Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 65

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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 65.
Royal Tomb IV
I looked into the Necromancer’s eyes.
The left was red, the right was blue.
……It was beyond belief.
The fact that the only thing I could sense from this woman’s expression—with those mismatched eyes—was absolute innocence.
‘What’s the operating principle behind this one?’
is crawling with lunatics.
The setting reflects that, the worldview reflects it, so there’s nothing to be done about it.
That doesn’t mean every one of them is a minefield I need to avoid.
Depending on the choices available, I could use them, or recruit them as allies—both are entirely possible.
‘Saving my own skin against Haitan. Taking Laurent as an ally.’
That was only possible because I understood the inclinations of those crazy bastards.
Meanwhile, this Necromancer is an unknown NPC even to me.
Without knowing her Trait, I can’t grasp her disposition, can’t predict how she’ll act.
“Kaindel.”
Laurent called my name, his blade still drawn.
“…….”
One word from me and he’d launch into attack.
In that moment, I…….
“……All right.”
I spoke, looking toward the Necromancer.
“Let’s meet her first.”
“Yes-huh.”
The Necromancer smiled brightly.
“Then please follow me.”
* * *
I walked in the Necromancer’s wake.
As I did, I took in the surrounding landscape bit by bit, thinking it would be useful to figure out where exactly we were within the …….
‘Can’t get a read on it.’
The corridors all looked pretty much the same no matter where you went.
And the itself being a special zone meant that in-game, its internal structure shifted each time you entered it.
“Hey.”
I called out to the Necromancer, having little choice.
“Yes-huh.”
“You said my allies are still alive, right?”
“Yes-huh.”
“That doesn’t just mean breathing, does it?”
The Necromancer didn’t break stride, only turning her head to look at me.
“Just breathing?”
“Like, clinging to life with barely a spark, or…….”
I spoke, recalling the sight I’d just witnessed and the information Laurent had given me.
“……or they’ve become Living Undead.”
It’s only after the words leave your mouth that you sometimes realize you’ve misspoken.
The Necromancer’s footsteps stopped.
Whoosh.
A torch mounted on the wall wall flickered, casting light across the Necromancer.
Her expression turned rigid and inorganic, as if rigor mortis had set in.
Each time the flame wavered, shadows danced and disappeared across that tattered visage.
‘…….’
I’d been in this atmosphere before.
It felt similar to when I’d brushed against the chef Haitan’s raw nerve.
“That was rude.”
“…….”
“Do you think Living Undead are so easy to create? It’s a field I’ve devoted my entire life to researching. So don’t you dare spout off about matters you know nothing about, careless and thoughtless. I’ll kill you.”
So that’s what set her off?
I didn’t quite understand the trigger, but in a moment like this, there’s only one thing I can say.
“……I’ll be careful.”
“Good. Shall we continue then?”
“Where are we going?”
The Necromancer didn’t answer. Instead, she offered a smile that looked manufactured, and moved forward.
In that moment, Laurent and I exchanged a brief glance, and his hand went to the hilt of his sword.
‘Should we just end this here?’
It wasn’t a reckless impulse.
In a place like this, in circumstances like these—we couldn’t keep dancing to her tune while she held our weakness in her grip.
Even if the Necromancer was using the rest of the party as hostages, the principle remained the same.
But I shook my head.
‘Hold for now.’
Not because of the captured ones, but because I genuinely couldn’t gauge the Necromancer’s capabilities.
‘This isn’t a game where you can just keep trying until something works.’
The luxury of learning through failure was no longer an option.
If a fight became unavoidable, I needed to understand this woman better first.
“Oh, that’s right—”
The Necromancer turned her head and asked.
“What’s that lamp you’re holding?”
Her gaze fixed on the lamp in my left hand.
……Was she reading something into it?
Or was it just curiosity?
“A lamp. For illuminating dark places.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Here. After defeating some undead.”
“Hmm.”
What if she asked me to hand it over?
I was running through excuses when the Necromancer spoke.
“That’s nice. It’s so bright. Keep holding it~”
“…….”
After that, I followed the Necromancer in silence.
About ten minutes passed.
Though it was only a subjective sense of time, when that duration elapsed, I felt something off.
‘Why haven’t we encountered any monsters?’
The Royal Tomb was the final section of the Abandoned Cemetery.
It was vast and labyrinthine inside, with the basic progression being to conquer rooms one by one.
The rooms themselves came in many varieties.
Some flooded with monsters, others riddled with traps, and some serving as restful sanctuaries where you could regroup.
‘And then there are the corridors connecting these rooms.’
When you move through these corridors, you encounter monsters like those Royal Tomb Ghouls I’d seen earlier.
Mooks, essentially.
The Royal Tomb mainly challenged you with elite monsters lurking in specific rooms.
‘But these weak ones show up so frequently—’
Was it even possible to travel twenty minutes without seeing a single one?
“We’ve arrived.”
Then the Necromancer stopped walking.
“Your companions are down there.”
“…….”
It wasn’t a room.
The corridor ended abruptly, collapsed entirely about midway, the floor giving way to an abyss below.
The space beneath was barely visible to the naked eye.
“My allies are down there?”
“Yep.”
“You’re sure?”
“Oh goodness. Have I been fooled this whole time…….”
The Necromancer shrugged and began folding down her fingers one by one as she spoke.
“A noblewoman who looks rather dim-witted. A woman with a gloomy air about her. A man with a timid expression. That’s three people, isn’t it?”
“…….”
“Well, if you don’t trust me, you don’t have to go down.”
“What about you?”
“I have to visit my other test subjects. Busy, busy……. I don’t have enough hands even if I had ten.”
Laurent opened his mouth.
“Necromancer.”
“Yep.”
“If you don’t go down there, what will you do about us?”
The Necromancer blinked her eyes indifferently and replied without concern.
“Who knows? I’ll figure it out when I get there. Anyway, I’m busy, so I’ll be off.”
The Necromancer waved her hand and walked back the way she came, unhurried.
She didn’t care whether we followed or not.
Laurent, who had been peering downward, spoke.
“……They’re down there, at least.”
Can this one actually see?
All I see is pitch darkness spreading before me.
‘A choice, then.’
Follow the Necromancer.
Or descend and regroup with the party.
Right now, there’s no way to know which is the right answer.
Then…….
“…….”
Laurent and I exchanged a glance, then jumped down simultaneously.
Darkness wrapped around my entire body.
Before I could even grow accustomed to the sensation of falling, the ground came faintly into view.
The fact that I could see it at all, despite the darkness, was proof it wasn’t nearly as deep as expected.
Thud.
The moment I landed, I narrowed my eyes.
The space below was far darker than the corridor.
Without the lamp, I likely wouldn’t have been able to tell front from back.
After confirming there were no enemies in the immediate vicinity, I looked upward to gauge the height of where we’d jumped from.
‘……Not a height worth climbing back up.’
Between the cliff face and everything else, why did I keep ending up in these situations, anyway?
Was it the tomb theme?
I felt a vague unease as I surveyed the surroundings.
“Kaindel. Over here.”
Following Laurent’s voice, I found Kazen, Kria, and Seigerna sprawled on the ground.
“How are they?”
“No visible signs of injury.”
“Wake them up. I’ll check the perimeter.”
The moment I lifted the lamp slightly, its light intensified.
As if it understood my intention.
‘So it has that function too.’
And then the scene finally revealed itself.
Countless coffins lay scattered around us.
That alone wouldn’t have been alarming, but every single coffin had its head end pointing in the same direction.
‘Surely not……?’
As an ominous dread crept over me, I swept the lamp toward the direction the coffins pointed.
A single sword.
“Damn it.”
A curse escaped my lips unbidden. I turned back to Laurent quickly and spoke.
“Wake them now. If they won’t get up, slap them awake.”
“What?”
“Hurry!”
Pressed by my urgency, Laurent grabbed Seigerna by the collar and struck her across the face.
“Huh?!”
In the meantime, I roused Kazen and Kria.
“Gasp?! K-Kaindel?!”
“Uhhh…….”
As the two of them stirred awake like zombies, I scanned the area.
Crack……crack……!
The nearest coffin began to tremble slowly.
Damn it, they’re already starting.
“What is this place, exactly?”
Laurent, who had drawn closer by then, asked.
“A Ritual Suicide Burial Chamber.”
“A Ritual Suicide Burial Chamber?”
“That’s right. The chamber where the Fairy King died in ages past, and where his followers were entombed alongside him.”
To add to that, it’s notorious as the worst difficulty among all the rooms within the Royal Tomb.
A textbook example of what’s classified as a “trap zone.”
The reason is simple.
According to the lore, the corpses buried in the Ritual Suicide Burial Chamber are composed solely of skilled warriors who possessed considerable strength in life.
In other words―
“If you’ve come to your senses, get into combat stance now.”
Everything that pours forth from this chamber is High-Tier Undead.

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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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