Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 66

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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 66.
Royal Tomb Ⅴ
A trap after all?
Had I misjudged, throwing myself into the depths of that unidentified space?
‘Maybe.’
The real problem was the Necromancer’s attitude.
Likely she’d had no intention of hiding me in the first place.
……Perhaps it hadn’t mattered either way?
Whether I followed her from there or threw myself into a chasm to save my allies.
‘Damn it.’
Now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
Better to shift my thinking somewhere more constructive.
Like the names of the High-Tier Undead that appeared in the Abandoned Cemetery.
‘Tomb Guardian Knight, Corrupt Priest, Corpse Butcher, Blind Executioner, Royal Tomb Poison Scorpion, Sewer Venom Snake, Bone Hunting Hound…….’
Just what kind of creature was the first batter?
Crash!
The coffin lid shot skyward.
It clattered down with a hollow ring, and the corpse sleeping inside the casket revealed itself.
[Lv.50 ‘Death Knight’]
Of all things, this one.
The Death Knight——that is, what was called the very epitome of a High-Tier Undead.
A being wrapped from head to toe in pitch-black armor.
If I were ranking my personally most-hated High-Tier Undead, this creature would vie for first or second place.
The reason was simple.
‘Its balance is far too good.’
True to the epithet of “knight,” its offensive and defensive capabilities bordered on perfection.
“Kaindel……? What on earth is this…….”
Kazen, cheeks flushed crimson, was still spouting those words without grasping the situation.
“No time to explain.”
Before I could finish speaking, the Death Knight bore down with tremendous pressure.
Laurent rushed forward and crossed blades with it.
Clang!
He was clearly faltering.
Of course.
This was an enemy you had to defend against with a shield——and Laurent’s had shattered from the succession of fierce battles.
“Kaindel.”
Laurent called my name in a heavily subdued voice. It meant he couldn’t hold out much longer.
I immediately summoned Wisely and moved to Laurent’s side.
I already knew the Death Knight’s defensive capability well enough…….
Still, I swung my scythe as a test.
Clang!
Its toughness was on par with a Ruby Skeleton.
Alto had managed to fell that creature by exploiting the cracks Alto had created, but this one had no such weakness.
I felt like laughing bitterly.
‘Defense comparable to a mid-boss.’
Those bastard developers……. Was this supposed to be balanced?
‘Should I target the joints?’
Gaps between the armor plates did show themselves as it moved.
The problem was that aiming at them with my scythe seemed far from easy.
‘……Damn Full Plate Armor.’
The creature, protected head to toe by that armor, swung its blade.
For something wearing plate armor, it moved with surprising speed.
I barely dodged, then swung my scythe again, but this time the blade glanced off the smooth armor surface and slipped away.
Around that moment, Seigerna, finally regaining her bearings, closed in and struck with her gauntlet.
Chung!
The sound rang out as though a massive gong had been struck.
The armor trembled, and the knight’s movement froze for a moment.
Then Kria’s Grasp of the Dead wrapped around the Death Knight’s entire body, and Chain Lightning cascaded down upon it.
Crackle!
Pale blue electricity danced across the polished armor.
Surprisingly, the combo was working well; the Death Knight faltered.
The opening came faster than I’d anticipated, but my palms were slick with sweat from the tension.
This might be my first and only chance.
‘I have to do this.’
It has to be me.
No one else in this party has higher offensive power than I do.
But how?
In that instant, the image of the Side Master flashed through my mind.
More precisely, the Spirit Power she radiated.
Naturally, it was far more refined, vast, and sharply honed than my crude Spirit Power—incomparably so.
‘What can I do right now?’
Suddenly sharpening my control of Spirit Power at this stage was impossible. Increasing its output was even more absurd.
But… could I at least sharpen the edge of my energy?
“Take that rough, surging intangible momentum and hone it sharp. Think of it as polishing a blade.”
Carmelin’s voice echoed in my memory.
But even when I’d heard that analogy directly, it hadn’t clicked—probably because I’m modern.
Had I dimly realized that fact then?
Carmelin had also said something else.
“Everyone resonates with different images. So think of anything. Even an abstract, half-baked image is better than nothing.”
So in this moment, what came to me was the image of sharpening a pencil.
‘Layer by layer, one strip at a time.’
As if shaving the pencil’s tip with a craft knife, I honed my Spirit Power.
Zzzzzzzzt…!
The mental power consumption was enormous.
Mana drained like a leaking dike, and I could feel my mental power depleting rapidly alongside it.
Yet within that sense of loss, I could feel the sickle’s edge growing progressively sharper.
And that sensation hardened into certainty.
‘I can do this.’
Right now, I can.
The moment I swung the sickle, the Death Knight—bound motionless moments before—twisted its body.
Clang!
Because of that, my aim for the gap between helmet and breastplate missed, but it didn’t matter.
Crrrrrk!
The honed Spirit Power carved a fracture across the helmet.
In the instant the eye-light within the helmet flickered in confusion—
Shhhhck!
I severed the knight’s neck, helmet and all.
“Hhhgh…!”
I gasped for air.
My breathing came in ragged bursts.
My vision had taken on a yellowish tinge, and a high-pitched ringing shrieked in my ears.
I must have forgotten to breathe.
“Kaindel!”
“Are you alright?”
As my party members rushed toward me, I heard the metallic clang of something falling—clunk…
Where the Death Knight had been.
Curious, I looked: a shield was rolling across the floor.
‘That’s the Shield of Despair.’
One of the rare item drops from a Death Knight.
The item Laurent needed most of all, now that his shield was shattered.
‘…Does it really drop at such a perfect moment?’
True, we hadn’t gotten a single worthwhile item until now, so it was about time—but still.
The timing was so fortuitous that suspicions I’d buried began to surface.
Besides, the odds of job-exclusive equipment dropping supposedly adjusted based on party composition.
I steadied my breathing and spoke.
“Laurent. Use that shield.”
“Got it.”
Laurent picked up the shield, and for a moment, an uncomfortable expression crossed his face.
Now that I thought about it, that guy was a Paladin.
Given the Shield of Despair’s nature as an item, there were probably penalties attached.
‘Even accounting for that, it’s a hundred times better than having nothing.’
I started calculating the time.
Fatigue aside, defeating the Death Knight hadn’t consumed that much time.
Perhaps four or five minutes.
That meant roughly five minutes remained.
“Gather around.”
I collected my party members, lamp in hand.
There was much to discuss.
What had happened after we separated, whether anyone was injured, what the Necromancer had done to them—so many things came to mind.
But none of it mattered right now.
“How’s your condition?”
“I’m fine.”
“Same here. My head’s a bit foggy, but I can fight without issue.”
For now, their states seemed acceptable.
They didn’t look like the walking dead.
“Kazen, what about you?”
“Ah…….”
Kazen, who had been staring blankly for a moment, looked at me and nodded.
“……I’m fine too, yes.”
“Good. Then let me explain the situation briefly. We’re in a place called the Succession Chamber within the Royal Tomb, and high-tier undead continue to emerge every ten minutes. We can’t leave until we’ve defeated all of them—”
“Wait, what?”
“You’re saying creatures like the one we just fought keep appearing one after another?”
“Not continuously—I said every ten minutes.”
Kazen’s eyes darted rapidly before he spoke.
“……What happens if we fail to hunt down the high-tier undead within ten minutes?”
“We’d have to face two at once. And if another ten minutes passes without defeating them, there’ll be three.”
As the others listened in silence, their expressions darkened rapidly.
Only now did the true gravity of our situation seem to sink in.
Laurent, who still looked the most composed, asked the question.
“How many do we have to kill to get out?”
I suppressed an urge to sigh and laid bare the grim truth.
“The number of remaining high-tier undead equals the number of coffins in this chamber.”
“The number of coffins…….”
Kazen glanced around the room, then swallowed hard.
A natural reaction.
There were dozens of coffins scattered throughout the chamber.
“So many…….”
That itself was the strange part.
The Succession Chamber was the most brutal room in the Royal Tomb, but even so, it had never held more than a handful of coffins before.
‘Typically four or five. In the worst case, maybe eight.’
Of course, I could guess who had orchestrated this change.
The creature that had drilled a hole through the Succession Chamber’s ceiling.
The Necromancer’s handiwork.
“……Kaindel, is there perhaps another way?”
Kazen looked at me.
His eyes held a certain expectation—no, conviction—that I might have some clever solution.
The others were sending me similar looks.
‘Damn…….’
A curse nearly escaped my lips.
Their expectation was burdensome and irritating, but…….
Most frustrating of all was the fact that an alternative actually was occurring to me.
“Realistically, we can’t kill dozens of high-tier undead here. We got lucky before, defeating that Death Knight in three minutes, but we can’t count on that kind of fortune holding.”
“That’s true.”
Our stamina, magic power, mental fortitude—or accumulated fatigue. The limit will come eventually, without question. And if we ever fail to kill a high-tier undead within ten minutes and end up facing two simultaneously, that’s where it ends.”
What if a Corrupt Priest or something like that emerged while I was fighting a Death Knight?
The difficulty would skyrocket five times over in an instant.
“Please, just cut to the essential part. What do we do?”
“…….”
I paused briefly, then spoke.
“If I were alone, I could escape this place.”
“Pardon?”
“Through that hole up there.”
The place where Laurent and I had been separated.
“It’s so high up, though…… I don’t mean to disparage you, but can you actually reach that far?”
“I can. It’ll be tight, but. Of course, I can’t do it alone. First I’ll sit on Laurent’s Shield, add my own force to the push, then leap and use the Whip.”
“The Whip?”
I looked up at the gaping ceiling as I spoke.
“There are bits of exposed steel girder sticking out here and there—I’ll wrap it around one of those.”
“I see.”
“After that, I’ll bring down the master of the Royal Tomb and release the Spike Sword. That’ll collapse this entire facility. Once it does, the Undead in the Succession Chamber should vanish naturally.”
Rahos had said that drawing the Spike Sword would liberate all the restless spirits in the Royal Tomb.
Which meant the Undead would cease to exist, even in the middle of battle.
“…….”
That was the outline of my plan, but even as I explained it, I felt a sigh building.
In short, I was asking these people to buy me time…….
Depending on how you looked at it, that was the same as asking them to stay behind.
They had no way of knowing whether I’d succeed, fail, or simply run.
Either way, it was putting myself in their shoes.
If I were in their position, would I have accepted such a ridiculous proposal?
“We understand.”
“Ugh. There’s no guarantee you won’t die, though…….”
“Even without Kaindel, we can probably hold out for an hour or so……? If we just take down six or seven of them…….”
I lifted my head.
“You’re accepting this?”
“There’s no other way, is there? And whenever Kaindel’s come up with a plan like this, it’s always succeeded.”
“…….”
That was true.
But this time was different.
Back then, we were in the same boat—if we didn’t keep bailing, we’d sink, so we had no choice but to work ourselves to the bone…….
Now I’d found myself a small boat just big enough for one.
‘They don’t realize that, do they?’
The thought vanished as quickly as it came.
“……We can hold on.”
Seigerna’s murmur reached my ears—thin, but unmistakably wavering.
Kazen and Kria’s shoulders were trembling faintly as well.
Kazen smiled awkwardly and spoke.
“We’ll trust you and wait. Please succeed. I…… we don’t want to die just yet.”
In that moment, I felt as though I’d been struck in the head.
‘Don’t want to die.’
A sentiment that any living creature would hold.
In truth, anyone would feel the same.
It was obvious.
It was obvious, and yet…….
……Why did it hit me so hard?
“Right.”
Despite the confusion in my head, my mouth opened of its own accord and answered.
“I’ll make sure it succeeds. Just hold on, no matter what.”
“Yes.”
[Summoning Magical Beast, Blade Weasel ‘Wisely’.]
I summoned Wisely, then gave an order to the creature looking up at me with pitch-black eyes.
“You stay here and fight with them. Can you do that?”
Wisely chirped in response.
“Laurent.”
“Right. I’m coming.”
Laurent bent his knees and laid his Shield flat…….
I planted myself on top of it.
“Let’s go.”
The moment that clipped voice sounded, I felt the force of him pushing from beneath my feet.
Timing my movement, I kicked off the Shield the instant that force reached its peak.
My body rocketed toward the ceiling, and before gravity could pull me back down, I snapped the Whip, wrapping it around the fractured steel.
Grind, grind……!
Had five minutes already passed?
From below came the sound of a coffin lid opening, and with it, a sickening presence.
“……Battle stations!”
Kazen’s trembling shout rang out, and immediately the sounds of fierce combat erupted.
Of course, even that soon grew muffled, and once we’d completely left the pit, I could barely hear anything at all.
‘If this were a game.’
The action with the least risk was still the same: leave the Royal Tomb alone.
Whether it was Rahos’s commission or a failed expedition—neither was worth more than my life.
“…….”
There was no time to hesitate. I moved immediately.
Not outward from the Royal Tomb, but deeper still.

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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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