Chapter 6. Express Loop Train Armand VI
Episode 6.
The Express Loop Train Armand VI
In <FoS>, companions were both indispensable and a pain in the ass.
The reasons? Too many to count.
First, because of the nature of the game, just managing my own character was hard enough.
'Disease, injury management, hunger, thirst.......'
You had to look after the player character's body and mind as if they were your own real body and mind—
and even if you kept up with all of that, if your stress level went beyond a certain point and you developed depression or something, you got hit with massive debuffs.
'And the end of that road is suicide.'
But the real problem was that in this game, finding a trustworthy companion was like trying to pluck a star from the sky.
[Ares: I—I can't do this anymore......! I'm getting out of here!]
[Lorton: Heh heh. Why are you looking at me like that? Didn't think I'd plant a knife in your back?]
[Haitan: Eat up. It's breakfast. What did I make it with? Haha. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.]
Because these bastards had bodies and minds you had to look after too.
You had to talk to them regularly, check their health, sometimes even give them gifts and keep them sweet.
And even if you did all that, you still couldn't trust a companion NPC unconditionally.
[You have died.]
[Your soul is bound to <Eternal Forest>, and you will suffer for eternity.......]
[Start a new game?]
Focusing on relationships like that often left your growth lagging and ended in a game over.
"Fucking hell."
This wasn't even a relationship simulation game, and somehow it felt like the tail was wagging the dog.
But I still needed a trustworthy companion, and the conclusion that followed was simple.
"Let's make a companion I don't have to worry about betraying me."
A companion didn't have to be an NPC.
Classes that could command an army on their own.
That was how I became a <Spiritist>, an <Alchemist>, and a <Necromancer>.
'Each had its pros and cons, of course.'
Because there was no perfect class in <FoS>.
From what I'd actually played, <Necromancer> suited my taste best, but who knows.
There might be a summoning-type class out there that suited me even better.
As I'd said time and again...... FoS was a game with a pointlessly massive amount of content.
* * *
As I strode toward the Magical Beast cages, the mage, who had just finished puking, asked,
"Wh-what are you trying to do?"
"Fight poison with poison."
"Excuse me?"
Was the fantasy setting making it hard to understand?
"I'm going to make these guys fight the monster that's chasing us."
When I spelled it out for him, the mage swallowed hard.
"I-is that even possible......?"
"Well......."
For one thing, in the game I had seen Magical Beasts and shadows fighting each other.
Though I couldn't say how it would play out now that this had become reality.
'Still, according to the lore, shadows were hostile to all living things except their own kind.'
In other words, it didn't seem likely the thing would ignore a Magical Beast lunging at it just to deal with us first.
"But these Magical Beasts are locked in cages, so how......?"
Instead of answering, I pulled a key from my pocket and showed it to him.
Iron Cage Key
A key needed to open the lock on a certain cage.
One of the items I'd picked up while rummaging through corpses.
I'd grabbed it just in case.
Of course, a problem still remained.
If I unlocked the cage right out in the open like this, the Magical Beasts might attack us first instead of the shadow.
At that point, I looked toward the younger sister and said,
"You said your contracted spirit was a sylph?"
The Spiritist, who had been observing the Magical Beasts, nodded.
"Ah, yeah......."
"Can you move this key with your spirit?"
The Spiritist stared at the key for a moment, then said in a trembling voice,
"I-I think it might be possible."
"When I give the signal, use this key to unlock that cage. Can you do it?"
"......Okay."
"Good. Then let's all hide now."
Boom, thud.......
The shadow's presence drew closer.
Was it in the car right in front of us now?
If we'd been hiding in Car 13, we might have been crushed to death with no way out.
'You son of a bitch.'
Come at me.
As I waited with bated breath, my gaze soon drifted to a cage tucked away in a corner.
'......Was that thing there before?'
I didn't think I'd seen it earlier.
Looking at it now, there was a reason for that.
It was in the farthest corner of the train car, and it wasn't even big enough to really be called a cage.
At most it was about the size of a birdcage.......
And in fact, what was inside was a bird.
'An owl?'
The owl sat calmly on its perch and turned its pitch-black eyes toward me.
There were many kinds of owls with fairly diverse appearances, and this one seemed to be a species classified as a <Masked Owl>.
You know, the kind where only the black of its eyes is visible, making it look unsettling for some reason.
[Lv.9 'Clown Owl']
Its level was by far the lowest among the Magical Beasts in this car.
In other words, it wasn't an individual worth paying attention to.
Or that would normally be the case.
'What is this?'
I soon noticed several things off about this owl.
First, unlike the other Magical Beasts, which were filthy from long neglect, its appearance was clean—
and for a caged creature, it didn't seem anxious or under extreme stress either.
Sitting on its perch with its head tilted, it even gave off an air of complete composure.
......Was its intelligence too low to grasp the situation?
'Or else.'
Maybe the current situation simply wasn't all that serious to this Magical Beast.
[With your exceptional intuition, you have glimpsed part of the truth of a mysterious wild beast.]
[Beast-Type hostility decreases slightly.]
[Additional information about 'Clown Owl' is added.]
'Additional information on a target?'
In the game, this was an effect that triggered at a low probability when you encountered a new being.
The higher your intuition stat, the higher the trigger chance.
I'd thought the intuition stat was a useless burden, but here it was actually helping.
'Since this isn't a game anymore, I can raise the probability based on my own reasoning ability.'
Of course, that would probably need to be verified too.
Anyway.......
Clown Owl
It considers amusement the highest value.
What kind of riddle was this supposed to be?
I was puzzled and a little intrigued, but unfortunately, I didn't have time to dwell on it any further.
Boom.
The shadow had finally reached the Magical Beast car.
Woof! Woooof!
Grrrrr.......
The Magical Beasts began to snarl, and the cages shook like mad.
Some bristled their fur, some bared their teeth—the visible reactions were varied.
But.
BANG!
The moment the sound of the iron door being crushed rang out, most of those reactions subsided.
It was a natural response.
At level 10 or 20 at best, they had no choice but to become tail-tucking mutts in front of that shadow thing.
'Not you, though, right?'
Fortunately, the wolf I'd had my eye on was just watching the door with a calm gaze.
As expected of level 30.
That was a little reassuring.
At level 30, it was an individual strong enough to be classified as a named monster even in the forest's early regions.
It wouldn't be completely overwhelmed even against the shadow that was about to burst in.
......Please, let that be the case.
Crunch......!
"Hup."
The moment the iron door crumpled, a sound escaped the mage.
I glared at him to tell him to shut up, and he clamped both hands over his mouth and nodded frantically.
That guy, I had a bad feeling about him.
CRUNCH!
At that moment, the iron door literally tore apart and went flying, slamming into the wall.
Rrrrrumble......!
And finally, the mass of tentacles revealed itself.
It looked even blacker than before.
'Did it level up by eating corpses?'
......This was no time for such idle thoughts.
I looked at the Spiritist. Realizing my gaze, the Spiritist muttered something, and in an instant, the key floated up on a faint breeze.
Click.
The key engaged with the lock.......
and at last, the cage holding the wolf was opened.
It was at that moment that an unexpected turn of events unfolded.
Whoosh!
The wolf bastard, which had been sitting until then, immediately sprang to its feet, bolted out of the cage, and charged straight at me.
"What the......!"
I reflexively grabbed the shaft of my spear.
Woooof!
The wolf let out a roar and swung a massive front paw.
But that attack wasn't aimed at me.
CRUNCH!
The wall of the train car was torn away like paper under the front claws of a level-30 Magical Beast.
"No......."
I couldn't even sigh.
CRUNCH, CRRRRUNCH......!
It wasn't until the wall was nearly in tatters that I fully grasped what was happening.
Of course, even if I'd caught on sooner, there probably wouldn't have been anything I could do.
KRAAAASH—!
How the hell was I supposed to predict that this thing would shred the wall with its own paws, then slam its body through it and escape outside the train?
"Ah."
The wolf hurled itself outside the train, and only then did I grasp the situation.
Hell at 80 kilometers per hour.
That would certainly deliver an impact no ordinary human could ever withstand, but with the durability of a level-30 Magical Beast, it was survivable.
So, to sum up the current situation.......
"For fuck's sake."
The "poison" in "fight poison with poison."
The poison I was supposed to use had fled the battlefield on its own four legs.