Sworn Enemies

I yawned, hand on the throttle. I had set course for Mitterberg, hoping to reach it by morning. So many questions were floating through my head.

What was that girl? What are these gems? Will the town people be nice?

Dark, tall silhouettes of withering trees loomed to my left. The forest had stopped the dunes from advancing at the cost of its own life. The gradient in slope from where the dunes ended sent my train rolling faster and faster downhill, and soon I was racing down a hard plain, wind from the open cab windows blowing my hair back.

I laughed at the wind; this sensation was amazing!

I could see lights in the distance, somewhere to my right, where the dunes started again. The lights were far away, but it was no doubt a caravan heading for the village.

“Yes! Civilisation here I come-”

I noticed a rumbling that wasn't that of my train. The throttle lever shook under my hand, soon imitated by the indicator dials and pressure valves.

When I slowed down my train, the rumbling intensified. But without the rhythmic sound of the wheels going over the rails, it was easy to make out its source.

Under the moonlight, three of the giant purple centipedes chased after me. Without sand slowing down their thousands of legs, they were as fast as my train in full throttle.

I screamed.

If I kept going, they'd follow me to the village, and I couldn't risk people getting attacked by those giant things. If I went into the forest, I'd be on foot; no way my train would fit in there!

To my right was more of the nothingness, meaning that I would be outrunning them forever.

I have to go back!

I started turning the train around in as tight a loop as I thought it could manage. Two of the centipedes jumped over the wagon, stopping me in my tracks.

They couldn't get inside the locomotive, but that didn't stop them from ramming into it.

I tried to take deep breaths as I rummaged through the cab cupboard.

The locomotive shook as one of the centipedes ran straight into it, before moving its entire body over it. One of its tiny legs got stuck in my open window and snapped, falling inside. The arthropod ignored it and continued its crawl.

“There it is!” I found a small metal bar with one of its ends twisted into a knot.

I pushed the locking key into the throttle and ran back, towards where the cars linked.

The engine stayed silent, but I could feel the vibrations from the wheels spinning, ready to dash forward the second they were able.

A loud crash came from the cart before I could reach it. I grabbed the handle of the door that opened onto the cart, but suddenly an impact made the locomotive tilt.

For the longest millisecond of my life, I could feel the locomotive suspended mid-movement, one set of wheels already off the rails, and the other screeching under the unusual pressure.

Then, the locomotive toppled over.

< Combat gauntlet. >

I braced myself, and my hand and shoulder took the brunt of the fall. My sleeping bag and everything that wasn’t bolted down landed next to me. I winced, tears of pain and fear rushing to my eyes. But I had to move!

The locomotive was only three meters wide, meaning that I only had to jump a few centimetres to reach the door handle. I struggled to get it open against gravity, and once I finally managed to squeeze my hand under it, I was greeted with dozens of centipede legs. I couldn’t see them clearly, especially when the windows on the other side of the locomotive kept getting blocked, but I could feel them scratch against the non-gloved part of my arm. They felt like whiskers of a hair brush, except much, much longer and angular. But having no articulations, they couldn’t do much beyond cuts and scratches, so I reached further, until my fingers found the wagon’s coupling lock.

I yanked it and fell back into the locomotive room.

I could feel the wheels rumble and turn under me, digging into sand and dirt.

Will I have to unsummon and summon the train again to straighten it?

<MP: 980/1200>

I only needed 20 more MP for that! But …

The centipede decided for me. While one of them was crushing - or eating, as it was impossible to tell based on the noises alone - the cart, the other two slithered around the locomotive.

This time, I didn’t have time to brace myself, as the locomotive was turned the correct side up with a forceful thump. I rolled into the metal set of drawers, hurting my other shoulder. At least the lock on the drawer had stopped the potions or provisions from spilling out.

Rails appeared under the locomotive again, and it set course full-speed back into the dunes.

Two centipedes chased it, but they were unable to slam-attack and maintain the speed, and once I entered the dune field again, I lost them altogether.

I clenched my chest as I sat under the steering lever, my knees pressed under my chin.

I thought I was a goner!

It took me a few moments to regain my composure, drink a sip of water, and return to my conductor post.

<Name: Chiyo Hara>

<Level: 3>

<MP: 1017/1200>

<EXP:17/300>

<Race: Human, Otherworlder.>

<Class: Summoner.>

<Speciality: Train.>

<Bonded items: Train, Conductor suit.>

<Companions: None>

The problem wasn’t that I was getting stalked by giant arthropods; it was that I was too weak to deal with them.

“There must be a list of-”

The text appeared before my eyes before I could finish voicing that thought.

< Bonded item: Conductor suit.>

< Variants: Sturdy conductor suit, thermoregulated conductor suit, defensive conductor suit.>

< Upgrades: comfort and practicality (all), offence (gloves), thermal resistance (all), paralytic venom resistance (shirt and jacket). >

Just as I’d hoped, all the details of the upgrades I’d been collecting over the past days were recorded in this strange system.

I wonder if Medina had one too, or if it’s just an extra from that god, like the water bottle…

I clenched and unclenched my hand, observing how the metal of the gauntlet shifted around the joints as I did so. The motion and faint creaking noise that accompanied it were soothing, and soon my heart rate returned to normal.

Let’s think this over.

The mites I’d been hunting gave me 20 EXP each, but they were hard to spot, and there were never more than ten or so at a single spot. The scorpion venom had given me resistance, but that had been a more dangerous opponent.

I thought about it some more.

“Tutorial!” I exclaimed, extending my hand forward.

Nothing happened.

“Details!” I tried again. “Stats?”

< Unspent talent points: 2.>

< Strength: 5/10.>

< Dexterity: 3/10.>

< Perception: 5/10.>

< Memory: 4/10.>

< Magical affinity: 12/10.>

< Physical fortitude: 5/10.>

< Mental fortitude: 6/10.>

The list of all my stats was quite long, and I spent a long time studying it and trying to link each one of them to things I knew about myself. About half an hour into it, I realised that this approach of mine to most stressful or weird situations was probably why my ‘mental fortitude’ was so high.

It looked like 5 was the average, with only one statistic exceeding that.

I weighed my options. I was worried that changing any of the mental stats would change my personality, and I didn’t know if changing any of the physical ones would have any adverse side effects, like increasing my appetite or something.

That god was obsessed with tennis players; this sounds like a condition he’d add.

So, I allocated my talent points accordingly.

< Magical affinity: 13/10.>

“Huh.”

Going past 10 must’ve doubled the cost of levelling up.

<MP: 1300/1300>

“It got reset to full? That’s good to know,” I muttered to myself.

I stretched my arms over my head and cracked my shoulders. Then I winced from the residual pain.

Not my brightest moment…

Unlike all this new information, which gave me a lot of tools to face what I was about to drive myself into.