Chapter 10. The Road to the Forest III
Episode 10.
The Road to the Forest III
'Beast God?'
I looked around, but there was nothing visible.
Come to think of it, I'd seen a similar phrase earlier.
'......Wait, could this be talking about a <Divine Beast>?'
If so, that was even stranger.
A Divine Beast was something even I had never encountered in the forest.
And now, before I'd even entered the forest, the chance of encountering one was effectively zero.
'Hidden class.......'
I set aside the question I couldn't answer and shifted my thinking.
A hidden class literally meant a hidden profession.
Put that way, it sounded impressive and overpowered, but that wasn't necessarily true.
At least in this game, hidden classes were double-edged swords.
'Necromancer is exactly that.'
Necromancer was also a hidden class within the <Black Mage> job family, and it came with fatal drawbacks to match its strengths.
The moment your identity was exposed, most NPCs' favorability bottomed out and they turned hostile.
That was a bigger penalty than it sounded.
'Because in the long run, if I'm going to keep exploring the forest, interacting with NPCs is indispensable.'
Even if I could command undead to handle various tasks, I couldn't exactly leave equipment repair or crafting to them.
"You sons of bitches....... Where did you hide?"
"Come crawling out now and we'll spare your lives."
I heard the voices of Dorman's group.
They were spouting nonsense that wouldn't fool anyone, and they were getting closer.
I checked their average level, their numbers, the quality of their equipped gear once more, then estimated my odds of winning.
'About ten percent.'
Even at the most optimistic estimate.
In other words, I had no choice left either.
I'd never heard of a class called <Summoner>, but whatever it was, completing the class change meant I'd gain at least one more strategic option.......
[You have changed class to <Summoner>.]
In this situation, that alone was enough reason to press 'Y'.
After completing the class change, I looked at the Magical Beast again.
[Will you tame the Lv.19 'Blade Weasel'?]
YES again.
[Attempting to tame the Lv.19 'Blade Weasel'.]
[The target's current favorability toward you is 61.]
[Taming success chance: 61%]
[<Dice of Fate> is rolling.......]
'Oh, shit.'
Taming had a success rate too?
Over sixty percent wasn't exactly low, but it still made me uneasy.
In FoS, every action that received probability correction was decided by a twenty-sided die.
Meaning, if the success chance was 61%.......
'It means the die needs to come up at least 8 or higher.'
The odds weren't low, but I'd gotten nervous.
[Die result: 6]
[Taming failed.]
Fuck, I knew it.
'What do I do?'
What now? First, calm down.
Don't panic. Expand the scope of my thinking.
This place was reality now, so maybe the system mechanic called 'taming' wasn't the only way I could bring a Magical Beast under control.
If I could learn the Magical Beast's traits by feeding it, bonding with it, analyzing it, and so on, and tame it that way.......
[Trait, <Friend of Magical Beasts>, activates.]
What now?
[Retrying taming.]
[Rolling <Dice of Fate> again.......]
⁝
[Die result: 19]
[Taming succeeded.]
[A high number came up on the die.]
[Bonus stats are granted to the tamed beast.]
At the same time, a status window that wasn't mine appeared before my eyes.
Blade Weasel
Level: 19
Grade: Magical Beast Species: Beast-Type
Stats
Strength: 7(+10) Agility: 22(+10)
Endurance: 8(+10) Magic Power: 1(+10)
Spare Points: 0
Skills
<Blade Whirlwind>, <Stealth>
Traits
<Quick Wits>, <Loyalty>
The format looked familiar.
This was.......
'A companion NPC's status window.'
A status window like this showed up for a Magical Beast?
That meant I could do more than simply tame it—I could even raise it like a companion NPC.
'No.'
It was more than that. The fact that there was a <Spare Points> field meant I could even control the Magical Beast's growth direction.
Compared to companion NPCs whose levels could rise but whose stats got allocated however they pleased, this was practically a cheat.
In this godforsaken game, having more choices was always a good thing.
"K-Kaindel......."
A faint voice cut off my gamer musings.
Right, this wasn't the time to leisurely analyze things.
"Come here."
I beckoned the two of them over, then spoke.
"I'm going to explain the plan now. I don't have time to explain it twice, so get it the first time."
"B-but my younger sibling is hurt......."
"I treated her with a potion. There shouldn't be any external injuries. And if we keep going like this, we all die anyway."
"......!"
The mage looked at me with trembling eyes. I felt a bit irritated at how he still hadn't grasped the situation, but.......
Thinking of it as encouraging an NPC whose mental stat had dropped, I calmly opened my mouth.
To raise our odds of winning, even by a little.
"Those people tried to kill us. Even someone with no sense at all should understand by now that it wasn't a mistake."
"......."
"From now on, I'm going to act to stay alive. I'll do anything to survive. Just like I did on the train earlier. What are you two going to do?"
In the end, these siblings also stood before a binary choice.
Just as I had when I thrust my spear of my own free will.
"......."
The mage, who had been silent, turned his gaze toward his younger sibling's shoulder.
The wound had been treated with a potion, but the bloodstains still remained.
"......It's okay."
The younger sister spoke in a faint voice.
Her voice was still frail, but her gaze was far steadier than her older brother's.
The mage's body trembled faintly as he met those eyes.
"......Kaindel."
The mage Kazen looked at me with a hardened face.
"What should I do?"
* * *
After explaining the plan to the two of them, I looked at the Magical Beast.
Then I gave it the same rough outline of the plan I'd given the siblings.
"......Do you understand what I'm saying?"
The intelligence of a <Magical Beast> was by no means low.
They merely couldn't speak; game books had repeatedly noted that they possessed intelligence comparable to sapient beings.
According to the lore, long-lived Magical Beasts pass through a stage called Jinsu before evolving into Spirit Beasts, and once they become Spirit Beasts, they can communicate with people through language.
"......."
Even so, seeing it stare up at me with those bright, clear eyes made me uneasy.
'This little guy is the core of the plan.'
<Stealth> and <Blade Whirlwind>.......
I knew the power, duration, and range of both skills precisely.
This operation couldn't succeed without it.
'No choice. I just have to trust it.'
This kind of hole-riddled plan was exactly what I hated most, but times like this, when I had no better option, were an exception.
"Go."
Still, it left the moment I jerked my chin, so it seemed to have understood at least that much.
The weasel vanished, and I immediately dropped flat and crawled under the train car.
Advancing on my belly across the damp, cold ground, I thought about Dorman's party.
'Their numbers are five.'
Had the archer broken off?
Or had she finished rough first aid and repositioned?
I knew the Blade Weasel had injured her, but since I didn't know the extent of the injury, I'd have to prepare for the possibility of arrows flying.
"......How's Reina?"
Then, from not far away, I heard a voice.
"One eye's gone."
"......Those goddamn bastards. I'll kill them."
"Let it go. You saw the men especially, right? Top-grade goods. They'll fetch a decent price on the black market."
"Fuck that. The black-haired one. I'm taking one of that bastard's eyes."
"Well, that much should be fine. They say plenty of clients are into that sort of thing."
Crazy bastards.
They were still a little distance away.
I had a feeling any movement would give me away, so I stopped immediately and waited.
The two, unaware of my position, slowly walked toward me.
Now?
'Not yet.'
Just a little closer.
They were almost within reach, but not quite. I held my breath and waited.
'Seven steps.'
By then, I could see the two bastards' equipment much more clearly.
Even then, I could only see them below the knees, but I could tell neither one was Dorman.
They were probably the two who had been ordered to scout the surroundings at the very beginning.
'One of them's wearing boots reinforced with iron plates.'
Those would be hard to cut with my current equipment.
'Six, five, four.......'
Finally, three steps.
I picked my target, then immediately swung the scythe.
"Aaaagh!"
A scream burst out along with blood.
The one whose ankle was cut collapsed on the spot, but the other—the one in steel-reinforced boots—quickly backed away and shouted.
"Found him! He's here!"
Only then did he kick the train car I was hiding under.
THUD!
No matter how wrecked the train car was, it was bigger than most wagons.
Naturally, it wasn't going to topple over from this bastard's kick, but staying hidden in this cramped spot wasn't the smart move.
If I got surrounded, I'd literally be a rat in a trap.
I quickly crawled along the ground and slipped out the other side.
Tap-tap-tap!
I heard footsteps from across the way.
They'd apparently realized I'd gotten out from under the train.
I ran in the direction opposite the sound for now, but.......
Fwing—
The moment I heard the sound of air being split, I rolled to the side.
An arrow embedded itself in the ground where I'd been.
'Fuck.'
Didn't she lose an eye?
As I rolled, I checked the direction the arrow had come from and saw an archer on the train roof nocking another arrow. Right. She did have a bandage wrapped over one eye.
'So that's why it missed?'
Of course, I couldn't be optimistic.
If her class was archer, she'd have at least one or two bow-related Traits and skills, so she could still benefit from their modifiers.
Fwing.
The moment another arrow flew, I hid behind cover.
At the same time, a new enemy appeared in front of me.
"Found you....... You little rat bastard."
Boots reinforced with iron plates.
So it was this one.
'Nelson, was it?'
One of the two Dorman had initially ordered to search the surroundings.
I kept a suitable distance and spoke.
"How cold. What about your injured comrade? Leave him like that and he'll bleed out."
"That little scratch won't kill him. Your head will make a fine get-well gift."
Seeing someone talk about murder so casually made my skin crawl.
But this was probably the universal mindset of this world.
A world where killing and being killed was natural.
If so.......
The strange one wasn't him—it was me. And the one who needed to change was me too.
WHOOSH!
"Ugh......?"
The moment a gust of wind whipped up from somewhere, Nelson reflexively closed his eyes.
'Sylph.'
She'd apparently mixed dirt and sand into the wind as instructed.
Before Nelson had even finished closing his eyes, I kicked off the ground and swung my scythe as soon as he came within range. Nelson stepped back and drew his sword.
SWISH!
'Shit.'
Were his eyes really closed?
If he'd been one step faster, my throat would've been cut.
My reach was longer, but since I still wasn't used to the scythe as a weapon, handling it remained awkward.
Meanwhile, Nelson was glaring at me, forcing his bloodshot eyes open.
'Fuck.'
So much for a free win off the first ambush.
I pulled out the tentacle I'd tied at my waist and swung it. Of course, it wasn't exactly suited for use as a weapon—
"Ugh......!"
But I could at least use it to bind his ankle.
"Fuck! What the hell is this?!"
The moment Nelson crashed to the ground with a clatter and spat curses, I immediately rushed in and kicked his wrist.
Clang!
The sword in his hand went flying. A reflexive punch slammed into my ankle.
"Kgh......."
Was his Strength stat fairly high?
For a moment I felt pain as if my ankle was breaking, but thanks to the leather boots I'd scavenged, it was bearable.
I endured the pain and swung the scythe.
CRUNCH!
The mantis scythe buried itself dead center in Nelson's head. With a sound like a watermelon bursting, blood sprayed everywhere.
The sensation still made my skin crawl, but this wasn't the time to dwell on it.
'Where are they?'
The bastard had shouted my position at the top of his lungs. Meaning there was a high chance his comrades were already nearby.
......Let me sort out the situation.
The archer couldn't shoot properly—
One had his ankle cut—
And I'd just dealt with another.
'Two left.'
First, the party leader, Dorman.
I knew how this one fought.
What bothered me was the remaining one. An enemy I had no information on right now.
'Rogue? Mage?'
Or maybe.......
I ran through the worst-matchup classes in my head, then looked around.
"......."
It was eerily quiet.
What was going on?
Attacking me right now, while I was worn out, would be to their advantage.
'Something feels off.'
An ominous silence seemed lodged in my throat.
I'd originally planned to find somewhere to hide or recover my stamina until they came, but....... Somehow, the feeling that doing so would screw me over only grew stronger.
I was just about to move when I suddenly sensed multiple presences behind me.
"You've got a nice-looking face."
"......."
"Nelson....... Tch. Dead, huh."
It was Dorman.
The problem was that Dorman wasn't the only one who'd appeared. I could see four of them.
'The worst.'
The leg of the one whose ankle I'd first cut with the scythe was cleanly reattached, as if nothing had happened, and the archer with the injured eye had long since tossed aside her bandage.
I realized the worst possibility I'd imagined had come true.
'Of all things, a priest.'
The last one's class was healer.
Dorman had spent the time I was fighting Nelson getting his injured comrades healed.
"What? Didn't expect there'd be a priest?"
I faced the four enemies and let out a sigh.
"Two tanks. Two DPS. One healer."
"Huh?"
"It means there's no reason to be surprised. That's the most basic party composition."
"What bullshit are you spouting?"
"And one more thing. I sighed, but it wasn't exactly out of despair. It's because the odds I'd barely dragged up just plummeted again."
Dorman grinned.
"You lunatic. Odds? What, about one percent?"
"Fifty."
"What?"
It had originally been seventy percent; now it was fifty.
The moment Dorman made a dumbfounded expression, the mage's voice rang out.
"Light!"
"Ha!"
As if they'd been waiting for it, the four in front of me closed their eyes simultaneously.
I'd expected that.
These bastards were a Delver party who'd been through every kind of hell.
They weren't going to fall for the same tactic twice. If they were stupid enough to fall for it twice, that would actually be a problem for me.
"Now!"
Because if they had, my plan would have failed.
At my shout, the Blade Weasel canceled <Stealth> and appeared behind Dorman's group.
The enraged Blade Weasel glared, its claws flashing sharply.
SHRAAAK!
<Blade Whirlwind> shot forward.