Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 58

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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 58.
The Road to the Royal Tomb Ⅲ
‘…Understood.’
This is Corpse Explosion.
One of the Necromancer’s skills—detonating Corpse Poison accumulated within a cadaver.
Naturally, it’s a skill that can only be used on Undead that have undergone decay, but….
‘How in the hell is he using Corpse Explosion on a living human?’
Could those bastards actually be Undead? No, that can’t be right.
Regardless, what’s my body’s condition? I probably need to drink a Potion, but can a single vial really do the job? Should I have pushed myself to buy a mid-tier or higher Potion?
“….”
But why is there no pain?
The ringing in my ears fades, and my vision gradually stabilizes….
And then I see Lorang’s back.
Only then could I grasp the situation.
This bastard protected me from the explosion.
“You alright?”
“…What about you?”
“No wounds, but—”
Lorang dropped his battered Shield with a heavy thud and spoke.
“This one’s done for.”
“….”
The Shield destroyed—a bitter loss.
Lorang’s ability as a Tank has been cut by half or worse.
The real problem is the crisis isn’t over yet.
Screech, screech…!
The mid-tier Boss caught in the explosion—Ruby Skeleton—slowly pushed itself upright.
The creature’s entire body was blackened by soot, but it didn’t seem to have taken serious damage.
‘Is it because of the Corpse Poison clinging to the explosion?’
The effect might have been minimal against an Undead like this one.
I look past the bridge.
The blast had momentarily cleared the fog, and I could see the rest of the party, hesitating beyond.
The blast had caught one of them too, but it didn’t seem anyone was seriously hurt.
Perhaps Kria had raised a Bone Barrier.
Clang—!
In that instant, Ruby Skeleton’s charge collided with Lorang’s blade.
While Lorang bought time, Kazen shouted in a loud voice.
“Kaindel—!”
So we’re thinking the same thing.
We need to kill Ruby Skeleton as fast as possible right now.
“…!”
In that moment, a chill ran down my spine.
Without another thought, I hurled myself sideways, and felt something sharp graze past my back.
Screech!
A rain of bone shards that evoked Ruby itself.
Sharp bone fragments like broken glass passed through me and severed the bridge we’d just crossed.
‘Shit.’
Severing the bridge is one of Ruby Skeleton’s Hidden Patterns.
My luck is absolutely rotten.
How the hell did we manage our positioning such that this Hidden Pattern would trigger now?
“T-The bridge…! Kaindel!”
Stop calling out to me one by one. I’m thinking.
…With the bridge severed, there’s no way to rejoin them immediately.
But leaving those people waiting over there isn’t a good solution either.
Like I said before, stay in one place too long and the odds of running into a higher-tier Undead go up.
So then….
“Kazen!”
I called out only his name.
There was no time for a lengthy explanation.
Across the bridge, Kazen’s eyes met mine, and his body trembled slightly.
“…!”
Before long, my vision blurs over again.
The mist I’d driven back with the explosion rushes in like a torrent, settling even thicker than before.
……
Did Kazen understand my intention?
As I said before, when I’m absent, that man is the leader.
‘Hold your position here, or fall back to safety……’
I could have given him orders that way.
I didn’t.
There are too many variables in this situation.
Right now, Kazen has to think for himself and make his own judgment calls.
‘As for me……’
The truth is, this isn’t the moment to worry about others.
By any measure, the crisis is on my side, not theirs.
I summoned Weaselly and Alto simultaneously.
Screech!
Weaselly showed enthusiasm immediately, but Alto regarded me with that characteristic surly gaze.
[What is it? Ordinary Kaindel.]
“We’re in a critical situation. Help me.”
[That’s ridiculous. Didn’t you say you’d only call me for Shadow-related matters?]
“Does it look like we have the luxury of that right now? If I die, your situation becomes just as precarious.”
[Honestly……]
Alto, licking his teeth, spoke.
[Since you gave me that interesting food last time, I’ll overlook this once.]
……
[But this is the last time you’ll use your life as leverage to threaten me. It’s rather unpleasant.]
I understood that Alto meant every word.
If I called on him again for the same reason next time, tamed or not, I doubted he’d answer my summons ever again.
“I’ll remember.”
Not that it mattered now.
In a crisis like this, the option of holding back doesn’t exist.
All I can do is fight with everything I have.
* * *
Ruby Skeleton.
Among mid-tier bosses, second-highest in difficulty.
Its defining traits: enormous crushing strength and durability.
Its weakness: relatively slow speed.
And the thing I need to be most careful about……
Crunch.
……the barrage of ruby projectiles that spill when its jaw opens.
That’s the attack that shattered my leg just now.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The firing pattern resembles a Corpse Snail’s tooth spray, but the speed and power aren’t even in the same league.
In the game, it was so difficult to dodge that the only strategy was sending a well-trained tank up front.
That’s not a tactic I can employ right now.
‘Lorang’s shield is destroyed.’
Still, Lorang advanced and swung his blade.
Clang-clang!
He deflected about half the ruby projectiles with his sword, absorbing the rest with his body.
His well-fitted Silver-White Armor crumpled and scarred in an instant.
In the meantime, Weaselly, Alto, and I closed in on the skeleton creature.
Crash!
My scythe aimed for its cervical spine but didn’t even leave a scratch. Instead, my palm split open and blood ran free.
‘Damn it.’
A ruby light flared in its eye socket, turning toward me.
Ruby Skeleton swung its arm. The pressure was immense—the kind of momentum that made me feel my entire body would be torn apart if it grabbed me.
I stumbled backward to evade, but the creature, having shifted priorities, pursued me relentlessly.
Boom, boom, boom!
Lorang, standing at a distance, kicked up a step.
‘Taunt.’
The creature’s head, about to turn back toward me, wrenched around toward Lorang instead.
Screeeeeech―!
Weaselly, who’d positioned himself strategically in the meantime, unleashed a Blade Vortex, but it had no effect whatsoever.
Ugh……!
It was Alto who took his place the moment Weaselly staggered from the impact.
The creature’s entire body was engulfed in ashen flames as it licked its tongue eagerly.
For a moment I thought his whole form was gradually turning crimson…….
Crash―!
Alto’s body became a single streak of light and drove straight into Ruby Skeleton.
[……!]
Ruby Skeleton faltered for the first time.
A crack spread across the creature’s skull where it had taken the blow to its forehead.
The skeleton swung its arm to knock Alto away, but Alto clung to its face, raking with claws, biting and tearing, and lashing with its tail like a whip.
‘A whip?’
In that instant, the Tentacle Whip fastened at my waist came to mind.
I immediately swung the Tentacle Whip and lashed both Weaselly and Alto.
Crack!
[Hmm……?!]
Shrieeeeeek―!
Both creatures entered Berserk mode simultaneously.
They’d enter a state of slight excitement, but the additional stat increases granted by it were formidable.
[Ally, ‘Lorang’ casts Holy Cross.]
A cross-shaped beam of light erupted from Lorang at its center.
Since our job classes differed, I didn’t receive any additional buffs, but the enemy’s stats would still be weakened somewhat by it.
Growl―!
Alto, which had been clinging stubbornly, was flung away. It tried to charge back in immediately, but something about the skeleton’s state felt off.
[‘Ruby Skeleton’ grows enraged.]
Hell. Here it comes. Phase 3.
The party waiting ahead had allowed us to skip Phase 1, and from Phase 2 onward it had been firing ruby projectiles relentlessly.
And now, the moment we’d been dreading.
[‘Ruby Skeleton’ summons a Spirit Horse of Death.]
The skeleton summoned a horse and mounted it.
What this meant was clear enough…….
That one glaring weakness Ruby Skeleton had—its sluggish speed—was being completely mitigated.
Clatter-clatter!
The mounted creature charged forward.
The horse didn’t simply gallop across the ground. Since this was counted as a Spirit Horse, it moved through the sky.
After circling once through the air, a Lance—the sort a cavalry knight might wield—had materialized in its hands.
Metallic ring.
The instant it dove downward, I shouted out as Lorang moved to defend.
“You can’t meet it head-on!”
My warning came too late.
Lorang, struck by the cavalry charge, was sent flying through the air in an instant, and barely managed to stop his body just before plummeting over the cliff.
Cough!
He spat up a mouthful of blood, but to be honest, it was a miracle he survived with just that.
If it hadn’t been Lorang but some mediocre Tank of the same level, that single blow would have pierced straight through his Armor and killed him instantly.
‘I have to knock him off the horse somehow.’
The strategy was to attack during the moments when it circled through the sky accumulating power.
And truthfully, the critical piece I’d been counting on for that strategy was Ailyon—the Named Undead archer, tamed by the Necromancer Kria.
If I’d had her arrows, the difficulty of this encounter would’ve been far lower.
‘……Dammit.’
Was there another way?
I had no choice but to look toward Lorang.
“Can you take one more hit from that thing?”
Lorang’s health had been halved by that last blow.
With blood still visible at the corner of his mouth, Lorang spoke in the same calm voice as always.
“I doubt I can hold longer than three seconds.”
“……That’s enough.”
Truthfully it wasn’t enough, but whining here wouldn’t buy us any more time to work with anyway.
Clatter-clatter―!
Ruby Skeleton, having spun thirteen times through the air, dove downward once more.
Thump, thump, thump!
[Your ally Lorang casts Taunt.]
The aggro shifts to Lorang.
Ruby Skeleton’s lance point swung toward the White Knight, and in an instant it dropped lower—
Squelch!
It pierced straight through Lorang’s abdomen.
‘This is insane.’
Was that really what he meant by holding his ground?
Lorang coughed blood even as he gripped the skeleton’s body tight.
Now it’s my turn and the magical beasts’.
[Weaselly casts Blade Vortex.]
Of course, Blade Vortex didn’t inflict even a scratch on Ruby Skeleton.
But taking down a general means striking the steed.
The vortex Weaselly fired raked across the war horse’s entire body.
Kee-kee-kee-kee-nay—!
The war horse reared up, thrashing its hooves.
The moment Ruby Skeleton’s mounted posture became unstable, I swung my whip, wound it around the skeleton’s neck, and yanked.
[……!]
As the creature desperately tried to cling to the saddle and stirrups, Lorang—still impaled—swung his blade and sliced through the stirrups.
Ruby Skeleton tumbled off the horse and crashed to the ground.
“Now!”
I rushed toward the fallen creature.
No thoughts of mercy.
Even if cracks had formed, my attack power wasn’t enough to cleave through this thing’s bones.
But a scythe doesn’t have to be used for slicing alone.
I gripped the scythe with both hands like a pickaxe and brought it down vertically.
My target was the crack in the forehead that Alto had created.
Crack!
This downward strike didn’t shatter Ruby Skeleton’s skull.
Instead of striking again, I wedged the scythe’s tip into the crack, then hammered the flat of the blade with my fist.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Chisel and hammer.
A wedging action, in other words.
Snap!
The crack that had run through the center of the skull spread like a spider’s web.
Click-click-click-click-click!
This thing was finally showing fear.
The creature thrashed, chittering its jaw rapidly, and reached its hand toward me.
Crunch.
I was too close to dodge.
My left shoulder, caught in that grip, was crushed with a grinding pain as it dislocated.
“Damn it—!”
The pain was enough to make my vision spin.
At that moment, Alto, who had joined the fray, clung to one of the skeleton’s arms.
Just as Ruby Skeleton, still thrashing, was reaching for its other arm—
Screech—!
Weaselly burst in and cut off that movement.
Lorang, who had finished off the spirit horse and came charging over, stomped both the skeleton’s kneecaps with his steel boots.
Crunch!
Legs crushed, both arms pinned.
Ruby Skeleton’s jaw gaped wide.
It was about to unleash another volley of projectiles.
I immediately drove my knee upward, slamming shut the maw that was just opening.
[……!]
An explosion erupted inside the skeleton’s mouth, a sound like fireworks bursting from within.
As the creature’s head thrashed about wildly, I suddenly wondered if the conditions for using my newly learned skill might be met now.
[Skill: Soul Harvest activated.]
I hook the scythe around Ruby Skeleton’s neck and stare for three seconds.
With explosions detonating inside its mouth, the creature was too dazed to do anything but watch my movements.
And.
Crack.
That neck, so impossibly hard, gave way like autumn wheat beneath the blade.
[You have defeated the Mid-tier Boss of the Abandoned Cemetery: Ruby Skeleton.]
[Defeat all remaining bosses and gain entry to the Royal Tomb.]
……I think I’m going to collapse. Seriously.
* * *
I caught my breath and checked my wounds first.
Everything else was manageable, but the shoulder where that bastard had grabbed me throbbed with dull pain.
I stripped off my armor to look. Hell.
The skeleton’s handprints were seared into my flesh, perfectly clear.
And they were stained a sickly blue—corrupted by the Death Aura itself that clung to the Undead.
‘This isn’t something I can leave alone.’
My options had just narrowed to one.
I pulled out a Potion immediately, poured it over the wound, and drank the rest.
Ssshhiiii—
“Nngh…….”
My vision went white-hot.
Every time I do this, I wonder if this is what swallowing acid would feel like.
But the effect was undeniable.
Crack, crackle…….
The blackened wound rapidly returned to its natural color, and I felt the fractured bone knitting back together, sensation and blood flow returning to my arm.
Lorang stepped closer.
“……You alright?”
This fool looked far worse than me, objectively speaking, yet he asked with genuine concern.
The armor that had gleamed so brilliantly before was now a crumpled shell, dented beyond recognition.
Still, his abdomen showed no wounds—it seemed he’d used a Potion too.
‘Well, that’s something.’
I’d given each party member one Potion to carry.
But now that both Lorang and I had used ours, we couldn’t afford any critical injuries from this point forward.
“So what now? The bridge collapsed—I don’t think we can make it back.”
A sheer cliff face yawned below us.
The original location was easily several dozen meters down.
There was no way to cross that gap without a bridge.
“…….”
We could wait here for rescue, theoretically.
But that felt too optimistic—passive, even.
I turned to face the darkness ahead.
“……Let’s head for the Ossuary.”
The risk was substantial, but…….
We had no choice. That route was our only way out.

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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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