Chapter 9. The Road to the Forest II
Episode 9.
The Road to the Forest II
"Who's that?"
"I'm Dorman. I was looking after your party for a bit."
"I see. We owe you one."
"Think nothing of it."
The mage came over with a guileless look and spoke.
"Apparently, Dorman was riding in Car 2. He's been going around doing relief work, and he even shared food with us."
"Did you eat?"
"Not yet. It felt a little wrong to eat without you, Kaindel, so......."
Thankfully, it wasn't the worst.
I sighed inwardly, and this time the younger sister—the Spiritist—came over and asked.
"......Did anything happen?"
Anything happen.......
Something had, but I wasn't confident I could properly explain what I'd seen.
And compared to this mess right now, it didn't really seem like anything much.
"Nothing much. What about you two? Are you both all right?"
"Yes. We're fine now."
"I'm fine too."
"That's a relief. Then......."
I swept my gaze over Dorman, who was grinning away, and his group.
There were four of them in total, all men.
Their levels...... obviously, they'd be higher than ours.
"You look pretty tired. Are you all right?"
"Your cheeks are hollow. Shall we talk while eating something?"
With that, he held out a pouch of jerky.
I barely held back the hollow laugh that almost escaped.
'Delvers.'
People who explore the unknown forest.
Of course, these bastards weren't volunteers.
If anything, few people were more thoroughly motivated by profit than Delvers.
And people like that were doing relief work?
On top of that, they were handing out food?
I didn't buy it. I couldn't.
These bastards clearly had some ulterior motive, and they'd approached us while hiding it.
What puzzled me was why they hadn't made a move immediately and were instead putting on this clumsy act.......
"Kaindel......?"
"......."
When I didn't take the offered jerky, the mage bastard watched me nervously.
I ignored him and opened my mouth.
"What was the situation like in the front cars?"
"Huh?"
"There would have been other Delvers."
"Ah. They already entered the forest. We're the ones handling the cleanup."
Was that true?
I got the feeling it probably was.
In the first place, most of the Delvers who rode in Cars 1 and 2 would be first-rate, so they wouldn't need to go around picking up scraps like these bastards.
"So, your companion said a <Shadow> appeared here. And that you caught it."
He didn't seem very patient.
Not if he was already showing his true colors.
"I caught it. But I didn't catch it alone. I had help from those two friends over there."
"......Help?"
I nodded and spoke to the mage.
"Kazen. I know it's a little late, but good work. Having a mage provide rear support really was reassuring."
"Huh? Oh. Thank you."
"Kria, good work too. You cast Haste on me, right? Contracting with a spirit that can use an attribute buff at your age—that's impressive."
Beyond Kria's bangs, I saw her eyes dart around in confusion.
Her expression seemed to ask why the hell I was suddenly acting like this, but.......
"......."
I'd tossed a pebble into a still lake, and sure enough, ripples began to spread.
I saw Dorman's snake-like gaze sweep over the siblings. It was a look that said, 'These clueless brats are really a mage and a Spiritist?' but.......
To be fair, the two were dressed the part.
'Dorman.'
It was a name I remembered.
'Class is warrior. Grade-4 Delver. His Traits are <Eye of Insight> and <Opportunist>.'
Unlike Kazen and Kria, about whom I had no information at all, most of the survivors from Cars 1 and 2 would be names I knew.
I'd even had some of them as companions, so I remembered their general characteristics too.
'Assessed grade is D.'
This 'assessed grade' was my own personal rating of a companion's value.
At D-grade, by the standards of the front-car passengers, Dorman was small fry.
That was probably why he'd been assigned grunt work like scouting the surroundings. The problem was, I wasn't even at that small-fry level.
"Hmm."
Dorman scratched his chin.
He openly swept his persistent gaze over my whole body, and it landed on the leather pouch tied at my waist.
"......."
It was probably a coincidence, but it was the pouch containing the <Stone> that came out after I dealt with the Shadow.
"......Kaindel, was it? This place looks dangerous, so stick with us for a while. From the look of it, your companions could use more treatment too."
"I appreciate the thought, but we're Delvers too. I don't want to owe a debt."
"What debt in a situation like this? I'm just saying I'll help, so follow along."
"There's no particular need for help—"
"Hey."
Dorman said with a smile.
"I said follow along while I'm asking nicely."
The mask he'd been clumsily wearing came off in an instant.
I knew it. Sons of bitches.
Didn't Delvers start acting like looters only after entering the forest?
"U-um......?"
Only then did the mage, who had realized something was off, sidle over toward me.
I looked at Dorman and said curtly.
"Eat shit."
"Haha."
Dorman laughed as if amused, and one of the small fry beside him said,
"Kill him?"
"Leave him able to talk. He might have hidden the Stone somewhere before coming back."
"Right. But one of them's a mage, isn't he?"
"His fingertips were trembling. Classic mana depletion. He won't be able to cast any threatening magic."
"I see."
So he really did have <Eye of Insight>?
This bastard had a sharper eye than I'd thought.
On top of that, even while talking like that, he was staying on guard and inching closer.
I now openly drew my weapon and muttered in a low voice.
"Magic. Can you use it?"
"O-once or twice, maybe......."
If there was one thing those bastards had overlooked, it was that the mage bastard's mana pool wasn't large to begin with.
His spells were low-grade and cheap to cast, so he could use them again fairly quickly.
I gave the order without completely ruling out the possibility that they might be listening in.
"When I signal, use it. Like before...... you know what I mean, right?"
"Yes......!"
I delicately gauged the distance to the enemy, and the moment my judgment was made, I closed my eyes.
"Now!"
"Light......!"
Light burst beyond my eyelids.
"Agh!"
"Fuck! My eyes!"
The moment curses flew out ahead of me, I turned and sprinted.
When I checked behind me, the Spiritist's younger sibling, who had been a little ways off, had followed well too.
'We'll reach the forest like this!'
Once we got inside the forest, no matter how formidable those bastards were as pursuers, they'd have no choice but to lose us.
If nothing else went wrong, we'd be able to reach the forest in one straight shot.
Right—if nothing else went wrong.
TWANG—
A bowstring sound?
The moment a chill ran down my spine, I swept the area with sharpened senses, but—
"Aagh......!"
The scream burst out from a little ways off.
"Kria!"
The mage ran frantically to his younger sibling.
I saw the Spiritist with an arrow lodged in her shoulder.
"I figured it'd turn out like this."
Along with a sneering voice, a woman revealed herself from beyond the broken train wreckage.
Judging by her attire, she was an archer.
'A hidden one!'
Was there just one? Or were there more.......
"K-Kaindel!"
The mage looked to me for help.
In an instant, several possibilities flashed through my head, but—
'Shit.'
It was already too late to run anyway.
"I didn't expect you to set off a Light there."
"Fuck! My eyes sting so bad I could die. Don't expect to die easy."
I felt a presence behind me, and Dorman's group appeared, tears streaming down their faces.
'Are we surrounded?'
The left and right were blocked by train wreckage—
An archer was waiting in ambush ahead.
The distance to the forest was still hopelessly far.
'Fuck.'
To buy even a little time, I took out the <Tentacle Whip> from my chest.
The bastards, who looked ready to pounce at any moment, hesitated at the unfamiliar shape of the equipment I'd drawn.
"Oh....... Looks like unique equipment."
Dorman, who had <Eye of Insight>, licked his lips and revealed his greed.
"Unique equipment? That's expensive, right?"
"It varies, but if you sold it, you'd get at least tens of millions of seed."
"Oh."
And greed, as a rule, is contagious.
The guys around him snickered and spouted bullshit about how much each person would get if they split it.
'What do I do?'
The back of my head itched.
I was certain that the moment I moved rashly, an arrow would come flying.
But it was also a situation where I couldn't get help from the trash-tier siblings.
'......I have no choice but to gamble.'
That was the moment my thoughts reached the <Trait Stone> in my pouch.
"......!"
From among the broken fragments of the train, something shot out like an arrow.
[Lv.19 'Blade Weasel']
This thing?
"Aagh!"
The archer screamed.
The weasel had closed the distance in an instant and clawed the archer's face.
"It's a Magical Beast!"
"There was still one alive?!"
While the bastards instantly shifted into a defensive posture, I hid behind a nearby train car with the siblings.
"How's the wound?"
"I don't know....... Damn it, if only I had a potion left......!"
"K-Kazen......."
At that moment, his sister pulled a potion from inside her clothes.
"Oh, you didn't use it earlier. Good job!"
This surprised me too.
Even though the wound wasn't large, she was bleeding from the head, so I thought she'd poured it on right away.
"Treat it first."
"Yes......!"
What was the situation?
I could hear some kind of commotion mixed with cursing.......
Just as I carefully tried to peek around the wall—
"......!"
I met eyes with the weasel.
It was the Blade Weasel I'd seen earlier.
I drew my mantis sickle while on guard, but the weasel tilted its head and strode right up to me.
Whoosh!
The moment I reflexively swung the sickle, the weasel nimbly dodged.
Then I braced for this thing's attack.......
Squeak.......
The weasel looked at me with sad eyes.
"What the......."
What the hell was going on?
[There is a Magical Beast showing friendliness toward you.]
[You will be able to tame it once you complete your class change.]
[You have already satisfied the hidden conditions.]
⁝
[Will you change class to <Summoner>?]
The phrase 'hidden conditions' caught my eye.
As far as I knew, there was only one situation in FoS where wording like that appeared during a class change.
"......A hidden class."
[A certain beast god watches your choice.]