In the game, combat begins immediately after the train overturns. Generally speaking, that's <FoS>'s first battle.
Of course, the enemy you fight then isn't a Shadow.
Shadows were never an enemy you ran into all that frequently to begin with.
So then who is this game's main enemy?
At this point, we need to recall the game's name.
<Forest of Shadows>
Forest.
In other words, the forest is this game's main stage, and the strange creatures of every kind living in that forest are the Delvers' main enemy.
……Naturally, Magic Beasts are among them.
***
THUD, THUUUD…….
The Shadow, 'Black Octopus That Binds and Crushes,' was gradually closing in.
Its current position was Car 7…… no, around Car 8?
I could roughly guess why its pursuit had stopped.
'It's probably stuffing itself on the corpses.'
Five cars between it and Car 13. Given its bulk, clearing out every corpse in between wouldn't take long.
'Fuck.'
How many curses does that make today?
Somehow it feels like I'm spending a year's worth of swearing in a single day.
"Th-thank you."
Just then, the robed man spoke to me.
Dark purple hair and a fine, expensive-looking robe. Clean-cut features that didn't match his timid, nervous-looking expression. He'd clearly been well fed growing up, too—he was tall as a beanpole.
Judging by his expression and bearing, though, he didn't seem to be a noble.
"If you hadn't saved us, I'd be, by now……"
"Hard to believe."
"Pardon?"
"Alec, was it? How did someone that careless end up leading the party?"
The broadcast, that voice…… the more I thought about it, the more suspicious points piled up.
Any Delver in his right mind would have been suspicious the moment a voice came from Car 4—that was my point.
The man swallowed dryly and said.
"I-it's not entirely incomprehensible. From Car 4 forward, the passengers were first-rate Delvers……. Even I find it hard to believe that every one of them was wiped out."
"Probably not all of them."
"Pardon?"
"Most likely only Car 4 was hit. The ones in the cars ahead of it are probably fine."
"Then that monster in Car 4 was……?"
"Who knows. My guess is the Delvers ahead of Car 3 had it temporarily confined. Right up until some halfwit smashed the lock."
The lock had been made of silver.
That alone meant it had the effect of confining the Shadow trapped inside.
He couldn't have known the causal chain, but the mage's expression changed as if he'd grasped the gist.
"Ah……! Then if we wait here quietly, the Delvers from the forward cars will come to rescue us!"
"……Who knows."
As if.
If they'd been the type with such a devoted rescuer's spirit, they'd have exterminated that Shadow bastard long ago.
The mere fact that they'd sealed it rather than kill it meant they didn't take unnecessary risks.
'That's just how Delver bastards operate.'
……So, what now?
We'd fled all the way back to Car 13, so it was fair to say our survival rate had now dropped below ten percent.
THUUUD, THUUUD……!
Rotten bastard. It won't even give me time to think.
The sound was closer than before.
While I was mulling over this and that with a grim face, the mage bastard, who still hadn't quite grasped the situation, spoke to me.
"I'm Kazen. Your name…… it was Mr. Kaindel, right?"
Exchanging names at a moment like this?
Well, maybe now is the only time we've got.
"Yes."
"And that's Kria."
"Kazen and Kria?"
Come to think of it, their hair was the same color.
The mage gave a wry smile and said.
"My younger sister. And those people just now were……"
"No time, so let's cut to the chase. You two—your classes?"
"Ah. I'm a mage."
When I sent my gaze her way, the sister spoke in a sluggish tone.
"I'm a spirit summoner……."
You can feel sleepy at a time like this?
The drowsiness in her voice left me dumbfounded.
Her hair was so long I could barely even see her face.
Anyway.
'A mage and a spirit summoner?'
I'd taken them for defective goods, but both of those classes are the nobility of professions.
Feeling a sliver of hope rise, I asked.
"What magic can you use?"
"Light."
"And?"
The mage blinked both eyes.
What's with that look? It's making me nervous.
"That's all……?"
"……"
Are you kidding me—the words rose all the way to my throat.
"You can only use one spell?"
"I-I'm sorry……!"
"And you?"
The sister blinked her eyes slowly, then mumbled while avoiding my gaze.
"I made a contract with Sylphie……."
"A lower-grade spirit of wind, then. What else?"
"……"
"……"
The self-proclaimed spirit summoner stayed silent and avoided my eyes.
'Fuck…….'
A mage who can only cast Light, and a spirit summoner contracted with a single lower-grade spirit?
How does that make them a mage and a spirit summoner?
They're a lightbulb and a handheld fan.
'So they really are defective after all.'
Say what you will about their prickly personalities, the three who'd just died had at least looked competent.
"Mr. Kaindel. What do we do now……?"
Unlike the ones who had just died, the mage bastard asked my opinion openly.
That wasn't because he was the possessor of some upright value system that didn't care whether I was a stoker or a slave.
'He's the type who hates taking responsibility.'
The kind who hates shouldering responsibility for a choice even more in a crisis like this.
It gave me a headache, but somehow, it was also familiar.
Right. This is it. This is what FoS is like.
Most early-game companions were like this—a screw or two loose.
'The problem is that it's not one or two, but several dozen.'
……First things first, let's sort out the situation.
As I said, an upper-grade Shadow is bearing down on the forward cars with every passing second.
Which means joining the first-rate Delvers these two mentioned is impossible.
'Jumping off the train?'
I looked out the window.
The scenery whipping past seemed to be moving faster than before.
It might have been my imagination, but it felt like we'd long since passed 60 kilometers per hour.
'Is the train running out of control because the conductor died?'
Either way, it seemed to be doing at least 80 kilometers per hour, or more…….
Jumping from a train moving at this speed would be no different from hurling myself off a ten-story building.
Even now, with my physical abilities considerably improved, the odds of dying were higher.
Then the remaining option was…….
'Hide in the compartment in Car 13 and wait.'
The one with Derek's corpse—no, the corpse isn't there anymore, is it?
Anyway, going back to the room where I'd first come to my senses.
'That's how I survived in the game.'
As a veteran player, I'd run the <Instant-Death Route> plenty of times myself.
Naturally, I'd gotten game overs too.
But among all those runs, I'd never once died caught up in the train's overturning.
'So…….'
Couldn't I trust that flow this time?
The train could overturn before that Shadow bastard arrives, and I could save my neck amid the chaos.
Throb—
At that moment, the wound in my flank stabbed with pain. The spot Derek had clawed.
"Ha……."
A laugh escaped me.
It happened that way in the game, so it'll happen that way now too?
As if.
As I said before, the flower garden in my skull had long since withered away.
"Mr. Kaindel?"
As I furrowed my brow, then laughed, throwing a full fit all by myself, the mage bastard's expression turned grave too.
Even in that state, the way he waited for my answer was laughable.
"Let's go further back."
"Further back? Wasn't Car 13 the last car of the train?"
"The last passenger car, yes. Behind this, it's effectively all cargo cars."
"Cargo cars……? Ah. Where the food and supplies are stored. There might be tools there that could help us……!"
The mage bastard spoke with a hopeful face, but I shook my head.
"There aren't. At most, it'll be packed with food, old farming tools, and coal."
"Uh, then why go all the way there……?"
"……Just follow me for now."
The thudding sounds had grown far louder.
About two cars left now? The bigger the bulk, the faster it devours corpses.
'About five minutes per car, so around ten minutes left.'
We passed through Car 14, the food storage, and Car 15, the supply and coal storage, and arrived at Car 16.
The very last car of this express circuit train.
"Urgh……!"
The moment we reached the last car, the mage clutched his nose.
"What on earth is that smell?"
"Who knows. Probably beast piss and dung."
I'd smelled something similar at a zoo.
"B-beasts?"
"To be precise—"
I said as I opened the door.
"Magic Beasts, that is."
Grrrrrr……!
Dozens of pairs of eyes, mixing hostility and hunger, stabbed into my face.
An intimidation different in nature from the Shadows'. A more primal fear, closer to raw.
It struck me anew that what I was about to attempt was an absurd gamble, but…….
'Goddamn it.'
No matter how I looked at it, this was the best option.
"Urp……!"
That was the moment.
The mage bastard finally clapped a hand over his mouth and ran to a corner. Then came an unpleasant spattering sound.
'Is this bastard actually throwing up?'
A fit this bad didn't even warrant a laugh anymore.
Wondering about the sister, I checked, and fortunately she wasn't showing behavior as defective as her brother's.
In any case, I left the two siblings be and looked around.
[Lv.18 'Scythe Mantis']
[Lv.17 'Black-Scale Crocodile']
[Lv.13 'Three-Eyed Crow']
I could see the names and levels of the Magic Beasts caged here.
Occasionally, the higher ones exceeded level 20, but naturally, that wasn't enough.
'It has to be somewhere in here, doesn't it?'
The Magic Beasts locked in these cages are, originally, the ones you fight only after the train overturns.
'The cages break from the impact of the train flipping, and that's how they get out.'
By then, the player has at least secured a weapon.
In other words, these are the first opponents the player fights when running the Instant-Death Route normally.
'And the player's level at the start point is 10, so…….'
It's no surprise that their levels fall between 10 and 20.
'If the difficulty is Hard or below, that is.'
But if I was the one who had set this run's difficulty—
Then it was certainly not <Normal>, nor <Hard>, and the odds of it being <Easy> were even lower.
'Hell difficulty.'
If it was that difficulty—the hardest, the most unreasonable, the most shitty of them all—
Then there is an individual that absolutely has to be here.
Suppressing my anxiety, I combed through the Magic Beasts one by one…….
"……!"
And finally, I found it.
[Lv.33 'Silver-Mane Wolf']
A level that stuck out alone, like a nail jutting up from a board.
Unlike the other snarling Magic Beasts, it sat quietly inside its cage.
"Whew……."
For now, the first step of the plan had gone off successfully.