Chapter 8. The Road to the Forest I
Episode 8.
The Road to the Forest I
Consciousness slowly returned.
......Was I knocked out for a bit? How long?
My ears were ringing, and my vision was completely gray.
I spat out the dust clogging my airway and checked my physical condition first.
'Well, there's no pain at least.'
It was too early to relax. Pain could set in late even after a serious injury.
As expected, a few seconds later my whole body ached as if I'd been beaten.
'Hoo.'
Even so, I was relieved.
It felt like mostly bruises, so moving didn't seem too difficult.
Before long, a massive shape came into view through the dust.
'......You piece of shit.'
Finally dead, huh.
I let out a sigh as I looked at the octopus bastard's corpse.
Was its official name 'Binding and Crushing Black Octopus'?
Honestly, the thing was so huge I still wasn't sure it was completely dead.
'I think I saw a status message saying it died.'
I thought I'd seen a few other messages besides that too—
"Ugh......."
My body swayed.
It felt almost like anemia. As I checked my body again, I soon realized my side was wet.
I felt around reflexively and—Jesus. There was blood everywhere.
Blood had seeped out enough to make the bandages soggy, probably the aftermath of moving my body too violently.
'I think I got stabbed a few times while rolling around.'
Once I realized it, the pain suddenly felt much more real.
The pain I'd dismissed as just bruises swelled in an instant.
I forced down the groan rising in my throat.
As a Player, there was something that took priority over first aid.
'First, check the items.......'
The octopus bastard's corpse was crumbling away, and before long two items were left sitting there.
A whip shaped like a tentacle and a stone.
Tentacle Whip
Grade: Unique
Never breaks. Getting hit by it probably won't hurt much, but it might make you angry, so be careful.
A Unique item?
'No wonder it was so damn brutal.'
This octopus bastard was boss-grade.
Unique-grade items only drop when you kill a boss monster.
But what the hell was with this item description?
'If getting hit doesn't hurt, it doesn't seem like something to use as a weapon.'
......Maybe there was a use I didn't know about? Or was it just the devs being assholes?
With a sour feeling, I turned my gaze to the next item.
Unlike the <Talent Stone> I'd gotten earlier, this one had a bluish tint.......
If this thing was a boss monster, I had a rough guess what kind of item it was.
Trait Awakening Stone
Grade: Grade-4
Randomly awakens a Trait of D-grade or higher.
'Knew it.'
This was a jackpot-level haul.
The <Trait Awakening Stone> is literally an item that randomly awakens a character's Trait.......
In FoS, Traits are far more important than ordinary stats or Talent values.
At least in this game, they're the factor that most heavily influences your build direction.
'Not that it's an item you can just use without a care.'
As the description says, the Trait awakened is random.
Meaning one appeared at random from among hundreds or even thousands of possible Traits.
What if a Trait that goes against your build direction shows up?
'Instant ruined-character route.'
Of course, that's only if you use it as is.
A Trait Awakening Stone can be upgraded into a higher item by synthesizing it with specific items. To put it in extreme terms—
Use a sword as material, and it becomes a <Warrior Trait Awakening Stone>.......
Mix in an intelligence-boosting fruit, and it changes into a <Mage Trait Awakening Stone>.
'Of course, getting the materials is a bit rough.'
Still, it was much better than using it as-is, so I decided to hold onto it for now.
"Hoo......."
At the tutorial stage, I'd gotten one Talent Stone, one Trait Stone, and even a Unique item. Was this really the <Instant-Death Route>?
Even among all the countless runs I'd played, this was an all-time great start.
Only after gathering all the items did I take out the bandages and disinfectant from my chest.
I was planning to do some belated first aid.......
"K-Kaindel...... ugh."
The mage's voice came through.
Apparently, this guy had survived too.
"You okay?"
"M-my legs won't move....... Could you help......."
Something felt off.
I went toward the voice and found the mage with one leg pinned under an iron cage.
"Hmm......."
He looked bad. The corner had dug into his thigh and blood was pouring out, and it didn't look like simply moving the cage would solve it.
"Hngh, ngh, ghk......."
The mage was drooling and crying from the pain. Even so, he spoke in a trembling voice.
"K-Kaindel...... i-in my left bag...... there's a potion......."
A potion?
I hurriedly opened the bag to check, and there really was a potion.
Slosh.
Three bottles, even.
"I'm using one."
"Excuse me......?"
"I'm hurt too, so I don't have any strength."
The slightly startled mage understood once I showed him the blood-soaked stain on my side.
"Y-you must only use one......."
What a fussy bastard.
I immediately opened the potion, removed the blood-soaked bandage, and poured it onto the wound in my side.
Hissss—
"Nngh......."
My head throbbed.
It felt like pouring hydrochloric acid rather than a potion. If this were the real world, I would've screamed my head off.
It was doing rapid regeneration and disinfecting the wound at the same time, so I supposed this much pain was natural.
Gulp.
I poured only half onto the wound and dumped the other half into my mouth.
I figured this would be more effective than sprinkling it over my whole body.
Then a pain like being clubbed all over the body hit me, and before long it vanished.
'......The effect is insane.'
I'd had bruises all over, but now everything felt fine.
Though it hurt like hell, so I didn't want to use it unless I had to.
"Kaindel...... now......."
"Got it."
At the mage bastard's urging, I lifted the iron cage.
The fairly heavy cage lifted more easily than I expected.
I hadn't noticed until just now, but my body felt lighter somehow.
'Ah.'
Come to think of it, I thought I'd seen a message saying my level had gone up. What level was I now?
Thud.
Once I moved the iron cage, the mage bastard finally checked his wound.
"Ugh......."
Then his face immediately went pale, and he said to me,
"S-sorry, could you pour some potion on it......?"
This guy's full of requests.
Of course, since I now owed him a potion, I granted the mage's request without complaint.
Hissss—
"AAAAAAAGH......!"
Bastard. What a drama queen.
Of course, with a wound that serious, the pain had to be intense.
'Anyway, will this potion fully heal him?'
Unlike me with my relatively light injuries, the mage's leg was on the verge of being completely severed.
But as if to make my concern pointless, new flesh rapidly grew on the leg, pushing out torn cloth, metal fragments, and black blood in the process.
'No way, is this.......'
Just in case, I checked the potion.
High-Grade Potion
A potion that massively restores HP.
So it was a High-Grade Potion after all.
A consumable that fills over 50% of HP in an instant.......
'This isn't something a guy at his level should have.'
And not just one bottle, but three.
What the hell was this guy?
"Kaindel......."
At that moment, I felt a faint breeze, and before I knew it the younger Spiritist sister was standing behind me.
"You're safe."
"Yeah......."
She wasn't completely unharmed.
She was bleeding from a cut on her forehead.
"Ugh, huk...... Y-you were alive....... K-Kria...... d-drink this......."
Seeing her, the mage bastard held out the remaining potion to his sister.
So the timid guy had been giving me the stink eye about using only one bottle because the rest was for his sister.
Was this what sibling love looked like?
'......Anyway, what now?'
Originally, after the train overturned, the story would unfold with Magical Beasts pouring in, but those Magical Beast bastards were wiped out in the fight with the octopus bastard.
Had we bought ourselves some time to catch our breath?
'As if.'
With a sneer, I grabbed my scythe.
"......Kaindel?"
"I'm going to look around for a bit, so stay here. Try not to make any noise."
"O-okay."
This wasn't the time to lie around.
There might still be living shadows or Magical Beasts, and other threats wouldn't be strange either.
I moved forward, carefully scanning my surroundings.
"Cough......."
This damn dust.......
The train had flipped over so spectacularly that my vision was still hazy.
I couldn't see well, but the same probably went for any enemies. This was the right time to move.
Rustle.
The moment I sensed a presence, I dropped flat.
Almost to the point where my chin touched the ground.
It looked ridiculous, but I didn't have the luxury to care about that.
Grrrr......!
A Magical Beast's cry?
With a feeling that it sounded somehow familiar, I carefully moved toward the source of the sound.
'What's that?'
A shadow.
The octopus bastard I killed.
'How is it alive?'
The system said it was dead, and I witnessed the main body turn to dust and scatter.
After observing a bit more, I figured out the identity of that shadow bastard.
'It's an individual separated from the main body.'
There was no body, just a single severed leg writhing and struggling.
Probably the moment it separated, it was recognized as an independent entity from the main body.
A particularly annoying mob type in FoS.
'Still, finishing it off shouldn't be too hard.......'
It would die on its own before long, but there was no reason to leave a threat unattended.
Of course, contrary to my thoughts, I didn't act right away.
GRRR! SCREECH!
Because there was already someone fighting the octopus leg with all its might.
A creature bravely swinging its claws even while wrapped up like a rat caught by a snake.
[Lv.19 'Blade Weasel']
It looked familiar. It was definitely one of the Magical Beasts that had fought the shadow with me on the train.
Crunch, crack......!
Even with only one octopus leg left, the pressure was considerable; I could hear bones creaking inside the weasel's small body.
The weasel clawed and bit at the octopus in obvious pain, but to little effect.
"......."
I watched that scene, then stepped in at the right moment and cut the octopus leg.
Slash!
As expected of the mantis scythe.
The octopus leg, cleanly split in half, flopped to the ground, writhed a few times, and vanished in an instant.
SCREEECH!
The freed weasel rolled on the ground a few times, then glared at me.
It looked completely on edge.
I glared back at it with my scythe in hand.
But the creature, which had been hissing fiercely, soon tilted its head.
Screech......?
Every time its black nose twitched, its long whiskers quivered.
Eventually it slowly approached me, so I held out my scythe and stayed on guard—
......!
The weasel backed away, then scurried up onto the wreckage of the broken train.
Standing up there, it looked down at me.......
Squeak.......
Its eyes were so wide they looked ready to pop out.
Somehow its shocked expression made me feel a strange sense of guilt.
Before long.
Scamper!
It vanished beyond the train wreckage in an instant.
"......What?"
A Magical Beast running away.
It wasn't something that never happened in the game, but somehow the feeling was a little different now.
I glared into the pitch-black darkness, but the weasel never came back.
'Should I track it?'
The thought crossed my mind, but I soon shook my head.
This wasn't the time to dawdle. I should head back for now.
I carefully scanned my surroundings again and returned to where the two siblings were.
But then.
"Kaindel! You're back! Over here!"
"Aha. Is that him?"
The atmosphere was completely different from when I left.
Noisy and bustling. When I left, there had only been the siblings, but now the headcount had increased.
A man I'd never seen before asked me with a smiling face.
"......I hear you're the leader of this party. Is that right?"
I checked the name above his head, and a laugh immediately escaped me.
"Ha."
What a goddamn game.