The name of the overseas FoS community I was active in was For'ever.
The apostrophe in the middle was supposedly the key, but as I recall, there was no grand reason behind it.
Since it was a game with a stagnant, insular player base, the community had a bit of the cliquishness that's usually taboo, but the atmosphere wasn't one that particularly shut out newcomers.
-CHRIS: Hey. Chek.
-CHRIS: Are you raising a Necromancer again this time?
When was it, again?
One day, a certain FoS user asked me.
Nickname: Chris.
On a board overrun with all kinds of bizarre IDs, he was, along with me, one of the few with a fairly ordinary nickname.
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: Probably.
-CHRIS: Hm.
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: Why?
-CHRIS: If my memory's right, I think this is the fifteenth time you've picked a summoner-type class.
-CHRIS: The other classes didn't do it for you?
Summoner-type classes.
Classes that could command an army alone, even without strictly summoning—the community called them that for convenience.
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: I told you.
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: Alchemists have a pain of a time sourcing materials, and keeping the spirit bastards happy is no different from dealing with companion NPCs.
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: The Necromancer's advantages, on the other hand, are clear.
-CHRIS: Still, isn't the penalty too big?
-CHRIS: You're bound to get caught by the kingdom eventually, aren't you? You can't hide your identity forever.
Well, he wasn't wrong.
But.
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: There are workarounds, like becoming a kingdom-certified Necromancer.
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: Not an easy process, of course, but that's a manageable risk. I'm not sure there's a better class than this to begin with.
After a slight pause, Chris said.
-CHRIS: Isn't it early to jump to conclusions?
-CHRIS: FoS has hundreds of classes or more. Maybe even more than that.
-CHRIS: Couldn't there be a better class among those not yet discovered?
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: There 'could' be?
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: That's unlike you, Chris. Since when did you become an optimist?
-CHRIS: Is that so?
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: Well, like you say, there might be a class like that somewhere.
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: But I've already enjoyed this game for 5 years.
-CHRIS: Right…… so even you've gotten tired, I see.
That wasn't quite it. I just doubted whether a game I'd held onto for over 5 years had any novel elements left.
-CHRIS: If that's how you feel.
-CHIRS: Then, Chek. I'll look forward to your next playthrough.
Somehow the stiff tone rubbed me the wrong way, so I hit the keyboard again.
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: Chris.
-CHRIS: ?
-HanRiverWaterCheckMaster: I'll be surpassing your record soon.
For'ever, being a community, had its especially famous users—the named ones—and the most famous of all was Chris.
There were several reasons.
First, Chris frequently posted guides and tips.
Guides that were easy to understand at a glance, yet professional, and even translated into multiple languages.
But that wasn't the decisive reason for his fame.
-Title: So who does this bastard Chris think he is, writing guides?
-Body: Has this bastard ever raised his completion rate even once? Isn't he just a bastard who doesn't even touch the game and only stirs up shit?
It was absurd sophistry.
Chris' guides were full of things you could never know without playing the game, and even if he didn't play the game seriously, that was no reason not to post guides.
↳You're the one stirring up shit.
↳I'm more curious who the bastard who wrote this is?
↳Bullshit no no Chris could play with his toes and still have a higher completion rate than you yeah yeah
The user who posted the shitpost was instantly pummeled by the other users and deleted the post before long.
Up to that point, it was an ordinary incident on a community, but what was surprising came next.
Chris responded to this absurd provocation.
-Title: Completion rate
In the body of the post, uploaded with that brief title, was embedded a single screenshot I still can't forget.
-Current Completion Rate: 92%
That post recorded the most views and upvotes on the FoS board.
It deserved to.
It was a figure far higher than mine, whose maximum record was 69%.
"……"
To confess at this point, the only user on the board with a higher completion rate than me was Chris.
A sense of rivalry? It'd be a lie to say I had none.
But I'd thought that likewise, this guy was at least conscious of me.
Because the one with the next-highest completion rate after Chris was me.
But that thought of mine was shattered to pieces after I saw Chris' message.
His answer to my declaration.
-CHRIS: Good luck.
"Ha."
Son of a bitch.
***
I woke from the cold.
It was warmer than outside and there was a blanket, but with no fire, it was a bit chilly after all.
When I checked the pocket watch, it was around nine in the morning.
'Slept about four hours.'
Not a long sleep, but I wasn't particularly tired either.
I'd worried my condition would crumble with such an uncomfortable bed, but it seems that was a needless concern.
This too must be thanks to my improved physical specs.
That's why, whatever my main Talent is, Intuition or otherwise, I want to raise the Body Talent first.
"Whew."
A sigh escaped me.
My body was fine, but my head was still spinning. Because in the end, I hadn't found the reason my body had been healed completely.
Well, I had reached a conclusion.
The conclusion that worrying about it any further was meaningless.
"Ugh……."
Kazen groaned and tossed in his sleep.
Befitting his delicate face, he seemed unable to get used to the bedding.
I watched him for a moment, then soon grew puzzled.
Because the sister was nowhere to be seen.
'Did she not come back all last night?'
Surely nothing happened to her.
Slightly worried, I went outside the train, and the weasel, which had been sitting on the roof, hopped over.
Kyu.
This thing's presence was exactly why we'd been able to sleep soundly overnight without a sentry.
When I gently scratched its head with my index finger in thanks, it let out a gyak and got cross.
It seemed to dislike being treated like a pet, so I just patted its shoulder.
"Good work. Rest now."
Only then satisfied, the weasel deftly climbed onto my shoulder and, in that position, closed its eyes.
Purrrr…….
Do you have to sleep there, of all places?
The thought crossed my mind, but it was warm, so I decided to just leave it.
Wearing the weasel like a scarf, I surveyed the surroundings, and surprisingly, I found Kria right away.
"……"
Actually, there'd been no need to search.
She was in the same place as yesterday.
Where the archer's corpse had been.
The puzzling thing was that the archer's corpse had disappeared in the meantime.
"……Oh."
Sensing my presence, Kria flinched and looked at me.
Her face was still hard to see because of her shaggy hair, but she seemed fairly startled.
"Didn't you sleep?"
"……I slept."
After a short pause, her voice continued.
"……I woke up early."
"I see."
The conversation broke off.
Unlike Kazen, who was timid but talkative, Kria was extremely taciturn.
I studied her appearance for a moment, then opened my mouth.
"Did you bury the corpse?"
Nod.
I'd wondered, since there was dirt on her hands.
"It must have been hard alone……."
"……Not really."
Right. Well, if that's the case.
I got the feeling she was reluctant to converse at all, so I closed my mouth too.
Just then, along with a purring sound beside me, I felt dampness on my shoulder.
"……"
When I looked to see what it was, the weasel bastard was sprawled out asleep, drooling.
……You really are something else.
I wanted to fling it off then and there, but it had stayed up all night for us, so I left it.
"……wasn't hard."
"……?"
What does she mean?
After a moment's confusion, I thought carefully, and it seemed "Not really—it wasn't hard" had been one sentence.
Wondering if she wasn't finished, I waited quietly, and after ten-odd seconds her voice continued.
"Corpses don't rush you."
"……I see."
It sounded like a chilling thing to say, but…… going through this series of events must have wrecked my brain too, because all I felt was a 'that's true, I suppose.'
Anyway, is she just a slow talker by nature?
Waiting quietly just in case, I was able to obtain a few more pieces of information, as expected.
"……I don't think it was a person who killed the archer."
⁝
"……A Magic Beast, probably a bird of prey?"
⁝
"……The corpse had marks not only from claws, but from being pecked and eaten by a beak."
What flashed through my mind at Kria's words was the image of the owl locked in the birdcage.
'The Clown Owl.'
Low level, but a thing that had strangely nagged at me.
At some point it was gone, and I'd assumed it had died caught up in the chaos of the train overturning…….
'If that wasn't the case.'
Just in case, I parted from Kria and headed to where the train wreckage lay…… it took some time, but I was able to find the birdcage.
"……"
As expected, the birdcage was empty.
Right, that much I'd fully expected. If there was something I hadn't expected, it was that the birdcage was still locked.
Tap.
I nudged the birdcage with the tip of my foot.
A birdcage that, even through all that chaos, was astonishingly intact, without a bend or a break anywhere.
'……This bastard.'
How on earth did it get out?
***
Once day had broken, we began exploring the train in earnest.
First, Cars 1 and 2.
Not so much as a person's shadow could be found here; it seemed they'd already entered the forest, as expected.
The peculiar thing was that these two cars, compared to the other train cars, were in astonishingly good condition.
As if they alone had escaped the disaster of the train overturning.
'Fucking pricks.'
Honestly, it wasn't strange.
The bastards riding in Cars 1 and 2 are strong players of companion assessed grade B or above. Occasionally small fry like Dorman's party are mixed in, but on average, that's how it is.
With that much skill, they wouldn't have been swept up in a disaster like the train overturning, and could probably even have perfectly protected the very cars they rode in.
What angered me was that bastards that strong had left the octopus bastard alone rather than beating it down, simply because it was a hassle.
'I understand the judgment, though.'
<Shadows> are enemies that are a hassle to deal with, regardless of strength.
Meaning the higher-grade the Delver, the stronger the tendency to avoid the confrontation itself.
'The bastards in the forward cars had probably finished farming to some extent already.'
In other words, the rewards for eliminating the Shadow wouldn't have been all that attractive either.
In any case—
With no casualties, there was no corpse looting to do, but it wasn't as if there was nothing to gain.
'……Thankfully, this part is true to the lore.'
Car 1.
In a storage compartment in the frontmost car of the train, I found the object I'd been searching for all along.
"Th-that, could that be an <Exploration Crystal>?"
When I brought the haul back and shared it with the siblings, Kazen showed off his knowledge in surprise.
Just like a mage.
"……Exploration Crystal?"
Kria, on the other hand, tilted her head and looked at the object in my hand…… a mysterious crystal.
It was slightly larger than my palm, and faint light crisscrossed inside it.
Whenever the crystal was tilted or shaken, this cluster of light rippled like a night sea holding starlight—
Lowest-Grade Exploration Crystal
A tool that can record the exploration rate of the <Forest of Eternity>.
Current Exploration Rate: 0.0%
Time Remaining: 29 days 21 hours
……Honestly, this was my first time actually seeing one too, so it was fascinating.
"It's an artifact that records the forest's exploration rate. If you <Register> rare discoveries found in the <Forest of Eternity> with that crystal, you can fill up the exploration rate!"
"What happens when you fill it?"
"You can exchange it for money, and depending on your results, you can receive rewards from the royal palace! Plus, you can use it to return to the Royal Capital!"
"……Really?"
Kria looked at the crystal with surprised eyes.
'Strictly speaking, it's the Guild, not the royal palace.'
Other than that, it was mostly correct.
Of course, it wasn't without problems.
As Kazen said, the <Exploration Crystal> has return magic built in, but there's a prerequisite condition to using it.
Filling up the crystal's exploration rate.
'An insane setting.'
Of course, there's a plausible reason.
Finding, as fast as possible, the <Fruit of Immortality> said to be somewhere in the <Forest of Eternity>.
That is the kingdom's purpose.
To be precise…….
'The king's long-cherished wish.'
One of the developers must have been deeply moved reading the tale of Qin Shi Huang.
Anyway, thanks to the king's mad policy regarding immortality, the treatment of Delvers in the kingdom isn't bad.
Of course, it's not entirely without risk.
'Once a Delver, a Delver for life.'
For Delvers, there's no such thing as resignation. Resignation to death, perhaps.
As long as your two legs can move—no, even once they can no longer move—you have no choice but to devote yourself to exploration.
"I'm entering the forest today."
I knew it, but I declared it anyway.
Feeling the siblings' gazes gather on me, I continued.
"With the train smashed to pieces, the physical means of returning to the Royal Capital are gone. The only remaining method is to fill the exploration rate and then activate the <Return Magic> built into the crystal."
"B-but if we keep waiting here, won't the next train come eventually?"
It'd come, sure.
By the lore, the kingdom ceaselessly sends new Delvers into the forest.
But.
"That cycle is once a month. Are you confident you can survive here for a month without entering the forest?"
"That's……."
No need to hear the answer.
Impossible.
Because without entering the forest, you can't even secure basic drinking water.
Even if you somehow scraped by, the kingdom would hardly treat kindly a Delver who'd given up on exploration.
In the end, my conclusion was that there's no option but entering…… but I couldn't say what these two were thinking.
Kazen opened his mouth.
"……I've heard that those who explore the forest generally form parties of at least five, or comfortably six or seven. We, on the other hand, are only three. Isn't the risk too great?"
So that's what he was worried about.
Thinking about it, it's a natural question to have.
Defective as they looked, before joining me these two had been in a party that at least kept up the basic appearances.
Even so—
"Yes."
I said it flatly.
Of course, the number three is bleak.
For exploring an unknown place like the <Forest of Eternity>, it may be a hopelessly small headcount.
But I have knowledge.
I have experience.
Even if that was nothing more than an indirect experience of a virtual world molded from polygons and textures…….
I'd saved my life with that experience.
"Of course, it'll depend on how we handle things. But I move in the direction I judge gives the highest odds of survival. Always."
At that moment, unexpectedly, Kria made her decision first.
"I'll go."
"Kria?"
"Let's go, Kazen. You know, don't you? In the end, we have no choice but to go to the forest."
"……"
At Kria's words, Kazen's pupils quaked violently.
Watching that, I grew curious too.
'Why did these two come to the forest?'
Those who seek the forest each have their own reasons.
Some bastards are simply after money, and some seek honor.
There'd be some half-forcibly conscripted by the kingdom, and, rarely, eccentrics who want to find rare discoveries with their own hands.
But these two?
They don't seem to fit any of those cases. A baseless guess, though.
"Understood."
Having made his decision, Kazen looked at me with resolute eyes.
"Mr. Kaindel. Let's go to the forest together."
"Good. But let's make one thing clear."
I looked at Kazen and said.
"This is a contract. It's not about becoming companions who share joys and sorrows. We can't be that, having only just met. And naturally, there's even less of any loyalty that would have us die for each other. When you're in danger, look after your own life first. I mean act rationally in any situation."
It sounds cold at a glance, but in fact most Delvers who form parties have this kind of relationship.
If anything, the more inseparable a party is, the less long it survives in this forest.
I held out my hand as if testing him.
"Is that all right with you?"
"……Yes. Of course."
The moment Kazen clasped the hand I'd offered.
['Kazen' has been recruited as a companion.]
['Kria' has been recruited as a companion.]
[You may now view the status windows of 'Kazen' and 'Kria'.]
At last, the status windows were unlocked.
[Trust with the current target is low, so the information you can view is limited.]
I know.
Skipping past the familiar message, I immediately checked the two's status windows.