Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 56

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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 56.
The Road to the Royal Tomb Ⅰ
“What do we do now?”
Seigerna’s question snapped me back to attention. I immediately began calculating: remaining rations, distance to other water wardens, the battles we’d have to fight along the way.
……Still thinly comfortable, then?
“We wait.”
We have to capture the Corpse Snail. That’s the only way to enter the Royal Tomb.
If we can’t enter the Royal Tomb, there’s no point in having come all the way to the Abandoned Cemetery.
* * *
Sixteen hours and twenty-five minutes.
That’s how long we waited for the Corpse Snail to respawn.
Screeeeeeeee—!
The Corpse Snail was, true to its name, a snail already well into zombification. The only difference was that it was the size of an elephant.
The slime it spat out like needles was venomous, and the hardness of its shell rivaled tempered steel.
Hearing the description, you’d think it was some impossible nightmare—but visually, it was unmistakably a snail.
‘Is it the appearance?’
Many people mistakenly thought the strategy was to attack when the snail’s exposed body protruded from the shell—
Crack!
But it was actually the opposite.
The Corpse Snail’s weakness was breaking that shell.
No matter how badly you mangled the exposed body, the moment it withdrew into that shell, it would regenerate in an instant.
Screeeeeeeee—!
The cracked shell screamed, and along its length, from the tentacle to the belly, a jagged seam split open—revealing countless razor-sharp teeth.
“Urgh…….”
Seigerna, whose stomach was weak, shuddered in disgust.
In reality, snails possess something called a radula—rows of teeth—and apparently that’s what had been exposed.
“Laurent!”
Laurent raised his shield and stepped forward—
Immediately after, the protruding teeth fired out like bullets.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat—!
While the teeth hammered at the shield like machine-gun fire, I circled behind the Corpse Snail and launched a flurry of attacks on its cracked shell.
Crack……!
As the shell shattered and fragments scattered, Ailon, the skeletal archer Kria had pre-summoned, loosed an arrow.
Twang—!
The arrow pierced through a tentacle.
The snail, its sensory organ destroyed, shrieked again—and the trajectory of the teeth-bullets spraying forward wavered.
The snail instinctively withdrew its body into the shell to regenerate its tentacle, but that was exactly what we wanted.
‘Regeneration incomplete, and its head tucked away inside.’
In other words, it was completely defenseless.
I wasn’t the only one who caught that thought in an instant.
The moment the creature’s fatal opening appeared, we charged in together and unleashed a coordinated barrage.
Slice, crash, rip……!
Each time the snail’s body convulsed, venom sprayed in all directions—but dodging wasn’t difficult.
The once-solid shell was slashed, shattered, and pierced repeatedly.
Screeeeeee…….
The moment the body crouched inside the shell finally became exposed, a corpse-like ichor began dripping from the snail’s entire form.
‘Yellow?’
Seeing the color of the fluid, I immediately shouted.
“Fall back!”
This was what we’d briefed on multiple times while waiting for the Corpse Snail to respawn.
Kazen and Kria retreated to a distance, while Seigerna and I, who were relatively close, sheltered behind Laurent’s shield.
“Hnn……!”
The shield Laurent raised suddenly swelled enormous, filled with pure white light.
[Your ally, ‘Laurent,’ has activated the Shield of Protection.]
Boooooom—!
The snail’s body detonated. Flesh streaked with venom, razor-sharp teeth, and shattered shell fragments scattered in all directions. An attack form not unlike that of a modern grenade.
Rumble rumble rumble……!
The shield trembled faintly, but Laurent didn’t even budge—he held his ground with unwavering resolve.
And…….
[You have defeated the mid-boss of the Abandoned Cemetery, ‘Corpse Snail.’]
[Defeat all remaining bosses and earn the right to enter the Royal Tomb.]
The moment I saw that familiar message, I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. We’d fallen behind schedule, true, but we’d threaded the needle on this first crucial test.
[Your Level has increased.]
[A new Skill has been unlocked.]
And I’d hit exactly Level 30.
‘A new skill, then.’
I just hoped it would be something worth using.
Soul Harvest
Type: Close Range
Cast Time: 3 seconds

Attack Range: Single Target
Duration: —

Cooldown: 1 hour
Condition: Target’s current health 5% or below
Approach a foe at death’s door, loop a scythe around their neck, and reap their soul in execution.
I scanned the details quickly, and my stomach sank.
‘It’s not a Summoner skill—it’s a weapon skill.’
My disappointment was sharp.
What were the odds of picking up a weapon skill instead of a class skill? I was pretty sure it wasn’t even ten percent.
‘Damn it.’
This meant I’d have to learn the Level 30 skill some other way, through workarounds. My growth path would be bent slightly out of shape.
And the conditions on this new skill were far from lenient.
‘The execution element is useful, I’ll grant that.’
Five percent or lower is reasonable, no special requirements attached—it would work on Elites, Named enemies, even bosses.
On the surface, it’s an overpowered skill, but….
‘The problem is getting close enough, looping the scythe around the neck, and the three-second cast time.’
The conditions were too demanding.
If the enemy was strong enough to prevent approach, the skill would be useless, and three seconds on a battlefield is an eternity—enough time to die more than once.
Depending on the enemy, there might not even be a neck to target, or it might be too massive for a scythe to catch.
“You did well out there.”
“Ugh…. What is that smell? Gods.”
The voices of my party pulled me back to the present.
There was no time for analysis now.
The Corpse Snail’s body had exploded, leaving no other items—just a decent-sized Seed lying in the wreckage. After collecting it, I called to Kazen.
“Kazen. Would you check Laurent’s shield?”
“Of course.”
Kazen was currently the weakest combatant in our party.
That didn’t mean his wizardry was useless—Kria, our Summoner, could fill a similar role if needed.
So I’d gifted him with a Skill Book.
“Ah. There’s a tooth lodged in here. If we leave it, the shield could take serious damage. Allow me to tend to it.”
Equipment Repair—that was the skill.
Of course, it wasn’t as refined as what a master craftsman could do. Out here in the woods, we didn’t have the proper setup anyway.
It was more emergency first aid than anything, but Kazen’s hands were deft enough that it actually made a real difference.
“Let’s rest a moment and then move on to the next area.”
After a brief respite, we pressed forward into the endless Burial Ground once more.
This cemetery was, without question, filthy massive.
Even accounting for the thick fog, tombstones and burial mounds stretched on without end.
“How can there be this many graves?”
Seigerna murmured, sharing the same sentiment. I was debating whether to answer when Kazen spoke first.
“This place was not a forest, even decades ago.”
“Hmm?”
“It was a wide clearing near the woods. Each kingdom and race that sent expeditions into the forest agreed, as a mark of respect and honor toward the Delvers, to establish a shared cemetery nearby.”
Respect and honor, my ass.
If that were true, they’d have buried them in the national cemeteries that existed in their own lands.
The reason the Delvers ended up in this graveyard was simple.
‘Money. It always comes down to money.’
Collecting the bodies intact and transporting them back to their own country—that’s labor-intensive, and costly.
‘Decades ago, before the railways were even built, that would’ve been the case.’
In fact, back then the forest’s territorial expansion wasn’t nearly as rapid. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have made the stupid mistake of building a cemetery right next to it.
“Ah. So the cemetery got swallowed by the forest, and the buried bodies naturally became Undead.”
“Precisely. Isn’t that fascinating…? The academic consensus is that only Undead emerge from this land, but I disagree. Even rotting corpses attract Magical Beasts eager to feed, and when those beasts fall to the Undead, they create fresh bodies. Difficult to believe, though… what’s actually formed here is a natural cycle of death.”
“…I see.”
Seigerna let Kazen’s passionate exposition wash over her. She didn’t seem particularly interested.
‘He certainly knows his material.’
I watched Kazen for a moment, turned a thought over in my mind, and made a decision.
“Kazen. Take this.”
“Huh? Oh.”
Kazen caught the Map I’d thrown, his eyes widening.
“Why are you giving this to me…?”
“If something happens to me, you take over as leader.”
“Me? Really…?”
Kazen’s eyes went wide again, then he quickly looked away.
“Wouldn’t it be better if—”
His timid gaze drifted toward Laurent.
“No.”
I shook my head.
If Laurent were leader, Seigerna and Kria might not follow him, no matter how sound his decisions were.
“And we made a pact, didn’t we? In the forest, you’d follow my orders without question. This is an order from your party leader—so accept it.”
“But I’m not sure I’d be any good at it…”
“Don’t overthink it. I’m just saying if the worst happens. There’s no reason the party should split up anyway.”
“I see… But wouldn’t you be alright without the Map, Kaindel?”
“I memorized it all.”
“…!”
After that, we continued without speaking, and reached the next location.
“It feels colder here somehow.”
Of course it does.
This is where the Frost Wraith—one of the mid-tier bosses—spawns.
The problem was—
“Hmm…”
“There doesn’t seem to be anyone here either…?”
We couldn’t find the mid-tier boss in this place either.
‘Damn it, could they really have…’
A nasty possibility crossed my mind.
“Let’s move. We’re going to push through without many breaks this time—steel yourselves.”
I urged the party forward and sprinted toward the next location.
Though of course, we couldn’t just rush mindlessly. Meeting a high-tier Undead in poor condition would be a disaster.
So after roughly three or four hours, we arrived at the place where the Flame Jester spawns,
the Circus Grounds, swallowed in flames.
“…”
The Flame Jester wasn’t here either.
That settled it.
‘They’ve predicted our route and are intercepting the bosses.’
It wasn’t just that the order of mid-tier bosses happened to overlap. We’d already rested about a day when we defeated the Corpse Snail.
If it were just a coincidence of order, the spawn times would have shifted to account for the rest we took.
In other words, this was deliberate—what you’d call cutting in line.
That’s when it happened.
“Kaindel. There…!”
“…”
Several old, decrepit circus tents were spread throughout the Flame Jester’s grounds.
And in one of them,
a relatively small tent lay torn open, its interior clearly visible…
And inside was a person.
“P-please… help me…”
A sobbing voice. It was hard to see clearly because of the tent’s darkness, but it had to be Delber.
“Is… is anyone there…? Please… help me…”
…Hell.
This is just going to give me another headache.

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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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