out the same drink with one press, whether the betrayer or the betrayed, they spoke in a monotone so mind-numbing I almost yawned.
So that’s why.
“Now that I think about it, there wasn’t a single one.”
“Not a single what……?”
Someone who told me to abandon them and save myself.
That’s it.
If I had to name a reason, that would be it.
“Listen, Cria. Promise me something.”
“……A promise?”
“If we survive this, you follow my orders without question once we’re in the forest.”
“Orders…….”
Cria is perceptive.
Better to make her fully aware of her own worth than to merely comfort her here.
“……I will.”
Cria spoke.
“If we survive, I’ll follow every word you say, Kaindel.”
“Good. Rest now.”
“Okay……. Thank you…….”
[Your ally, ‘Cria’, has grown more trusting of you.]
As tension drained away, consciousness followed.
For a moment my center of gravity collapsed and I nearly toppled over, but even then I let out a scoff.
‘Of course that would be it.’
Who in this world actually wants to die?
Even if you tell someone to abandon their possessions and leave, they’d never truly wish for that.
Given this creature’s nature, I’d wager he preemptively told me to abandon him because he fears being abandoned first.
“Hah…….”
To be honest, my willingness to undertake this grueling task had a practical reason behind it.
It wasn’t born purely from goodwill.
[You have wandered through the same area for an extended period without a guide.]
[Abnormal status: you fall into .]
Only after spending more than fifty hours in the Wandering state would the path to Forest’s Respite open.
With roughly two or three hours remaining, the trick I’d set my sights on was .
In , certain debuffs can stack upon one another.
is a prime example.
When three or more party members remain afflicted with Confusion for an extended time without intervention, the Status Window displays it as .
‘Of course the numerical effect applies at triple strength.’
I checked my Status Window.
[Current Status: ]
My debuff was currently stacked.
It had happened in the closing stretch, and that moment placed me at a crossroads.
First option: press forward alone for three more hours.
Second option: drag along two burdens and advance for just one hour.
The former was Low Risk and Low Return―
The latter was needless to say High Risk High Return.
In the end, I chose the latter.
‘There really shouldn’t be much time left now.’
Even with dulled senses, even without checking a watch, I could tell as much. The pain radiating through my body was proof enough.
The final stretch is always the hardest.
Take a marathon—runners say the last two kilometers feel far longer and more grueling than the first forty.
‘How much further can I even walk?’
It was like walking a tightrope.
I was barely holding on—collapsing without taking another step would be no surprise.
And in that moment, I understood something.
If I fell once more, I wouldn’t rise again.
Yet something felt strange.
My body had long since reached its limit and my mind felt sluggish, yet somehow my senses throughout my entire frame felt unnaturally sharp.
Kee-kee, kik, kik…….
Perhaps that’s why. Along with that base, contemptible laughter came a presence. Rolling my eyes slightly, I caught the shape of a green figure lurking in the shadows of the brush.
[Lv.15 ‘Goblin’]
A goblin—the very archetype of a common mob.
Since they naturally travel in groups, I’d wager there were at least three or four more lurking nearby.
‘Damn.’
Did they crawl out from the Spore Kingdom?
There are a few Green Skins roaming that map too.
If I’d been at full strength, I wouldn’t have even bothered to scoff at such small fry, but now they felt far more unsettling than when I’d encountered the Woodman Avenger.
No mob has such a sharp disparity between weak and strong as these creatures do.
Kee-rik, kik, kik…….
The goblin whelps prowled nearby without moving in for an immediate attack.
‘They’re being cautious.’
And assessing me simultaneously. I looked unstable enough, but I also appeared stronger than them, so they hesitated to press an assault.
But that hesitation wouldn’t last long.
Crack.
Suddenly pain erupted in my head, and consciousness nearly slipped away.
‘Shit…….’
I understood what had happened immediately.
A blood-smeared stone tumbled away from my feet.
Kee-hik, hik, kee-hik.
That vile laughter pierced my ears.
The laughter of creatures now certain of their prey’s weakness.
Click.
I gritted my teeth and quickened my pace.
It wasn’t much—a slug becoming a turtle—but the physical strain had intensified dramatically.
“Haaah, hgh….”
My breath came ragged.
Whether from suffocation or something else, my vision had gone completely black as if I’d gone blind in an instant.
Screech, shriek, shriek…!
In the darkness where I couldn’t distinguish forward from back, my hearing had grown all the sharper.
Along with the sound of brush being trampled, I felt the goblins drawing closer and closer.
In that fraction of a second, dozens of thoughts flashed through my mind.
Was I wrong after all? Had I made a terrible misjudgment? Should I run alone even now? Would they really just let me go?
‘…Luck’s against me, then.’
I’d defeated the Woodman Avenger, hunted down the Hidden Boss Godrak, and even eliminated the Black Tree—an invincible object.
And now I was going to die to these pathetic goblins.
That was absurdly unfair.
“…Hah.”
Why was I so indignant? I hadn’t just experienced this kind of nonsense once or twice while playing PoP.
‘It’s always been like this.’
This game had always made players feel the sting of unfairness.
That’s why it never went mainstream, why it became a toy for only the eccentric to enjoy.
‘…But I.’
I found joy in such a game. I felt the drive to challenge it, and I felt I could win. I believed that eventually, I could clear it.
That hadn’t changed now.
I had pride. The pride that no other player understood PoP as deeply as I did.
Even if it meant someone with a higher completion rate—even Chris—it made no difference.
‘My judgment was right.’
I’d made the best choice I could in that situation.
So I didn’t regret it, and I didn’t doubt it.
If I’d abandoned them and gone alone, what guarantee did I have that three hours of walking would be completely safe?
‘So, keep moving.’
Keep walking, putting one foot in front of the other, getting farther from those goblin bastards.
If I hit game over after giving it my all, then that’s just how it is.
Shriek!
Now I could even feel the goblins’ breath.
Voices that had echoed from a distance were now right at my back.
‘What were their weapons again?’
Oh. Clubs.
Would it hurt if one caught me on the back of the head? Of course it would.
“Hm.”
A pointless thought.
A hollow wondering if this was truly the end.
A strange sense of relief.
In that space, so as to leave not a shred of regret, to prove that I’d given my all until the very last moment, I took the next step forward, and—
Shhp.
[You have wandered lost for a long time in the Eternal Forest.]
“—Ah.”
Deep in my heart, relief welled up—and something far greater than relief.
Because this was the message I’d so desperately hoped to see.
[For having Wandered long within a certain area, you have received the mysterious guidance of the forest.]
Shriek, cough…?
I heard the goblins’ confused cries fade into the distance.
My consciousness dimmed bit by bit. Beyond my completely darkened vision, a brilliant light rippled into being.
I felt a warmth like glowing embers enveloping my entire body as I thought—
[Entering the Forest’s Respite.]
Once again, I had not been wrong.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————