Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 44

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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 44.
Royal City Ⅳ
Mages are a cloistered breed, and the Magic Tower where such creatures gather is naturally a cloistered institution.
As a result, the Magic Tower opens only twice a week—Tuesdays and Fridays.
‘Of course today had to be Saturday.’
Four more days until Tuesday.
So I decided to attend to my personal business first.
Truth be told, I’d wanted to come here the moment I returned to the Royal City, but the lodging where I was staying lay some distance away.
“Is this the carriage to Avenue 5?”
“That’s right. Five hundred Seed.”
I paid without complaint and rode for the better part of an hour.
And so I arrived at my destination.
“Extra! Extra! Pure gold has been discovered in the 7th Mining District!”
“A prayer gathering will be held at the Abel Grand Cathedral this afternoon at one o’clock! Our faith welcomes all, regardless of status, gender, or age!”
“Flowers for sale! Beautiful, fresh flowers brought from beyond the Royal City! We have rare varieties—black roses, scarlet lilies, blue daffodils, and more!”
Royal City Avenue 5. A commercial street teeming with shops, and seeing it in person, it appeared dozens of times larger and more chaotic than I remembered.
‘I wonder if I’ll manage to find it.’
The crowd here seemed denser than any modern weekend marketplace. There was a gnawing anxiety that I might waste the entire day just trying to navigate.
Honestly lacking confidence to find it on my own, I asked someone passing by for directions.
“The Old Bookstore? You mean the place run by that crusty old fellow?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“I’ll show you the way. Come on.”
He was a man of gentle, handsome features. His height was quite remarkable too—probably over six feet and a half.
“Just directions would be quite sufficient, thank you.”
“Never mind. I’m heading that way anyway. Let’s go.”
I followed him, thinking to myself.
‘Should I offer some compensation?’
I was hardly flush with funds, but even a paltry thousand Seed seemed necessary to avoid awkward gossip later.
With such thoughts, I trailed behind the man—
……
We seemed to be heading into increasingly desolate territory.
I surveyed the typical alleyway scenery once and called out to him.
“Excuse me.”
……
“Hello?”
“Hmm?”
“Is the Old Bookstore in a place like this?”
The man replied without turning, his tone matter-of-fact.
“Ah, this is a shortcut.”
“I see.”
“Yeah. Just keep going straight and you’ll see it right away. Trust me and follow.”
This time I said nothing in response, only closed my mouth.
After that, I followed in tense silence, and our footsteps led us into ever darker, damper surroundings.
And then—
“Here we are! We’ve arrived.”
We had indeed reached the Old Bookstore.
……
A twist, if I had to call it one.
My legs nearly buckled, and something like a sigh escaped me.
The man, seeing this, tilted his head curiously.
“Why that look? Isn’t that it? The bookstore with no sign, looking like it has no customers.”
“Yes, that’s the place.”
“Right? There’s no other place like that around here.”
Nodding with satisfaction, the man smiled broadly.
“Well then, I’m off. Have a good rest of your day.”
“Ah, wait a moment. I wanted to offer some thanks—”
“Forget it. No need for thanks over something like this.”
And with that, he departed like an arrow.
“Hmm……”
I really ought to curb my habit of suspecting people so readily.
I shook my head and made my way to the Old Bookstore.
* * *
Musty dust and tobacco smoke mingled in the air, assaulting my nostrils. Beneath flickering bulbs, weathered shelves stood crammed together so tightly they seemed to suffocate the space.
Books had been shoved in haphazardly—no regard for subject, genre, or size. There was barely room for a single person to squeeze through.
‘So this is what it feels like.’
The game hadn’t rendered the interior of the Old Bookstore, so I’d never known. Seeing it in person… well. It was far more decrepit than I’d imagined.
Creak.
I ventured deeper, navigating the narrow corridor between shelves until I emerged into what looked like a small platform or alcove.
There sat an old man, newspaper spread wide, puffing contentedly on a pipe.
“I’ve come to look at some books.”
“…….”
No response.
I stepped closer and raised my voice. “Can you hear me? I said I’ve come to look at books.”
“Eh?”
Only then did the old man lower his newspaper and glance at me.
His face was respectable enough. With those spectacles, he might’ve passed for a scholar if his clothes were a bit neater.
“What’s that?”
“Books. I’m here. To look.”
“Books. Ah. Yesss.”
But he had weak ears—he’d clearly misheard something. The old man nodded once or twice to himself, then turned his attention back to the newspaper, muttering under his breath.
‘Guess I’m supposed to just browse on my own, then.’
It was an old bookstore in name, but it felt like a modern used bookshop—that made sense. I turned my gaze from the old man toward the shelves.
“…….”
It was daunting.
In the game, I’d simply opened the shop window and scrolled through a list—not a very long one, at that.
But here, in person… even this cramped little space was still an old bookstore.
‘There must be thousands of volumes.’
Unlike in real life, I couldn’t search by keyword or database. There was no “human search engine” librarian either.
Which meant the only way to find what I wanted was to check each book individually.
‘I’m not getting through them all today.’
It would be more efficient to stop by whenever I had a spare moment and work through them bit by bit.
I decided to start methodically from the farthest shelf. But then—
‘……How am I supposed to read this?’
Many of the books were in scripts I couldn’t decipher, and their condition was far worse than I’d anticipated. The covers were falling apart, and yellowing discoloration would have been a mercy compared to what I saw.
Some books had entire sections of pages torn out. Others were more graffiti than content, as if they’d been used as notepads.
‘This is going to drive me insane.’
Could I possibly find what I was looking for in this disaster?
To be clear, there were two main categories of books I was hunting for here.
‘First: Skill Books.’
Books that let you learn new Skills, just as the name suggests.
Most of them were garbage—skills not worth the ink they were printed in—but occasionally you could unearth something valuable. Though that wasn’t what I was after today.
‘Old texts with information about the forest.’
Certain special places within the forest couldn’t be accessed without advance knowledge.
In the game, those entire maps had been locked—I remembered that clearly.
‘Now that reality has become this, there’s probably some clue written somewhere about how to reach those areas.’
Such special zones existed at the shallow edges of the forest too. If I could just get in, they were honey traps—hunting grounds that gave several times the normal rewards.
‘So it’s not going to be easy to stumble into gold like that, is it?’
My hand reached toward the lowest shelf when I caught sight of a single book jutting out.
Curious, I examined it more closely. This one had been shelved horizontally—that’s why it stuck out like a sore thumb. I pulled it free and checked it over.
‘The condition isn’t bad at all.’
The cover was deep black, unmarked, and the spine was quite thin. Picture-book dimensions.
Yet the moment I opened it, my body went cold.
Are you enjoying the game?
In translation: “Are you enjoying the game?”
‘No. It can’t be.’
It might have been just a line from a novel, but it was far too perfectly timed to be a coincidence. It felt eerie.
I reflexively snapped the book shut and checked the cover. I’d assumed it would be blank, but at the bottom of the back cover, printed small, was the author’s name.
…
…
…
J. B. Chris.
Chris.
In that moment, an inexplicable itch crawled across the back of my head. I pressed the nape of my neck as if working out a stiff joint, turning my face naturally to the side.
“…….”
The old man sitting on the bench was holding a newspaper up to his face. The glint of light off his glasses obscured his eyes, but…….
‘That old geezer…….’
Had he been observing me?
Several possibilities flashed through my mind. Some were wild enough that calling them paranoid delusions wouldn’t be far off——but whenever moments like these arose, I had a habit of always assuming the worst.
‘Think.’
What would be the most natural move right now?
I turned the problem over in my head quickly, then suddenly scowled and muttered to myself.
“What book is this?”
Grumbling, I flipped through the pages rapidly, as if skimming a book that held no interest for me.
In the midst of that——
“…….”
My eyes nearly stopped on one particular page, but I managed to turn past it without breaking stride.
After returning the book to the shelf, I collected a few other volumes and walked toward the counter.
“How much for these three books?”
The books I’d chosen were a history of the kingdom, a travel guide to the Royal City’s major attractions, and a novel with a striking cover.
The old man spoke without so much as glancing at me.
“300 Seeds.”
Absurdly cheap.
That matched my memory.
Since they were used books, the shop didn’t bother with condition or thickness——just a flat hundred Seeds per volume.
After paying, I turned to leave, but the old man’s voice drifted after me, thin as a passing breeze.
“Do come again.”
“…….”
Had the bookshop owner ever said something like that before?
Finding nothing else to say, I simply nodded slightly and stepped out of the shop.
‘Was that right?’
Shouldn’t I turn back right now and buy that black-covered book?
The thought flickered through my mind, but I shook my head. The risk was too great. What if it were a trap?
‘I don’t have enough information.’
The words written in that book seemed aimed directly at me, as if the author were calling out——but realistically, the odds of that were low.
What if I hadn’t stopped at the old bookstore at all?
Even if I had, I could have easily walked past that black book without ever noticing it.
Yet separate from that consideration, the book’s contents had suggested something new to me.
‘There might be other players in this world besides me.’
At least one. Possibly dozens or more.
When I’d skimmed through the black book quickly, most of the pages were covered in hasty scrawl that was nearly illegible——but…….
Like the first page, there were passages whose meaning came through crystal clear.
Reunion in the Land of Jintu when the Full Moon Period arrives.
The Land of Jintu.
Full name: the Land of Jintu Against the Current.
A region existing in the middle of the forest——and a map every player must visit at least once.
Why?
Simple. Because there’s a feature that only unlocks by going there.
‘Multiplayer.’
I’d described POoP as “a game played solo in most cases.”
Put another way, that meant there were methods for interacting with other players in POoP.
That’s right.
The Land of Jintu Against the Current——
Once you set foot in that region, the Multiplayer feature unlocks.

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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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