Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 59

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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 59.
The Road to the Royal Tomb Ⅳ
In the field where Ruby Skeletons spawned, there stood a columbarium that looked suspicious at first glance.
Both its size and height were considerable—from a distance, it resembled an ancient fortress or a cathedral with a spire.
Creeeeak…….
When I pushed open the aged door, the stale air mingled with dust clung to my nose.
I waved my hand carelessly through the air and surveyed the surroundings.
“…….”
Both walls were lined with ancient burial urns.
The urns, their engraved names now faded with time, lay broken and neglected for centuries.
Thud.
After passing through the corridor, I exited the building through a rear door.
Walking along the arcade that stretched behind the columbarium, a small building with a doorway soon came into view.
When I opened the door, pitch-black darkness greeted me, but once my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I could make out a spiral staircase descending into the depths.
“Where does this staircase lead?”
“Who knows. Structurally, I’d guess Below the Cliff.”
I was fairly certain, but I didn’t let on like I knew everything—I played dumb on purpose.
Lorang stared intently down the staircase shrouded in darkness before speaking.
“……I’ll go first.”
He’d realized there was no better option.
Of course, since the stairs descended all the way to Below the Cliff, it took considerably longer than expected.
Not only was it a place devoid of light, but the atmosphere itself suggested enemies could emerge at any moment—it wore on my nerves more than I’d anticipated.
‘Monsters don’t spawn here, at least.’
Though I couldn’t be entirely certain even of that.
At last, reaching the bottom, another door came into view.
The problem was that it was so old it refused to open easily.
Crack!
A kick shattered it without effort.
Beyond the broken door lay the ground beneath the cliff’s edge—a place damp and jagged, with sharp rock faces protruding from all sides like the scales of some colossal beast.
“…….”
Glancing upward, I saw only thick fog blanketing everything; neither the cliff’s edge we’d descended from nor the collapsed bridge was visible.
‘Damn, it’s high.’
I’d considered climbing back, but that was out of the question. One misstep at this height would mean instant death.
‘……So we have to push through here.’
I swallowed the sigh that threatened to escape and spoke.
“Let’s keep going.”
Lorang followed silently at my back.
We’d advanced some distance this way.
Lorang, who’d been leading, suddenly stopped.
“Something’s there.”
Was this the beginning, then?
Being Below the Cliff didn’t make it a safe zone.
Screeeech―
The reek of rotting corpses wavered through the air, and monsters that looked unmistakably like zombies emerged.
[Lv.40 ‘Cliff Below Zombie’]
They were in far fresher condition than the zombie-type monsters we’d seen above.
Compressed skin, dangling eyeballs, and spilling innards were all plainly visible.
“Watch out. Those things carry Corpse Poison.”
“Toxins aren’t a concern for me.”
Reliable, that one.
At the same moment, the zombie horde shrieked and charged.
[Your ally, ‘Lorang’, casts .]
While Lorang drew their focus, I swung my scythe and severed heads one by one.
They weren’t particularly troublesome enemies.
Their levels weren’t especially high either.
So the problem came down to two things―
First, the cursed sheer number of these things. They were overwhelming in quantity.
And the second was…….
[You are wandering through an area thick with toxic miasma.]
[Your health is continuously decreasing.]
[Prolonged exposure may result in permanent physical damage.]
There it was.
The decisive reason I’d wanted to avoid this route in the first place.
I turned to the mass of zombies shambling toward us and spoke.
“If I can create an opening, think you can cut through?”
Lorang nodded silently, and I cast my skill immediately.
[Skill Vengeful Spirit Dance activated.]
My scythe danced and wove, the spectral current engulfing everything around us.
As the zombies’ bodies fell apart in chunks of rotting flesh and blood spray, Lorang charged through the thinnest part of the press.
Crash!
No shield, and the steel armor was dented all to hell, but a knight’s charge was worth more than a dump truck.
The zombies that had taken the full brunt of Vengeful Spirit Dance flew backward from barely grazing Lorang’s shoulder.
For a moment, it seemed we might make it.
Screeeeeech!
The problem was numbers.
The Cliff Below Zombies, like most of their kind, were hypersensitive to noise.
The more we stirred up combat, the more they swarmed in like locusts.
‘Direction…’
I pulled the compass from my pocket, checked it, and gave Lorang new orders.
“Left!”
If we got surrounded now, it was over.
I kept pace with Lorang—maybe a step’s distance between us—and kept swinging my scythe.
Slash!
Cutting, kicking, striking with the haft—forward, always forward.
Soon my whole body was slick with sweat, my limbs growing heavy and dull.
Not an HP problem—purely that my stamina was nearly spent.
‘Of course it was.’
Fatigue had accumulated through one fight after another, and I’d rushed harder than usual getting to the Columbarium.
Potions could heal wounds, but not accumulated exhaustion.
But more important than my own condition was watching Lorang.
If he collapsed, I’d have no way to punch through the zombie horde alone.
“…….”
Lorang swung his sword without a word.
Like me, he was drenched in sweat, and the armor that had been a wreck to begin with was now unwatchable.
‘Northwest, northwest…….’
I kept checking the compass between strikes, scanning our surroundings constantly.
And finally—
“There!”
I spotted our destination.
Through the zombie masses and the mist, a slope rising toward the surface came into view.
I poured what little stamina I’d been holding in reserve into one final Vengeful Spirit Dance.
[Skill Vengeful Spirit Dance activated.]
This would likely be the last one.
Screeeech-crack!
As the zombie mass was carved apart, Lorang let out a battle cry of his own.
Hah!
His entire body wrapped in blinding white light—he’d opened his Holy Power to maximum.
Lorang stamped his foot and the ground shattered beneath him; his body flew forward like a shell.
Boom-crash!
The zombies he hit literally exploded.
The blocked path burst open wide.
We tore up the road, slick with corpse fragments.
‘We’ve got it.’
Once we reached the slope, the zombies couldn’t follow any farther.
These things were called Cliff Below Zombies for a reason.
Like any Field Mob, they couldn’t leave their designated territory.
Screeeech!
A horrible shriek tore the air, and a massive shadow-like shape raked across the space above our heads.
A chill ran up my forearm in that instant.
‘Goddamn it.’
Why now of all times?
Through the mist, the shape of a creature emerged in hazy outline.
[Lv.50 ‘Corpse Vulture King’]
An enormous vulture, as though half zombie and half skeleton fused together.
This thing was Level 50—what that meant was simple enough.
‘High-Tier Undead.’
And worse, one of the most troublesome variants: the Gliding Type.
‘Damn it….’
I’d managed to avoid High-Tier Undead this whole time, and now one materializes in the worst possible moment.
My luck was bad enough that it could twist like this, yet I didn’t even have room to curse aloud.
Screeeeeeeech!
The zombies were closing in again.
The gap I’d carved through their ranks sealed up in an instant, as if my effort had never happened.
I didn’t deliberate long.
I called out to Lorang immediately.
“Run down the slope alone!”
“What?”
“You can make it if you go by yourself!”
To clear a path—and to give me one to follow in pursuit.
Lorang had been holding back his advance speed.
Even when I’d brush aside the surging zombies, they flowed back like a wave to fill the void.
But at this rate, we both die.
“If I go, you’ll be alone—”
“Is now really the time for that talk? Dying together contradicts everything you believe in, doesn’t it?”
“…If we both die, yes, it would. But the odds aren’t that dire just yet.”
“Still, it’s barely one in ten.”
I wasn’t about to stake my life on such pathetic odds.
“…Is there another way?”
“Yes. There is. That’s why you run—before more of them swarm.”
Lorang closed his eyes.
A habit I’d seen before, a few times.
The way he looked when weighing something in his heart alone.
“Don’t die.”
With his judgment made, Lorang left those words behind and burst through the zombie horde.
He pivoted fluidly, targeted weak points, and sprinted downslope at a furious pace.
‘Ha.’
I’d known he would.
A man like that could break through this much danger even half-starved of stats—provided he wasn’t dragging dead weight.
Which, of course, was me.
Kaaaaaaaawk!
The Corpse Vulture King shrieked and lunged toward Lorang.
The distance was considerable, but that didn’t mean I had no ranged options.
Crack!
Mid-range, more precisely.
The Tentacle Whip struck the vulture, sending it spinning through the air—and then it fixed its gaze on me.
A cold blue light blazed in its single eye socket.
The Aggro effect woven into my whip strike had done its work.
‘Performance confirmed.’
The vulture wheeled in mid-flight and dove straight for me.
I was surrounded now by a press of zombies on all sides; my current health, mana, and stamina couldn’t break through.
Snap!
So this creature would become my exit route.
I whipped the cord around the vulture’s talons. The moment my weight transferred to it, the beast lurched—but only for an instant.
Unwilling to crash to earth, the Corpse Vulture King flapped its massive wings and surged skyward.
‘Tch—!’
A zombie’s grip clawed at my heel; I felt it slip free just as my body wrenched upward, shooting through the mist in a single rush toward the distant sky.
“…!”
I forced myself not to look down.
The fog was too thick to see much anyway, and staring would only weaken my nerve.
Instead, I clung to the whip like a mountain climber on a single rope and slowly began to ascend.
Screeeee!
It wasn’t easy.
The young vulture was thrashing about, raking its talons through the air.
But I was desperate too.
Fall here, and I was dead.
Riiiiip!
Its claws raked across my chest.
Thanks to the Leather Armor, only my skin was grazed—but my heart still lurched into my throat.
Climbing a single rope left me defenseless; I couldn’t attack.
I was forced to inch upward along the Tentacle Whip, and after several close calls, I finally reached the Corpse Vulture King’s talons.
‘…What is that stench?’
True to its name, the thing’s body reeked of sewer water and bile mixed together.
I didn’t want to touch it, but I plastered my entire body against it and began crawling up its leg.
Screeeeeeeee—!
The Corpse Vulture King thrashed like a madman.
It twisted its body, trying to rake me with its other talon.
The more it struggled, the tighter I gripped, pouring strength into every limb.
Slow or not, even an inch at a time was good enough….
I crawled up like a snail, my whole focus on not falling.
Then I reached its body.
Whoosh.
The Corpse Vulture King’s wings snapped shut.
What was it trying to do?
As its body suddenly plummeted and I felt a crushing gravitational force—
The Corpse Vulture King barrel-rolled through the air.
“—!”
The moment sky and earth inverted, I acted on instinct, jamming my scythe horizontally into its gaping mouth to lock it in place.
Like a bridle on a horse.
Screeeeeeeee—!
The Corpse Vulture King responded by spiraling in every direction, tearing through the sky, trying with all its might to shake me loose.
“—!”
The world spun.
I was going to be sick.
My sense of balance shattered; my muscles wouldn’t obey.
In this position, I couldn’t even swing the scythe.
One wrong move and I’d plummet straight down.
But holding still wouldn’t help—I was falling regardless. It was only a matter of time.
There was no room for hesitation.
I made my choice.
[Magical Beast, Blade Weasel ‘Wizeli’ has been summoned.]
Squawk—?!
Wizeli materialized in midair, thrashing. The moment she appeared, she began to plummet.
There was no time to communicate, but that was fine.
[Skill Heart-to-Heart Connection is being used.]
Wizeli’s eyes sharpened as she understood my intent, and even as she fell, she cast her skill.
[Wizeli casts Blade Whirlwind.]
The Blade Whirlwind tore through the Corpse Vulture King’s entire body. Rotted flesh and organs scattered as the undead’s shriek split the blackened sky.
Screeeeeee—
Wizeli plummeted downward with her own cry.
‘Ten seconds…!’
The time it took to send the summoned creature back to its nest.
I estimated it would take more than ten seconds to fall from this height to the ground.
In other words, if I dismissed the summon while she was still falling, Wizeli would be safe.
If the fall took less time than that… don’t think about it now.
Screeeee—!
The Corpse Vulture King stopped its frenzied flight.
Now that I’d regained my balance, I yanked the scythe free and lashed my legs around the creature’s body, binding it tight.
Then, just as I’d done with the Ruby Skeleton, I swung the scythe down in a straight line like a pickaxe.
Crack!
Gliding Type monsters generally had abysmal defense.
Hitting the thing in the first place was hard enough.
Still, even from that first blow I felt the skull crack, but I didn’t stop—I brought the weapon down again, and again.
Crack!
Blood and flesh sprayed across my entire body.
A sickening reek pushed into my nostrils, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.
My arms throbbed. My calves ached.
Do the Undead fear death again?
Even with half its head caved in, the Corpse Vulture King’s glow only intensified.
I didn’t care. I just kept doing what needed to be done.
Like a miner extracting ore from the face, indifferent to whether the mine itself collapses.
And finally.
Crunch!
[You have defeated the High-Tier Undead, Corpse Vulture King.]
The moment the message appeared, I immediately dismissed Wizeli’s summon as well.
[Dismissing the Magical Beast, Blade Weasel Wizeli.]
The Corpse Vulture King’s body, its head now completely shattered, went limp.
At the same time, through the fog below, the ground drew steadily closer.
Now came the real gamble.
I braced myself against the impact to come, using the corpse as my anchor.
The plan was to use this thing as a cushion and survive the fall—in theory.
But if the height was great enough to exceed that threshold, then I….
Boom―!
The impact of the fall shook through my entire body.

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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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