It had to be determined first whether this was a premeditated transcendental ritual or some kind of accident.
Armed with his magic guidebook, Eleazar slowly traveled through carriage after carriage, gathering as much intel as he could on his surroundings.
The carriage was silent, and the expressions of the people they saw along the way were all agonized and hideous.
Without an exception...
The aisle valves at the rear of the car are tightly closed.
He pushed harder and realized that it might take superhuman strength to violently break it open.
"Can't waste spirituality in a place like this..."
After a moment's thought, Eleazar returned to the direction of the front of the car.
Slowly, a conclusion had come to him.
Everyone in the car, all of them was plunged into a nightmare, no one was spared, not even himself. If he hadn't activated his extraordinary ability, he wouldn't have had a chance to wake up...
Then at the locomotive, in the caboose, Eleazar saw the two car captains who had collapsed in ambush on the operator's platform.
What exactly happens when a train is left unmanned for an extended period?
Maybe that nightmare scene will come back.
Eleazar's gaze iced over a fraction more at the thought of the dismal scene he'd just witnessed.
Now there's only one place left to check...
He slowly raised his head.
...
The arched roof of the carriage...
The smoke billowing down from the direction of the front of the car was accompanied by a strong wind that made it difficult to keep your eyes open.
But in a place where it would be difficult for a regular person to land, there was an odd creature lying on its back.
A bloated body with stubby limbs and bushy ears, like a domestic pig on a farm, but with a narrow muzzle like a pangolin.
He's found the source of the nightmare.
Holding back the murderous intent boiling up in his body, Eleazar leaned against the raised vent and calmly flipped through his magic guidebook.
[Dark Creatures Illustrated Chapter -]
"Anyone can be a master hunter if they figure out the weaknesses and habits of their prey."
Meditating on the title phrase, Eleazar quickly skimmed on.
First, start by determining the type...
The thing had a fleshy body, obviously not of the ghostly spirit lineage, and rolled right over.
It doesn't look like a constructed creature on the outside either, roll over.
Didn't smell a bad odor, so it shouldn't be a corpse-eating creature either.
Even less likely to be a Dragon.
There is no armor or wings, and it is not a worm-like creature.
The polluted, no.
Abyssal remnants, no.
Mixed beasts...
"Found you..."
----
[Tapir]
[Type: Mixed Beast]
[Habits: likes to hypnotize its prey into nightmares, then eat away at its prey's spirit in fear].
[Weaknesses: Fear of light, low armor, slow movement]
[Strengths: Born with the ability to cast spells, capable of unleashing a variety of low-level psychic spells]
[Offense: Pouncing, grappling, suggestion, hypnosis, fear, shock, impact]
[Warning: Mature individuals will use the high-level spell, Mindstorm!
[Recommendation: Plan your hunt by identifying the size of the target and in either case, do not look it in the eye.]
...
This creature that looks like it escaped from the circus is a master of the mind.
Eleazar, hiding in the shadows, frowned.
A mature Dream Eater Tapir will have a massive elephant-like body covered in hard scales, with enhanced melee capabilities and defense, and will use up to a 3rd-ranked Undifferentiated Killing Spell - Mindstorm.
But before they reach maturity, they are typical high-attack, low-defense sandbags that can use some tricky spirit spells, but it has no defense on their own, and with their naturally bloated size, they move very slowly.
There was no doubt that the one in front of him belonged to the hatchlings that were still growing and did not yet possess the strength that would allow him to jump out of the car with Fina and escape.
"Slow moving..."
"And how did it get up here?"
The doubt couldn't help but rise in his mind, but Eleazar couldn't figure out why, so he closed his book for now and began to judge the terrain.
The curved roof of the car at about 80 yards, with strong winds and a small standing area, makes it very easy to lose your footing and fall.
In this unfavorable terrain for walking, he and the hybrid beast were about 50 meters apart.
In a word, whoever takes the initiative suffers.
Just as Eleazar was thinking about how to provoke the dark creature and provoke it over to its death, the cold hairs on his back suddenly stood up.
...
"Oh yo, are you walking alone?"
Behind her, on the roof of the wagon on the other side, stood a mysterious woman at some point.
Shrouded in a black veil and hooded, his voice was magnetic and raspy, and his only visible bright eyes were written in teasing.
"Ta... Ta... Ta..."
On the other side, that Dream Eating Tapir also relied on its fat and heavy size advantage and crawled steadily over, and those two black eyes were emitting a blinding purple light if anything.
From darkness to light, left and right, the situation was instantly reversed.
Eleazar clutched the book of magic guides tightly in his arms and fell silent.
The black-veiled woman said coldly, "Didn't your family teach you not to mind your own business when you go out?"
Eleazar, who was judging the situation with his afterglow, returned, "So I go?"
The black-veiled woman waved her hand indifferently.
"Well, go away and remember to pay attention in your next life."
Just as the voice fell, the Dream Eating Tapir at his side opened its bloody mouth and a shocking roar came out.
"Roar--"
Eleazar's head went blank from the shock on the spot, and he nearly fell off the roof of the car as his feet lurched.
A thousand defenses, and you end up with a mind spell in this form.
Biting the tip of his tongue hard, awakened by the sharp pain, Eleazar didn't even think twice about jumping straight for the walkway below.
It just barely missed the bloody mouth covered in inverted teeth...
"Ka-ching!"
The Dream Eater bites into the air and is about to ride it down when he notices that his foe has dropped a silver box that bounces gently a few times.
It sniffed down suspiciously, feeling as if the box smelled like something it liked.
The black-veiled woman standing on the roof of the opposite carriage frowned slightly as if recalling something, and suddenly her face changed drastically.
"Move!!!"
As soon as it was too late, the dream-eating tapir, who had already risen to alertness, quickly leaped forward, following the enemy's movements and jumping toward the walkway below.
"Tik-Tok!"
"Avalanche-"
With the sound of springs and gears beating, a dazzling silver light instantly bloomed.
The countless sharp silver threads waved wildly, twisting everything around them into pieces.
"Wow..."
A blurred puddle of broken flesh poured down from the roof of the wagon.
A dark creature that triggers the trap dies violently on the spot.
[Engineering props - Moonlight: Clockwork synchronized gyroscope, strung with silver wires and fitted with bait, triggered to release a silver storm, up to 3 orders of physical damage, recyclable and reusable, precision instrument, easy to damage].
Eleazar, who was holding onto the doorframe, watched the scene with an expressionless face.
True to the book, this magical beast had no defense.
"Ah..."
The black-veiled woman standing on the roof of the carriage let out a miserable scream, her sinewy hands covering her head in death.
It was as if the death of the Dream Eater had caused a serious backlash against her.
In just a short moment, her demeanor was gone, her arrogant and overbearing aura was gone, her features overflowed with shocking blood, her lips were bitten through, and her eyes were devoured with a ferocious light.
Eleazar narrows his eyes in thought for a moment and suddenly smiles.
"Wraith Envoy?"