Chapter 12. The Road to the Forest V
Episode 12.
The Road to the Forest V
The <Achievement Shop> isn't all-powerful.
In the early stages, where even the unfairness is palpable, it only serves to ease the difficulty to some extent.
'Even that much is something to be grateful for.'
How many times had I faced a game-over crisis in what was barely the tutorial stage?
I'd played this game thousands of times, but the early game had never been this brutal.
Welcome to the <Achievement Shop>.
The shop grade currently available to the player is <Bronze>. Some items are locked depending on grade. Please note that purchased items cannot be refunded.
When I opened the Achievement Shop, familiar lines appeared.
Of course, I'd never spent a single achievement point, but I checked the shop regularly.
Sooner or later, the moment to spend points would surely come, and I had to work out the most efficient spending pattern in preparation for that time.
'The problem is my class.'
I'd devised countless builds, but none of them involved the <Summoner>.
That was only natural, since I hadn't even known the class existed.
Actually, I could devise one now if I wanted to.
'......No time to rack my brain, though.'
There are times when a quick judgment matters more than an accurate one.
I quickly scanned the shop and swiftly grabbed an item I'd already thought about. An item with the greatest versatility regardless of class.
Forerunner's Elixir
Price: 100,000 P
......Fucking expensive.
'As if 100,000 points were pocket change.'
Of course, the item was worth the price.
What is this elixir?
Simply put, it's "learning a skill early."
For example, even if your level when you drink the elixir is only 20, you can acquire in advance a skill you'd normally only learn at level 50, 60, or higher.
'The important part is that it's random.'
Of course FoS made even this part random.
That makes it hard to say it's purely beneficial even if you're lucky enough to learn a top-tier skill.
Usually, endgame skills like that either cost more than a low-level character could handle or require prerequisite skills or special equipment.
'Like <Shield Attack> for knight classes or <Hellfire> for mage classes.'
If I drew a skill like that, learning it now would be pointless.
'Three purchase opportunities at the Bronze shop.'
Using one of those chances before I'd even properly entered the forest wouldn't be wise.
Of course, if I rolled a shitty skill, there'd be nothing I could do about it.......
Still, since the <Talent Stone> was a bust, wouldn't something good come up this time?
You know, there's that saying about sacrifices.
'Goddammit.'
A hollow laugh escaped me.
Of all people, I was resorting to that kind of superstition.
If the community users found out, they'd openly mock me.
I shoved aside the idle thoughts and downed the elixir.
[You have consumed <Forerunner's Elixir>.]
[You randomly acquire one high-tier skill belonging to the player's class.]
I was aiming for a skill from around levels 40 to 60. Something in that range should be usable with my current stats without any troublesome restrictions.
[You acquire the skill, <Wild Force>.]
What kind of name is that?
As I reached toward the skill with an ominous feeling—
Plip.
A cold droplet touched the bridge of my nose.
I looked at the sky.
I thought dew from the leaves had fallen, but that didn't seem to be the case. The sky visible beyond the branches was gloomier than I'd expected.
Shhhhhhh—
It didn't take long for the intermittent droplets to become a downpour.
'Ha.'
I'd already lost a lot of blood, and now it was raining. The time I could afford to stall was vanishing.
I took my eyes off the sky and read the description of the newly acquired skill.
And then—
"......."
I closed the shop window.
* * *
Dorman thought.
So he'd ended up coming into this godforsaken forest after all.
'No matter how many times I come, it's a shitty place.'
Trees far taller than the buildings of the royal capital, an inexplicable eeriness, and sounds like ghost wails whenever the wind brushed the leaves.......
Dorman found everything about this forest unpleasant.
Shhhhhhh.
To make matters worse, rain was pouring down now, turning the ground to mud.
'Did he run all the way into the depths of the forest?'
It was a plausible guess, but he couldn't be certain.
Dorman recalled the face of the fleeing man.
His physical abilities were clearly pathetic, but he'd killed most of his comrades with momentary wit and underhanded tricks.
He was a troublesome one. No.......
'He's a frightening one.'
Dorman admitted he'd felt a faint fear of the man.
Kaindel had terrifying tenacity and viciousness, and above all, he seemed like the type who never forgot a grudge.
If he let that bastard go today, Kaindel would soon become a far more terrifying enemy and come for his life.
In other words, he couldn't afford to keep obsessing over some unique item.
'Reina's arrow was lodged in his abdomen. With the rain pouring like this, he won't get far in that state.'
Perhaps he'd already died from excessive bleeding, or been devoured by the forest beasts.
It didn't matter either way.
As long as he could confirm even a single piece of that bastard's corpse.
Dorman pressed on through the forest that had turned to mud.
The rain obstructed his vision, but he pressed on without lowering his guard in the slightest.
SHNK.
One thing was certain.
Dorman had not let his guard down.
Realizing there was an enemy only after his abdomen had been pierced was not the result of carelessness.
Dorman spat blood as he watched the falling rain form a human silhouette.
"Stealth......?"
How did this guy have a skill that only rogues should have?
No, if he'd had a skill like this from the start, why hadn't he used it earlier?
'This is no time to think about that......!'
Dorman immediately tensed his abdominal muscles and swung his sword, but the enemy—Kaindel—dodged the attack with a movement he'd never shown before.
"Ghk......!"
The blade through his abdomen looked familiar.
It was Nelson's sword.
Cunning bastard. When had he picked this up?
'Did he miss my vitals......?'
It wasn't luck.
It wasn't luck. The blade had gone precisely through a gap in his armor.
Perhaps Kaindel thought it was time to press the attack. He charged again, and this time Dorman reacted in time.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
As they exchanged brief blows in the rain, Dorman felt a strange sense of dissonance and déjà vu at the same time. The opponent's movements had noticeably changed.......
More than that, something else felt off.
'......That weasel brat from earlier?'
His movements were almost identical to that troublesome weasel's.
What the hell was this guy's class?
Even as the fight continued, the chill running through Dorman wouldn't go away. It wasn't merely because both of them were accumulating wounds.
......Dorman had felt this sensation a few times in his life.
'When I was chased by a swarm of killer wasps, when I was caught by a man-eating tree, when I stepped into a swamp teeming with undead.......'
Of course, this man wasn't that strong.
Throb.
His abdomen ached. The bleeding was more severe than he'd thought, and the pouring rain was rapidly sapping his body heat.
'I need to end this quickly.'
He still had a trump card he hadn't used. He'd thought it was too wasteful to use on someone like this, but with his life now at risk, that hesitation vanished.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Fortunately, his opponent still had openings. He wielded the unusual weapon of a scythe, but didn't seem particularly proficient with it.
'Has he not adapted to the scythe's reach yet?'
Dorman deliberately pretended he couldn't close the distance, trying to make Kaindel believe the gap between them was completely safe.
The opening came quickly.
Whoosh!
Normally a sword couldn't exploit that opening from this distance, but now things were different.
Dorman aimed his blade at the opponent from a distance.
"Die!"
Fft. With a feeble sound, the sword launched. Literally, the blade itself was fired.
Dorman smiled with satisfaction, but his eyes widened at what happened next.
"What!"
Kaindel dodged the launched blade. It wasn't a reflex dodge or a feat of visual acuity; the movement was smooth, as if he'd known it was coming.
After dodging, Kaindel closed the distance in an instant and swung his scythe.
"......!"
In that instant, venom filled Dorman's eyes. He rotated his left wrist once counterclockwise, and at the same time, a hidden dagger sprang out. He immediately thrust it toward Kaindel's throat.
The scythe would land first, but that didn't matter.
Even if he died, he had no intention of dying alone.
"—!"
For a split second, Dorman read bewilderment in his opponent's eyes. So Kaindel hadn't expected this either.
The moment he thought that, his body's balance collapsed sharply.
'What......?'
He realized the reason immediately. His foot had slipped on the slick mud.
Slice.
With a cold sensation, the strength drained from Dorman's entire body, and the dagger he'd aimed at Kaindel's throat lodged in Kaindel's shoulder.
"Gah......."
He instinctively realized his throat had been cut. He reflexively clamped the wound, but the blood wouldn't stop, gushing out in surges.
"Grrrk......!"
Blood bubbled in his throat. Dorman staggered backward, then suddenly looked into the opponent's eyes.
'This...... is a stoker?'
Status no longer mattered. This bastard was the kind of man who killed because he didn't want to die, who would do anything to survive—just like Dorman himself.
'Fuck.......'
Belated regret surged through Dorman, and he let out a hollow laugh. If he'd known Kaindel was this kind of bastard, he would never have messed with him.
'Not worth the trouble.'
That was his last thought.
* * *
......My head was spinning.
......My body hurt.
How bad were my wounds? If I'd known this would happen, I'd have saved a potion. No, then my side would've hurt too much to run properly. With my luck, the arrow might've lodged in the side that was already injured.......
"......Ah."
Anyway, I won.
Wild Force Lv.1
Type: Buff
Cast Time: Instant Range: Self
Duration: 60 sec Cooldown: 600 sec
Borrows a portion of the stats of a tamed Magical Beast and allows the use of its skills. The number of borrowed stats and skills scales with trust in the tamed Magical Beast and the skill level.
A newly learned skill.
I'd wondered if I couldn't use it because the weasel was incapacitated, but that wasn't the case.
With this skill, I gained additional stats, and I could also use <Stealth>, a skill of the Blade Weasel.
"......."
After letting out a breath, I looked at the corpse before me.
Dorman Bedro.
Class: Swordsman. Grade-4 Delver.
Level between 30 and 35.
As I stared at the cold corpse, the thought I'd had when I first saw this bastard suddenly flashed through my mind.
'D-rank.'
The talent grade I'd assigned him personally.
A-rank meant talent I absolutely had to secure—
B-rank meant excellent, high-priority talent.
C-rank meant mediocre, replaceable talent.
And finally, D-rank was.......
'Someone not even worth considering as a companion.'
Laughter escaped me even amid the stinging pain of my wounds. If it hadn't rained, if Dorman hadn't slipped on the slick mud.......
This man's final strike would have pierced my throat instead of my shoulder, and I might have died too.
'Stupid bastard.'
I'd been arrogant, thinking I'd read all of the opponent's moves.
I knew what Dorman's weapon, the <Eagle Sword>, could do.
⁝
Can launch the blade to perform a ranged attack.
⁝
A function that can only be used once.
I'd rashly concluded that Dorman would stake everything on that technique, that it was his final desperate struggle.
But it wasn't.
A person driven into a corner can do anything.
Literally—they became desperate enough to risk anything.
I, of all people—I, who knew that fact better than anyone—had let my guard down.
"Haha......."
I laughed at how pathetic I was.
Still laughing, I barely managed to stand. My vision was blurry and I could barely muster any strength, but I couldn't stay there. At the very least, I had to get out of the forest and find shelter from the rain.
Shhhhh.
As I walked, pelted by the pouring rain, I finally saw the slope leading out of the forest.
Splash!
Midway up, my legs gave out and I slipped.
I had no strength left to stand again.
Covered in mud, I crawled up the slope. Just as I finally crested the hill—
"......?"
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.
The surroundings somehow looked familiar.
'This place.'
The wreckage of a train scattered across a clearing.
Black rain drizzling down.
And if I turned around, the forest entrance would be there, gaping open like a monster's maw.
"Ah."
This place—
It was the "game start screen."
Shhhhhhhhh—
If this world really were a game, red text would be appearing right now along with eerie background music.
[FOREST OF SHADOW]
Below it, lines like these would be listed.
[New Game]
[Save]
[Options]
And finally, [Exit Game].
"......."
I extended my index finger and pressed an exit button that didn't exist.
I repeated that futile gesture a few times.
Shhhhhhhhh—
The rain didn't stop.
The scenery didn't change either.
Everything remained the same. My consciousness didn't return to reality, and the pain from my wounds was still there.
"Ghh......."
Of course it wouldn't.
Hadn't I already settled this? I'd decided to treat this place as reality, yet the moment I saw a possible escape, I was doing this again.
Maybe I'd lost too much blood. I wasn't acting like myself.
Splash.
In the end, I collapsed.
Somehow, the mud that should have felt cold was warm. My failing senses sounded a warning, but my body wouldn't move anymore.
And just as even my consciousness began to fade.......
Hoot—
I thought I heard an owl hoot somewhere in the distance.