You're Being Summoned, Darkness

by Natsume Akatsuki

  “Wh-what? More frogs? Or is this some other problem you want to blame me for?”

  I had to admit she was a bit intimidating.

  “It’s the dungeon! What have you done to Khiel’s Dungeon?! All kinds of strange monsters are showing up!” she bellowed, her face bright red.

  Strange monsters? I guess I’d been hearing some rumors around town…

  “Hold on, that has nothing to do with us. Yeah, I dove that dungeon, but you can’t blame me for everything that goes on just ’cause I happened to be within a hundred yards!”

  Everyone else nodded in agreement.

  Well, good. Maybe that means they haven’t done anything to cause this while I wasn’t looking.

  Sena, however, glowered at me, clearly unconvinced.

  “Say what you like. Reports indicate you were the last one to go into that dungeon. Judging by what else has happened so far, I have to suspect you’re behind this.”

  “T-talk about crazy! Anyway, for once I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about. Right, everybody? Right? We’re in the clear this time?”

  Everyone nodded assiduously.

  Sena appeared awfully dubious, but for a moment she backed off.

  “But that would leave me in a predicament. I was so sure you had a hand in it… Instead, we’ll have to hire someone to investigate…” She looked pointedly at us as she spoke. Whatever shall I do? her glance seemed to say. If only some person would conveniently volunteer…

  “Hmm. Surely the esteemed prosecutor wouldn’t be seeking help from the people she was just accusing? Anyway, we are somewhat busy trying to clear our own names.” Megumin seemed to know exactly what Sena was thinking and beat her to the punch.

  The prosecutor bit her lip, but she didn’t respond to Megumin; instead, she turned to me.

  “I’m afraid we just don’t have the time, so we’ll need to refuse,” I said as clearly as possible. Sena sighed, and her shoulders slumped.

  “If you’re really not involved in this case, I suppose I can’t force you. But if you change your mind, I would truly appreciate your help. I’ll be going to the Adventurers Guild next.”

  Then she turned and left.

  I really didn’t like her type.

  Way too serious—and possessed of a good sense all too rare in this town.

  “Hrm,” Darkness said. “I admit I’m curious about the monsters in that dungeon… But we have work to do. First, we need to clear Kazuma’s name. Then, we need to pay back Lord Alderp for his mansion. So far, I can’t see that we’ve made any progress on either front.”

  She was right.

  “Hey, Darkness. Can I ask you…?”

  “I’m not lending you any money. I feel I’ve well and truly done my part already. And frankly, I think I’d enjoy watching you squirm a little more.”

  She looked at me, and a smile came over her face.

  Hmph! So she was holding a grudge about the meeting…

  …Strange monsters, huh?

  “I’m gonna ask again, just for the record. None of you knows anything about this, right? We’re really okay this time?”

  They all acted slightly annoyed that I kept asking.

  “If it does not involve explosion magic, then I assure you, I have no idea.”

  “Me neither. Though I’d like to point out that, unlike these two, I’m not known for causing problems everywhere I go.”

  “What?! …I admit Darkness has never been behind any very big problems. But she has not helped very much, either—including in the fight with Destroyer!”

  “Huh?! Megumin, you—!”

  I let the two of them argue as I returned to the matter at hand.

  “How about you? Any idea?” I asked Aqua with a twinge of concern.

  “Of course not,” she said. “Geez! When are you ever going to learn to trust me?”

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I…I thought not. You haven’t caused that many problems, I guess. This trial’s just got me doubting everything…”

  I apologized to Aqua. I’d been wrong to assume everything was her fault.

  “You sure were! Just trust me for once. If anything, you should be thanking me that more monsters don’t show up in that dungeon! You remember the room that Lich lived in? I really put everything I had into the magic circle I used when I performed the rite. I bet it’s still there right now, keeping evil things from going into that room!”

  …I abandoned my apology and grabbed Aqua by the shoulders.

  “Wh-what did you just say?!”

  “Huh? Why so panicked? It’s just like I said. I worked really hard on that magic circle, and it’s probably still there, keeping monsters awa—”

  I didn’t let her finish.

  “You idiiiiot!”

  I could only cradle my head in my hands and shout.

  2

  We walked along a snow-covered path, making for the dungeon.

  “…Sniff… It’s not my fault… I swear it isn’t…!”

  There was Aqua, still sniffling away.

  She walked behind me, and Megumin and Darkness followed behind her.

  I turned toward her. “Why is it that every single time you do something helpful, you end up doing something totally unnecessary and obnoxious at the same time? Do you have some kind of sickness where you need to balance out the pros and cons of everything you do?”

  Though in this case, she still hadn’t managed to balance out the cons.

  “Now, just a minute! This time it is absolutely not my fault! Please, you have to believe me! I mean, all I did was put up a magic circle of purification in the boss room! That’s not enough to spawn a horde of monsters! This is totally different from our ghost problem!”

  Aqua grabbed my shoulders as I made to keep walking, and she shook them violently.

  “Hey, stop that! I can’t walk! Look, I don’t care if you did this or not! Sena’s going to investigate that dungeon, and she’s going to find the magic circle you left there! That’s the problem!”

  The magic circle deep in the dungeon. Somehow I just knew I was going to pay for not having destroyed that evidence.

  We did have a device with us for cleaning up magic circles, but if possible I wanted to settle things without needing to enter the dungeon.

  Finally, all of us, the blubbering Aqua notwithstanding, arrived at the entrance with no further trouble.

  “…Huh. Those are some weird monsters, all right.”

  From a safe distance, we observed the creatures pouring out of the dungeon’s opening one after another.

  They wore little masks, stood about knee-high, and walked on two legs—in a word, they looked like masked dolls.

  “I wonder what these strange things could be. I have never seen nor heard of anything like them,” Megumin said curiously, watching the dolls with interest.

  “At a glance, they don’t look like they could do much in a fight,” Darkness said disappointedly, her heavy armor clanking.

  “Something about their masks just doesn’t agree with me. I wonder why. They just make me kind of sick somehow…” As she spoke, Aqua picked up a nearby rock.

  At that moment…

  “Mr. Satou…! Why are you here? Have you decided to help me investigate these monsters?”

  I turned toward the voice to see Sena, accompanied by a crowd of adventurers.

  Sena herself wore no armor, just light outerwear, but she carried a tag with a strange symbol drawn on it.

  Damn. She was already here.

  Well, all right. Nothing for it but to talk to her.

  “When we really thought about it, we realized these monsters weren’t totally unconnected to us. And anyway, we have to protect the people of the town who are threatened by them. That’s an adventurer’s duty.”

  “I’ve never wanted a magic lie-detecting bell more in my life… But all right. I am grateful for your assistance.” Sena bowed her head deeply.

  Now what? My sense that I was a
good person had come under serious attack.

  This woman didn’t hate me. She was just very serious about her job and was pursuing her doubts about me with maybe just a bit too much enthusiasm.

  “In any case, Mr. Satou, please come this way. We don’t know exactly where the monsters are coming from yet, but it seems most likely that someone is summoning them. If that’s the case, then please take down the one responsible and put this on the summoning circle.” She handed me the tag she was carrying.

  “What’s this…?”

  “It’s a tag with powerful sealing magic. With it, any magic circle, no matter how powerful, will immediately be rendered useless. It is possible for a summoning circle to continue to call forth monsters even after the spell-caster has been defeated, so please take it with you.”

  I got it. Pretty convenient. But not necessary.

  “That’s all right, we don’t need it. Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan. One that doesn’t involve walking straight into a dungeon that’s currently spewing monsters… Megumin! You ready?”

  “Very much so. You can count on me.”

  Megumin popped out in front, her staff at the ready.

  Sena looked alarmed. “Wh-what’s this? What are you going to do?! You can’t possibly…!”

  “Ah, figured it out? Right, we just block the dungeon entrance with Explosion, and…”

  “Y-you can’t! Please find out what’s causing this! These monsters clearly are not natural. And the sheer number suggests a powerful force behind them. You might close off the dungeon, but if the summoner can use Teleport, they’ll simply escape. Consider what they’re capable of. Please find them and eliminate them.”

  Oh man. This is starting to look dangerous again.

  This was no good. I hadn’t come here to actually go dungeon crawling.

  And once we were inside, we wouldn’t be able to use Megumin’s Explosion…

  As I fretted, Aqua prepared to throw her rock at the masked monsters.

  I got that she didn’t like them, but I didn’t think they were that bad.

  Until that moment, the creatures had shown no hostility toward us, but as soon as Aqua lifted the rock, one charged her at a mad dash.

  “Hey, wha—?! Wh-what’s going—? Ahh!”

  And then, instead of attacking, it clung to Aqua’s knees.

  “What’s this? I think it likes me. That mask is a little gross, but this is kind of endearing… Hey. Hey, Kazuma. What’s going on? This doll is getting warm. I’ve got a bad feeling about this!”

  Aqua lurched in my direction as she shouted, but I had a hunch what would happen and backpedaled as quickly as I could.

  Then…

  There was the sound of a massive blast as the doll holding on to Aqua simply vanished.

  All that was left was a goddess with clothes torn and singed from the explosion.

  “As you’ve discovered, these creatures grab on to anything that moves and detonate themselves. Even the Adventurers Guild is at a loss as to how to deal with them.”

  “I see. That’s no good, is it?”

  “How can you both be so calm?! You could worry about me a little bit! Where’s the sympathy?!”

  Aqua, on the verge of tears, came bustling up to where Sena and I were maturely assessing the situation.

  She seemed in pretty good shape to me.

  “We’re really in a bind here,” Sena said. “These monsters don’t appear to have any attacks besides self-destructing, but…if you damage one even a little, it blows up. If you don’t cause any damage, it tries to find a moment when to grab hold and blow up. It seems our only choice is to take them out one at a time, from a distance.”

  As she spoke, Sena looked at Aqua, who had curled into a ball while Megumin comforted her.

  Aqua clearly wasn’t well, but she had her “divine” feather mantle wrapped around her. Without that for protection, she probably would’ve come out a lot worse for wear.

  Another life-threatening monster, huh…?

  Maybe we could forge ahead, throwing stones as we went?

  There were so many of them out here, though. I could only imagine how many must be hiding inside the dungeon. There was no way we could deal with every last one of them…

  The problem was, we still had no idea what they wanted.

  Who was letting these monsters out, and what in the world for?

  As we stood there worrying about all this, Darkness approached one of the dolls and then, without warning, wordlessly gave it a smack.

  “Wha…?! What the hell are you—?!”

  Everyone around me started to panic, as did I. The assaulted doll simply grabbed on to Darkness.

  Then, just like the one that had grabbed Aqua, it went boom in a big way.

  And as the smoke cleared…

  “Mm. This will do. This’ll do just fine.”

  There was Darkness, perfectly in one piece despite the blast.

  For the first time, Sena and the other adventurers got a taste of her toughness firsthand.

  “I’ll take point to clear the way. Kazuma, follow me.”

  Darkness’s words were more suited for a guy in shining armor.

  I guess we weren’t going to be Ambushing our way into the dungeon like we did last time.

  We—all the other adventurers and I—were going to mount a frontal assault.

  I felt Megumin tug on my sleeve.

  “Kazuma, Kazuma. I won’t be any use to you inside that dungeon, so may I stand guard out here? I will make sure I’m ready to cast a spell on the dungeon entrance at any time—if you encounter a huge monster, please simply come running out.”

  True, there was probably someone inside summoning these creatures. And true, they were probably plenty strong. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to have Megumin waiting here as our ace in the hole in case some killer beast tried to run us down.

  “Sounds great,” Aqua said, brushing soot off her sleeves. “I’ll be right out here with her! Don’t worry; I’ll put some buffs on you before you go in so—”

  “Wait a second! You’re coming with us! Unlike Megumin, your abilities work perfectly well in that dungeon!”

  “Waaaaah! I’m sick of dungeons! You’ll just try to leave me in there again! And what if undead mob us again? Waaaah!”

  She plugged her ears and sat on the ground, repeating, I won’t I won’t I won’t.

  I guess my almost abandoning her down there before really traumatized her.

  I considered it for a moment and ended up leaving Aqua outside, too. There was just too much chance of drawing the undead with her around. We had a bunch of other adventurers with us this time. Even if we did happen to run into a ghost or some other incorporeal enemy, surely someone would figure out a way to deal with it.

  “Looks like we’re the only ones from our party heading in there, Darkness.”

  “Mm. Alone with you in a dark dungeon… Somehow I can’t help thinking you’re more dangerous than the monsters.”

  “Hmm, maybe I need to leave you in there, see if I can traumatize you like I did with Aqua.”

  While we bantered, the other adventurers seemed to have settled in to their groups.

  Some of the adventurers would stay aboveground to act as Sena’s bodyguards and clear out the monster-dolls up there. About twenty other men and women would join Darkness and me in heading underground.

  The plan was for Darkness to carve a trail up front, while the others and I followed behind…

  The light from the lantern I held played across the dim dungeon corridor.

  Darkness didn’t have a lantern, just in case she got blown up—she carried only her great sword. I walked a few steps behind her, holding the light up so she could see ahead.

  The rest of the adventurers shuffled along after me.

  The dungeon was as dark and dank as ever, but it was hard to feel scared with this many people around.

  Although, our goals and theirs were different.

  They all want
ed to find out where the monsters were coming from, but we wanted to get rid of the magic circle in the Lich’s room—destroying the incriminating evidence.

  So it was actually really inconvenient to have everyone else right behind us.

  But even so…

  “Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Look, Kazuma! Look at me hit them! Even my blade can strike these things!”

  Ahead of me, Darkness swung her sword gleefully, slicing through the dolls, which made no move to avoid her attacks.

  Naturally, they responded by self-destructing, but Darkness seemed perfectly happy with this, even as her face and armor became covered in soot.

  I didn’t realize her total failure to hit anything in the past had been bothering her. If it was that big a deal, she should’ve just swallowed her pride and taken the Great Sword skill or something.

  Apparently elated to be fulfilling her role at last now that she could land some hits, Darkness cut a path for us, rolling through the dungeon like a proper tank.

  Despite the repeated explosions, the dungeon did justice to its reputation as the creation of a famous Wizard turned Lich—there was no sign of anything crumbling.

  “Heyyyy! Hang on a minute—slow down!” one of the other adventurers called from behind us.

  I turned around and saw that Darkness’s inexorable advance had left the rest of the group some way behind us.

  And more and more of those monsters were pouring in from the dungeon’s side tunnels.

  “Wai— Oh no! One’s got me! Someone, get this thing off me!”

  “Yipes, stay back! Don’t bring it this way!”

  The blasts from the critters were pretty powerful. But even without Darkness’s toughness or Aqua’s celestial gown, I figured they wouldn’t kill an adventurer in full armor.

  So, sorry guys, but—!

  “That’s it, Darkness! Straight ahead! Onward, brave Crusader!”

  “You’ve got it! Oh, I’ve never been so exhilarated! This is the first time I’ve ever felt like a real Crusader!”

  She seemed to be having too much fun to notice what was happening behind us.

  At this rate we could bust right into the deepest part of this dungeon and then be on our way!