The <Achievement Shop> is no cure-all.
It merely serves to ease the difficulty somewhat in the early section, where things feel downright unreasonable.
'Even that much is a blessing.'
How many game-over crises have I gone through at the mere tutorial stage?
I've played this game for thousands of runs, but this is the first time the early game has been this brutal.
Welcome to the <Achievement Shop>.
The shop tier currently available to the player is <Bronze>. Some items are locked according to tier. Please note that purchased goods cannot be refunded.
When I opened the Achievement Shop, familiar phrases appeared.
Of course, I'd never spent a single Achievement Point, but the shop was something I checked regularly.
Because the moment to use the points would surely come someday, and I had to work out the most efficient spending pattern to prepare for it.
'The problem is my class.'
I'd worked out more builds than I could count, but none of them concerned <Tamer>.
Naturally, since I hadn't even known this class existed.
Honestly, I could work one out now if I wanted.
'……No time to rack my brain, though.'
There are times when a fast decision matters more than an accurate one.
I quickly scanned the shop and quickly grabbed the item I'd thought of in advance. The item with the best all-around utility, regardless of class.
Forerunner's Elixir
Price: 100,000 P
……Filthy expensive.
'Does it think 100,000 points is pocket change?'
Of course, it's an item that earns its price.
What is this elixir?
To put it simply: 'learning skills early.'
For instance, even if your level is only 20 when you drink the elixir, you acquire in advance a skill you'd normally only learn at 50, 60, or higher.
'The important part is that it's random.'
Just like FoS, even this part is random.
That makes it hard to call it a pure gain even if you luck into a top-tier skill.
Usually, those endgame skills have costs a low-level character can't handle, or require prerequisite skills or special equipment.
'Like the knight class group's <Shield Attack> or the mage class group's <Hellfire>.'
If I acquired a skill like that, learning it or not would make no difference for now.
'Three purchase opportunities in the Bronze shop.'
Using this opportunity before I've even properly entered the forest isn't wise.
Of course, if a moronic skill comes up there's nothing to be done…….
Still, since the <Raw Stone of Talent> was a bust, maybe something good will come up this time?
You know, there's that saying about sacrifices.
'Goddamn.'
A hollow laugh escaped me.
To think that I, of all people, would come to rely on superstition like that.
If the community users knew, they'd laugh in my face.
Casting aside the stray thoughts, I downed the elixir.
[You have consumed <Forerunner's Elixir>.]
[You randomly acquire one higher-tier skill belonging to the player's class.]
What I'm aiming for is a skill between levels 40 and 60. A skill of exactly that tier could be used fully even with my current stats, and there'd be no annoying restrictions.
[You acquire the skill, <Wild Force>.]
What the hell kind of name is that?
Feeling a sense of foreboding, I reached a finger toward the skill.
Plip.
A cold drop of water touched the bridge of my nose.
I looked at the sky.
I'd thought it was dew dripping from a leaf, but apparently not. The sky visible beyond the branches was gloomier than I'd thought.
SHAAAAAAA—
It didn't take long for the scattered droplets to become a downpour.
'Ha.'
I'd already lost a lot of blood, and now it's raining on top of that, of all things. The leeway for stalling is vanishing by the minute.
Taking my eyes off the sky, I read the description of the newly acquired skill.
And then—
"……"
I closed the shop window.
***
Dorman thought.
So I ended up coming into this goddamned forest after all.
'No matter how many times I come, it's a fucking awful place.'
Trees far taller than the buildings of the Royal Capital, an inexplicable eeriness, a sound like a ghost's wail whenever the wind brushed the leaves…….
Dorman found everything about this forest unpleasant.
SHAAAAAAA.
To make matters worse, a downpour was pouring now, turning even the ground to muck.
'Did he flee deep into the forest?'
A highly plausible guess, but not one he felt certain of.
Dorman recalled the face of the fleeing man.
His physical abilities had clearly been dismal, yet with momentary wit and petty tricks, he'd killed most of Dorman's companions.
A troublesome bastard. No…….
'A frightening bastard.'
Dorman admitted that he had felt a faint fear of the man.
That was how frightening Kaindel's tenacity and venom appeared to be, and above all, he seemed the type who never forgot a grudge.
If he let that bastard slip away today, before long he'd become a far more frightening enemy and come for his life.
In other words, this was no longer the time to obsess over some Unique item.
'Reina's arrow was still lodged in his abdomen. With the rain pouring too, he can't have fled far in that state.'
Perhaps he'd already died of blood loss, or been eaten by the beasts of the forest.
Any of those would do.
So long as he could confirm even a single piece of that bastard's corpse.
Dorman pushed on through the forest turned mud without stopping.
The rainwater hindered his vision, but he didn't slacken his tension or vigilance in the slightest.
THUNK.
So let it be stated with certainty.
Dorman was not careless.
That he only realized the enemy's presence after his abdomen was run through was by no means a result born of carelessness.
Dorman watched the falling rain form the silhouette of a person as he spat out blood.
"Stealth……?"
How does this bastard have a skill only a rogue should have?
No—if he'd had a skill like this to begin with, why hadn't he used it sooner?
'This is no time to think about that……!'
Dorman immediately tightened his abdominal muscles and swung his sword, but the enemy—Kaindel—dodged the attack with movements he had never shown before.
"Kuh……!"
The shape of the sword that had pierced his belly was familiar.
Nelson's sword.
Meticulous bastard. When did he pick that up?
'Did it miss the vitals……?'
That wasn't luck.
This too was the result of his opponent precisely thrusting the sword into a gap in his armor.
Perhaps he judged it time to press the attack. The bastard charged again, and this time, Dorman's response wasn't late either.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Exchanging a brief flurry of blows in the rain, Dorman felt a strange sense of wrongness and déjà vu at once. His opponent's movements had changed markedly……
And it wasn't just that. Something was oddly familiar.
'……That weasel bastard from earlier?'
His movements were nearly identical to that weasel that had been such a nuisance.
What on earth is this bastard's class?
Even as the engagement continued, the chills didn't stop. And that wasn't merely because the two of them were inflicting countless wounds on each other.
……Dorman had felt this sensation a few times in his life.
'When chased by a swarm of killer hornets, when caught by a man-eating tree, when he'd mistakenly set foot in a swamp crawling with undead…….'
Of course, this man wasn't that strong.
Throb.
His abdomen stabbed with pain. The blood was flowing worse than he'd thought, and the pouring rain was rapidly stealing his body heat.
'I have to settle this fast.'
He still had a card he hadn't used. He'd thought it a waste to use on a bastard like this, but faced with the danger of death, even that thought vanished.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Fortunately, his opponent wasn't entirely without openings. He handled a strange weapon called a scythe, but his proficiency didn't seem very high.
'Still not used to the scythe's reach?'
Dorman deliberately acted as if he couldn't close that distance. So that the bastard would mistake the current distance for absolute safety.
The moment of decision came quickly.
WHOOSH!
The opening that appears right after swinging a scythe. With the reach a sword normally has, it would be impossible to slip into that gap, but now was different.
Dorman aimed the sword blade at his opponent from range.
"Die!"
With a limp sound—fwip—the sword was fired. Literally launched, blade and all.
Dorman smiled with satisfaction, but his eyes flew wide at what happened next.
"What!"
Kaindel dodged the launched blade. Not a dodge by momentary reaction or dynamic vision. A natural motion, as if he'd foreseen it.
After dodging, Kaindel closed to within arm's reach in an instant and swung the scythe.
"……!"
In that instant, venom dwelled in Dorman's eyes. As he rotated his left wrist counterclockwise once, a hidden dagger sprang out, and he immediately thrust it toward Kaindel's throat.
By reach, the scythe would land first, but it didn't matter.
Even if he died, he had no intention of dying alone.
"—!"
In that split second, Dorman read consternation in his opponent's eyes. Right—so you didn't predict this much.
The moment he thought that to himself, his body's balance collapsed abruptly.
'What……?'
He realized the reason at once. His foot had slipped on the sodden mud.
Shlick.
Along with a chilling sensation, the strength drained from his entire body, and the dagger that had targeted the throat lodged in the shoulder.
"Gurk……."
Instinctively, he realized his throat had been cut. He reflexively pressed down on the wound, but the blood didn't stop, gushing out in spurts.
"Grrrgh……!"
Bloody phlegm bubbled up. Staggering back, Dorman happened to look into his opponent's eyes.
'This…… is a stove-tender?'
Status no longer mattered. This bastard was one who could kill because he didn't want to die, one who could commit anything to live. Just like Dorman himself.
'Fuck…….'
The moment belated regret surged, Dorman let out a hollow laugh and thought. If I'd known he was this kind of bastard, I never should have touched him.
'Not worth it.'
That was his last thought.
***
……My head is spinning.
……My body hurts.
What's the state of my wounds? If I'd known this would happen, I'd have saved the potion. No, then would my flank have hurt too much to flee properly? With my luck, the arrow might have lodged in the injured flank…….
"……Ah."
Anyway, I won.
Wild Force Lv.1
Type: Buff
Cast Time: Instant Area of Effect: Self
Duration: 60 seconds Cooldown: 600 seconds
Borrows a portion of a tamed Magic Beast's stats and allows you to use its skills. The number of stats and skills borrowed scales with the trust of the tamed Magic Beast and the skill level.
The newly learned skill.
I'd wondered whether I couldn't use it with the weasel incapacitated, but that wasn't the case.
With this skill, I'd gained additional stats, and I'd also become able to use the Blade Weasel's skill, <Stealth>.
"……"
After letting out a breath, I looked at the corpse before me.
Dorman Bedro.
Class: swordsman, Rank-4 Delver.
Level between 30 and 35.
As I looked at the body gone cold, the thought I'd had when I first saw him flashed through my mind.
'Grade D.'
The talent grade I'd personally assigned.
Grade A is talent that must be secured without fail—
Grade B is excellent talent with high priority.
Grade C is replaceable, so-so talent.
And lastly, Grade D…….
'A being not worth the slightest consideration as a companion.'
Even with my wounds stinging, a laugh escaped me. If it hadn't rained—if Dorman hadn't slipped in the mud it had turned to…….
This man's final blow would have pierced my throat instead of my shoulder, and I might have died too.
'Moronic bastard.'
I'd been arrogant enough to think I'd read all my opponent's moves.
Because I'd known the function of Dorman's weapon, the <Eagle Sword>.
⁝
Can launch the blade for a ranged attack.
⁝
A function usable only once.
I'd hastily concluded that Dorman would stake everything on that technique, that it would be his final struggle.
But it wasn't.
A human driven to the edge of a cliff can do anything.
Because they become, quite literally, 'desperate.'
I, of all people—I, who had come to know that fact better than anyone—had let my guard down.
"Haha……."
I laughed at how pathetic I was.
Laughing, I barely managed to stand. My vision was blurry and I couldn't put proper strength into my body, but I couldn't keep staying here. At the very least, I had to get out of the forest and find a place to shelter from the rain.
SHAAAA.
Walking while battered by the pouring rain, I finally saw the slope leading out of the forest.
SPLAT!
Partway up, the strength went out of my legs and I slipped.
I had no strength at all to stand again.
Covered in mud, I crawled up the slope. And the moment I finally crested the hill.
"……?"
I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
Somehow, the surrounding scenery looked familiar.
'This place is.'
The wreckage of the train sprawled across the clearing.
Black rain drizzling down.
And when I turned to look behind me, the forest's entrance, jaws gaping wide like a monster's.
"Ah."
This place—
It's the 'game's title screen.'
SHAAAAAAAAA—
If this world really were a game, at this moment an eerie BGM would play, and red text would appear.
[FOREST OF SHADOW]
Beneath it, phrases like these would be lined up.
[New Game]
[Save]
[Options]
And lastly, [Exit Game].
"……"
I stretched out a finger and pressed the nonexistent exit button with my index finger.
I did that pointless nonsense a few times.
SHAAAAAAAAA—
The rain didn't stop.
There was no change in the scenery, either.
Everything remained as it was. My consciousness didn't return to reality, and the pain from my wounds remained too.
"Kh……."
Of course it does.
Hadn't the verification already ended? Having decided to treat this place as reality, look at me now—the moment a corner to run to appears.
Maybe I'd lost too much blood. It wasn't like me.
SPLAT.
In the end, I collapsed.
Somehow, the mud, which should have been cold, felt warm. My broken senses rang an alarm of danger, but my body no longer moved.
And as even my consciousness gradually blurred…….
Hoo—
I felt as though I'd heard the cry of an owl from somewhere.