Infinite Dendrogram_Volume 2 Read online

  I had argued that it had been the result of us acting as a party, and insisted that we all take a third each.

  Marie had insisted that she didn’t deserve or need more than what she’d gotten for the medicine.

  Rook had stated that he didn’t deserve any money because he hadn’t participated in the battle against Gardranda.

  I sincerely believed that they both were invaluable in the victory against the demon, so I really wanted them to take what was rightfully theirs.

  “Honestly, I already got the MVP special reward, so maybe I shouldn’t take any of it,” I said.

  “That would take you beyond simple selflessness and quickly make you look like an unreasonable lunatic,” commented Nemesis.

  I was being completely serious, yet Nemesis looked at me like I was an idiot. Rook and Marie, too, seemed thoroughly perplexed by my suggestion.

  “Hey, these things are downright insane,” I said. “I really can’t let myself take much after getting something this good.”

  I raised my hands to show off the things on them. These two-tone colored bracers — one red, other dark purple — were inside my inventory after we had defeated Gardranda.

  The description in the equipment window went like this:

  Miasmaflame Bracers, Gardranda

  Legendary item

  A legendary item embodying the concepts surrounding the three-faced demon of flame and miasma.

  In addition to being extremely tough, it increases the physical strength of the wearer.

  This item cannot be transferred or traded.

  No level limit.

  It actually gave a 100% bonus to STR, and had more defense than all my other armor combined. Not only that, but it also allowed me to use the skills “Purgatorial Flames” and “Hellish Miasma,” which were probably much like the attacks used by the UBM itself. There was also a skill that I couldn’t read for some reason, one that simply said “???”.

  They were insanely good, no doubt about it.

  Not only did they seem to be worth more than 300,000 lir — they’d probably go for more than the whole reward for defeating Gardranda.

  I mean, it’s a “legendary” item, I thought.

  “I know I’m the MVP and all, but taking the reward after getting these would be far too much,” I said.

  We would have lost the battle against Gardranda if Marie hadn’t provided support with her items. Rook, too, had done a great job holding back Audrey — who had originally been the demon’s mount.

  We wouldn’t have achieved victory if it hadn’t been for them, so I thought I was fair in insisting that my contributions were worth only a third of the reward.

  “...I understand,” said Marie. “But I think I have a better idea.” She lightly hit the table. “First of all, Ray, you’re getting 300,000, and that’s final. If you don’t accept that money, no one here has the right to have any of it. Now, Rook, I know you don’t want to take as much as Ray, so let’s cut it by half and give you at least 150,000. And before anyone tells me off for not taking anything, I’ll be satisfied with just 50,000, thank you very much.”

  Rook and I weren’t against that split, so that was 500,000 lir taken care of. However, there was still 400,000 lir left.

  “We shall use the rest as a party,” said Marie.

  “By that, you mean...?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “You could call it a little lesson for future reference,” she answered.

  What is she talking about? I thought.

  “For now, just leave it all to me,” she continued. “I would like you to gather here in the afternoon after three days game time. Is that okay with both of you?”

  Three days game time was just one day in reality.

  “No problems here,” said Rook.

  “I don’t have any plans for tomorrow, either, but what are you planning?” I asked.

  “Let’s have it be a little secret for the sake of surprise,” said Marie. “Oh, but if you don’t like this idea of mine, just say so. I’ll give your money back at once.”

  “No, it’s fine by me,” I said. I had absolutely no intention of taking any more, so I just let Marie do her thing.

  “Then with that, we’re done splitting the money,” she said. “Good job on finishing this quest, you two.”

  “Yeah, thanks for the help,” I said.

  “Thank you very much,” said Rook.

  And so ended the first quest we had taken up as a party.

  We had a small celebration, and by the end, I was so tired that I immediately logged out.

  ◇

  The next day, I logged in soon after waking up.

  I’d slept long enough for a whole day to have passed in the game. Infinite Dendrogram’s tripled time feature was useful and all, but situations like these made it seem a bit confusing and even bothersome. The time here was six o’clock in the morning, and the sun was just beginning to rise.

  As soon as I logged in, Nemesis jumped out of the crest on my left hand and greeted me. “Good morning, Master. You sure are early today.”

  “...Funny, considering that I basically overslept in terms of real life time,” I said.

  “So what are you doing today?” asked Nemesis. “It’s too early for shops to be open.”

  “Well, I was thinking of doing it after getting some new gear, but I guess I’ll have to do the testing first,” I answered.

  “Testing? Of what?” she asked again.

  I raised both my hands before her. “These.” They were covered by two pieces of armor. My Miasmaflame Bracers.

  Just like the royal capital, most of the kingdom’s cities always had their gates open. There were many reasons for that, but one of them was the fact that there were many Masters who were active at night. It would be extremely inconvenient if they were only allowed to pass during the day, and there would be many people who would go out of their way to try to climb over the walls. Thus, the gates were open 24 hours a day. There were three guard shifts, and it reminded me of part-time jobs in convenience stores.

  When I passed the northern gate and greeted the guards standing there, they greeted me back in a slightly sleepy manner.

  Soon after leaving the city, I was standing in Nex Plains, the same place I had passed through yesterday.

  I roamed about looking for a monster I could do the test on, and it didn’t take long for me to find a lone Goblin Warrior. I was familiar with this monster, so I could defeat it even if the test failed. A good target, no matter how I looked at it.

  “You said you were going to test the bracers, but is there anything specific you had in mind?” asked Nemesis in her sword form.

  “Well, these Miasmaflame bracers have skills on them, right? I want to see if they’re of any use,” I said. “I don’t like the idea of having to try them out on something stronger than myself.”

  I had gotten Vengeance is Mine during the fight with the Demi-Drag and Like a Flag Flying the Reversal while fighting Gardranda, but I couldn’t continue to rely on skills I wasn’t familiar with to always match my situation and lead me to victory. Testing was important.

  Therefore, I decided to test the two skills on the item — Purgatorial Flames and Hellish Miasma. I couldn’t use the skill named “???”, so that was on hold for now.

  One was a flamethrowing skill, while the other was a release of poisonous gas. If I could master them, I would finally have attacks other than standard blows and Vengeance is Mine. Having to use Gems just to cast spells was quite a waste, after all.

  “...Oh, it just hit me that I still have some of those Gems,” I muttered.

  Suddenly, the Goblin noticed I was here and charged at me while swinging his weapon.

  “All right, then... Purgatorial Flames.” I stretched my hand out to the Goblin and opened my palm flat facing towards it.

  A moment later, a demon’s mouth opened up on the back of my hand...

  “Eh?”

  ...and it released a fierce stream of crimson fire, p
ainting my vision red.

  “AAAGHHHHH!”

  Damn, that made my HP go down so fast! I thought. It’s my own attack, so it’s not affected by Paladin’s Aegis and other defensive skills! Oh, crap! I even got the “Burns” debuff!

  “You fool! Are you trying to kill yourself?! Oh! The Goblin is coming!” shouted Nemesis.

  “OAAGHH!”

  The damage I’d caused myself had turned this into an extremely dangerous battle. I desperately defended myself against the Goblin’s attacks, used a number of skills and healing items, and barely emerged victorious.

  Lesson learned. As important as testing was, one always had to consider safety.

  ◇

  “...All right, time to pull myself together and test the Hellish Miasma,” I said.

  “Are you sure it will work right this time?” asked Nemesis.

  “It will,” I answered. “...I think.”

  After a short while of looking for a new prey, I had stumbled upon a bipedal, plant-like monster. The words above it said “Walking Grapevine,” and just as they implied, it was literally a walking vine with grapes hanging from it.

  “Is that thing even breathing?” asked Nemesis. “Wouldn’t it be better to burn it?”

  “I’m testing the Hellish Miasma right now. And yes, plants do breathe, so it should work,” I answered. “Hellish Miasma! Release!”

  This time, I made sure to make the back of my hand face the enemy and thus prevent the smoke from hitting myself.

  Just as I’d intended, the miasma surrounded the Walking Grapevine... and then a strong gust of wind made it go back to me.

  “GYAAAAHHH!”

  “I knew this would happen!” shouted Nemesis.

  Trying to not breathe any of it in, I escaped the noxious cloud.

  Man, that was close, I thought. I almost got destroyed by my own skill.

  “Now, let’s see what the monster thinks of it,” I said. I looked as the wind made the miasma disperse to reveal the Walking Grapevine, clearly suffering due to the debuffs.

  “It seems to be effective,” said Nemesis. “However, it’s hard to make it work on windy days, and trying to use it indoors isn’t even an option.”

  “Yeah, I can’t deny that it’s a difficult skill to use,” I said.

  As we were having that exchange, something flew right into my mouth.

  “Hghuh?!” I accidentally bit and gulped it down. The aftertaste — both sweet and sour — was that of a grape.

  A grape, of all things.

  Yes, that Walking Grapevine was actually attacking me with its grapes.

  “Whot kind ohf attahck ish that?!” I exclaimed in confusion.

  “Master, don’t talk with your mouth full,” said Nemesis.

  Seriously, though, what am I supposed to think about this attack? I thought. The grapes are pretty good, and even if they hit me on the body, they only get me a bit dirty and don’t hurt at all—

  “Guh...” My face suddenly contorted.

  “Master, what’s wrong?! Was that attack poisoned?!” asked Nemesis in perplexion.

  Poison? I thought. Yeah, it was poisoned.

  My stats clearly showed the debuffs that were affecting me. Their names were Poison, Intoxication, and Weakness.

  “They’re the same debuffs I just gave it...!” I said. Apparently, its fruit had become poisoned by the miasma and I’d gotten its effects transferred to me by ingesting them. I’d had no idea that debuffs could travel like that.

  “M-Master!” exclaimed Nemesis. “There’s a number of monsters coming this way!”

  I looked around and saw some Goblins and beast-type monsters here and there. They were all here because of me — or, rather, the fruit juice on my body.

  “I see, so that’s the aim of that attack...” I muttered.

  And so, still under the effects of the debuffs, I was attacked by a group of monsters which numbered to more than ten.

  ◇

  “We ran into some unexpected trouble, but I think I know how these skills work now,” I said.

  Despite the tremendous failure on its first use, I had soon found out that Purgatorial Flames was an exceptionally effective skill.

  First of all, it was very powerful. It actually did more damage than my standard attacks. I could also continue to channel it as long as I had MP, not to mention that it could apply the Burns debuff or its upgrade — Charring. Just as the name said, it was a debuff that could reduce a burned Goblin’s arm to charcoal.

  Strong as it might be, however, Purgatorial Flames affected friend and foe alike.

  Heck, it includes myself, as well, so I’ll have to be really careful when using it, I thought.

  Also, its power was lower than that of Gardranda’s flames. If it had been the same, the first failure would’ve blown my head away. I could only assume that Purgatorial Flames was weaker than the original either because it had been reduced to equipment, or because I was simply a weaker creature. Due to the fact that there was a skill I’d yet to unlock, it was quite obvious that I wouldn’t be able to master the Miasmaflame Bracers just yet.

  And though it had gotten me into the unexpected predicament of getting surrounded by more than ten monsters, the Hellish Miasma test had been successful, as well.

  Man, that was tough, I thought. If I hadn’t activated the Reversal, I would be dead by now.

  The only reason I’d survived was because I’d fought the monsters while powered up by the reversed debuffs.

  By the time it was over, the Walking Grapevine had succumbed to the Poison and died. I was lucky to have found out that debuffing a monster and then getting those debuffs by ingesting its body parts was counted as a negative effect from the monster.

  Though I have no idea if I’ll ever find a use for it, I thought. I don’t eat monsters while fighting, after all.

  Whatever the case, I had to be extra careful when using Hellish Miasma.

  Oh, I almost forgot to mention. Since the Walking Grapevine had died, the Reversal was no longer effective. Thus, I was currently being tortured by the debuffs.

  “Uoghh...” I moaned. “First Heal.”

  While lying on the ground due to Intoxication and Weakness, I used healing magic to restore my HP, which was being drained by Poison.

  Since the Purgatorial Flames were weaker, I had hoped that would apply to Hellish Miasma, as well, but that clearly wasn’t the case. It was just about as bad as it had been when Gardranda’d given me these debuffs.

  “Perhaps it becomes less effective on stronger creatures,” pondered Nemesis. “Your level is low, so it seems like its effect on you is still powerful.”

  “Y-You might be right...” I muttered.

  When examining the way the debuffs were applied and the relationship between Burns and Charring, I began to believe that some debuffs could change depending on how great the cause was. Say someone got attacked by something that applied debuffs, causing the attacked person’s debuff “level” to rise and make a debuff appear. Would it really be strange for a continued barrage of such attacks to stack the debuff level and make the illness more serious?

  In other words, breathing the miasma for too long might cause some new debuffs to appear, I theorized. ...Not that I’m willing to try it.

  “But man, this is bad,” I said. “I might have to go back to the city by crawling on all fours.”

  “That would be quite unsightly,” said Nemesis. “Oh...?”

  As I looked to where Gideon was — still lying on the ground — a shadow came over me.

  I realized that someone was standing behind me, so I slowly got up and looked at who it was. I wasn’t in a hurry because I was still under the effects of the debuffs and could simply feel that the presence wasn’t hostile, unlike the Goblins and such.

  “...Eh?” I said, startled.

  That assumption of mine had turned out to be both correct and wrong. The thing was definitely not a monster. However, it was clearly a creature one had to be cautious wit
h.

  “...”

  It was a penguin. A large, bear-sized penguin suit was looking down at me.

  “Huh?!” I hastily tried to back away, but the debuffs rendered me unable to move as I pleased. Even as I began to panic, the penguin did nothing but continue to watch me, completely immobile.

  “...Did Brother Bear get himself a new suit?” asked Nemesis.

  “No, it’s not my brother,” I answered.

  However, it didn’t seem like a monster or a player killer, either.

  It seemed like all it did was observe me.

  “What the hell are you?” I asked.

  “What am I, you ask? Heh heh heh heh... Oops!” In response to my question, the penguin completely destroyed his — the voice was male — silence and immobility and jumped upwards.

  After making a number of mid-air spins, he landed and took a V-like pose.

  “My name is Fla...MINGO! Call me Dr. Flamingo, if you will.”

  ...What a weirdo. I thought.

  “Would you say that suits are a signal for oddballs?” asked Nemesis.

  We only have two so far, I thought. If we find a third suited weirdo, I’ll accept this theory of yours.

  Putting that aside, however...

  “Flamingo?” I raised an eyebrow. “That’s a penguin suit, isn’t it?”

  It reminded me of Adelie Penguins, common to many aquariums. Its primary colors were black and white, and no one with eyes could mistake it for the flashy, pink bird he’d named himself after.

  “Who cares about the details?! What matters here is that you seem to be in a pickle! Do drink this!” The penguin reached for his pocket — which was in the suit’s stomach area — and took out a medicine bottle with liquid inside it.

  “And this is?” I asked.

  “A drug that removes debuffs!” he answered. “It instantly takes care of all disease-based status effects!”

  I didn’t know how to respond. If he wasn’t lying, I would gladly chug it down, but I had basically no reason to believe such a blatantly suspicious penguin.

  “Isn’t this a trap?” asked Nemesis.

  I had gone through Lei-Lei’s lesson with the fake alcohol and knew the dangers of such offers, but if this penguin had had any intention to hurt me, he would’ve done it while I was writhing around due to the debuffs. He’d had no reason to prepare a trap for me.