Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 14 Page 2

  “...Are you sure?”

  “Yeah... I can’t fight KoB while riding Silver, anyway.”

  The moment she took to the sky, our battle against KoB would truly begin.

  And it would be best if Silver wasn’t involved in it.

  Therefore, handing him to Azurite would increase both our chances of victory.

  “Oh yeah!” Fuso exclaimed as I handed Silver’s reins to Azurite. “Why not have the princess ride an SMPS while you come with her on Silver? You’ll win if it’s two against one, right? Oh! I can join too. That’ll make it three against one! Easy, right? Wait—maybe everyone with an SMPS can go! That’ll make it a real piece of cake!”

  Silence ensued. I was fairly confident that Azurite and everyone in Death Period, myself included, thought that Fuso’s craftiness surpassed even Dryfe’s.

  “...solo,” said KoB. It was just a single word, but it felt like she was saying, “Your princess is the only one who’ll be going. Say something that stupid again and I’ll totally lose it. Quit making me wait. Roar.”

  So there you had it.

  Also, KoB didn’t seem inclined to do anything to Azurite as she was leaving, but I couldn’t tell whether she was just following her employer’s orders or if she also wanted Claudiah to leave the scene of battle.

  Was she trying to set up an environment where she could fight us without restraint...? A situation where she wouldn’t have to worry about protecting anyone or be mindful of the one person she couldn’t kill?

  “Very well. I’ll go alone,” said Azurite before mounting Silver and looking at me. “I’ll be borrowing him for a bit... Ray.”

  “Yeah. Let’s meet again after the battle, all right?”

  After that exchange, Azurite pulled on Silver’s reins, turning him towards the sky, where Claudiah was waiting for her.

  The moment she left the hall...

  “set.”

  ...King of Beasts moved like a monster finally freed from its chains.

  In an instant, her silhouette transformed.

  Vital areas, like the heart, were now covered by tile-like armor plating.

  The hands and legs were covered by bands that looked like little pet socks.

  Semi-transparent, crescent-shaped blades floated next to her forelegs.

  There were rings around all four of her limbs.

  And finally, there was a small cloth bag hanging around her neck.

  A single look was enough for me to tell that they were all MVP special rewards or something on the same tier.

  Also, the sudden change in gear made me realize that she’d used Clothing Switch. It was a skill used for costume changes in theater or switching from normal clothing to battle equipment in an instant. That meant that...

  “All this time, she was wearing her ‘normal clothing’...” She hadn’t been taking us seriously so far, but now that she recognized us as actual enemies, she would face us with all her strongest equipment.

  “...start.” Following that single word, KoB vanished... and the wind began to swirl with blood.

  What had once been human beings had become nothing more than shreds of flesh and bloody mist before turning into bits of light and disappearing.

  The unfortunate victims were the members of Lunar Society, who were standing at the very back of our group.

  The only thing showing us where King of Beasts was and what she was doing were the ones turning into blood mist as she killed them.

  “She’s fast! Gbwugh!”

  “How?! Lady Tsukuyo should be lowering her AGI...! GHUH?!” I couldn’t see KoB — all I could see were the results.

  The screams and panic continued as KoB reaped through them one after the other.

  They were all no doubt wearing Brooches, but it didn’t seem to matter at all. Was she using a skill that nullified it somehow? Or was she attacking multiple times and I was just too slow to see it?

  Regardless, KoB dashed through the bloodied air, the very embodiment of an unstoppable force.

  “The Shades and Death, They Beckon — Erlkönig.” The shadows under their legs wriggled and moved to attack KoB, but even I could clearly see that they weren’t fast enough to catch up.

  The Lunar Society members also had ultimate skills of their own, but they were hesitant to use them for fear of collateral damage.

  “That doesn’t matter. Use them,” said Fuso.

  And just like that, their hesitation was gone. Targeting their surroundings, they all used their ults or job ults.

  Countless flashes and explosions followed, engulfing just about every Lunar Society member.

  When it was over, none of them remained... and KoB alone stood there as if nothing happened.

  “...clear,” she said as she licked a wound on her front paw. She likely meant something like “Clean-up’s done.”

  Her words, combined with the fact that she’d targeted only the lesser Lunar Society members while ignoring Death Period, Fuso, and Tsukikage helped me understand exactly what she’d done here.

  She’d purposely paused her rampage only after we were the only ones left. My guess was that she’d eliminated the other Lunar Society members for the same reason why Fuso cleaned up all the Dryfean Masters — to get rid of unknown variables.

  Fuso and Tsukikage were prominent figures, and both Marie and B3 were well-known PKs. Rook and I had also had our abilities exposed during Franklin’s game and the Quartierlatin incident.

  That was why she’d prioritized getting rid of the Lunar Society members, whom she knew nothing about.

  “...Or it could be that she merely wants to save the cherry on top for last,” said Nemesis telepathically. Seeing how KoB hadn’t targeted Fuso, who was actively dividing her speed by six, that seemed even more likely. If all she wanted was a quick victory, Fuso would be her highest priority, and she wouldn’t just be standing in place like she was doing now.

  “Is she trying to show off how trivial all this is for her?” Nemesis wondered.

  Perhaps, but she could have some other reason, I thought.

  ...Regardless, it was clear that to KoB, the battle against the Lunar Society members was but a way of adjusting the situation. She’d exterminated eighty veterans like it was child’s play, and their retaliation had left only a single scratch on her.

  Though they were all Masters, the gap between them and her was immense.

  And I could see just how immense by using my Reveal skill.

  Behemot.

  Job: King of Beasts.

  Level: 1156 (Total Level: 1656)

  HP: 82015 (+23650050)

  MP: 3350 (+0)

  SP: 48980 (+0)

  STR: 10050 (+216900)

  AGI: 15315 (+210059) → 37563

  END: 9980 (+232020)

  DEX: 1502 (+1058)

  LUK: 125 (+100)

  The stats shown to me by Reveal were boosted by absurd numbers. Even her AGI, which had been cut to a sixth of its maximum by Faint Light, was still high enough to make her several times faster than the speed of sound.

  The difference was so vast that it gave me chills.

  This explosive increase in stats was also far above what any job could grant.

  B3 had once told me the name of this phenomenon, and Shu had told me how it worked.

  “So this is the Guardian-Jaguarman Theory in action...!”

  ◇◆◇

  Altar-Dryfe border, mountainous area

  There was a low, yet immense rumbling. The air itself seemed to vibrate over the expansive horizon.

  The noise was like high-ordinance bombs blowing up over and over again.

  It was definitely not caused by any explosives, however — they were actually the sounds of gigantic objects crashing into each other.

  At a distance of over 10 kilometels from the assembly hall, two enormous silhouettes were clashing, causing booming impacts loud enough to drown out the nearby landslides.

  One was a gigantic machine god.

  With its entire f
rame focused on firepower, he was the pinnacle of weaponry. However, instead of using any of its many weapons, its wielder was using its fists like a master of the martial arts.

  The figure’s name was Baldr, and it was the Superior Embryo of the King of Destruction, shifted into his full-offense mode.

  The second silhouette was the Queen of Beasts.

  She was akin to a gigantic dinosaur from the depths of prehistory. With porcupine-like spines growing out of her back and limbs that seemed to be all muscle, she was violence given form.

  Her name was Leviathan, and she was the Superior Embryo of the King of Beasts, shifted to her solo-full power mode.

  The two giants surpassing 100 metels in height were exchanging blows, destroying the mountains around them.

  Baldr launched a fist at Leviathan. She caught it with her right hand, only to have it shatter; she then used her superior speed to retaliate with her left.

  It was an all-out battle — a violent clash straight out of mythology, and it was immense enough to shake the entire visible horizon.

  ...I guessed as much, but it turns out she really is a match for me even by herself, huh? Shu thought, realizing that he’d made the right choice by separating her from King of Beasts.

  The fact that Leviathan was a match for Shu and his Baldr truly said all that needed to be said about how absurdly powerful she was. After all, Baldr was now significantly stronger than it had been back when Gloria attacked.

  When Shu used The Unmatched God of War — Baldr, the power of the resulting transformation was based on his STR.

  Currently, Shu’s base STR was about 180,000.

  Because of this, even AGI — the stat that was buffed the least— was over 90,000, while his END reached 180,000 and his STR was doubled to become 360,000.

  His HP also broke the 10,000,000 mark, and not even Mythicals could hold their own in a fistfight against him.

  In fact, even the Hell General’s fully buffed Mythical devil wouldn’t be much of a threat to him.

  Yet despite all that, Leviathan was fighting against Baldr as an equal... and she was separated from her Master, while Baldr’s had used his ult.

  “GGHRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” Leviathan’s violent assault made Baldr’s armor creak, but Baldr fired back with a high kick — a kodachi — aimed straight at Leviathan’s neck.

  It was an attack that could knock someone’s head from their shoulders, but Leviathan got away with only a bit of torn flesh.

  The scale of this fight was the stuff of legends, but since they were equally matched, it seemed to them like a simple fistfight between two people.

  ...I used my ult and we’re still just equal, Shu thought. I guess this is ’cause of the direction she took as an Embryo.

  As Shu pondered, he came to understand the reason why this battle had no clear superior force.

  Queen of Beasts, Leviathan was the Guardian who possessed the highest stats of all, and the reason for this was simple: she’d sacrificed everything else for it.

  She had no skills besides her ult — which all Embryos possessed — and every ounce of her remaining Resources went to body size and physical stats: HP, STR, AGI, and END.

  After all, that was the core of her Master’s desire. She sought someone who could protect her and had enough sheer power to crush anything in her way.

  That was what made Leviathan the apex.

  Baldr might have surpassed her in STR, but she was above him in every single other stat. Her HP was over 20,000,000, while her STR, END, and AGI all broke 200,000.

  She was an entity that could reduce entire countries to rubble merely by walking through them.

  And she had become what she was through the hyper-focusing of Resources.

  Endless buffing, forced debuffing, spatial manipulation... she had none of the unique abilities usually possessed by Superior Embryos. Instead she was specced solely into stats.

  No other Guardian surpassed her in that regard.

  That might seem contrary to the Maiden type’s focus on “giant-slaying,” but closer inspection would reveal that wasn’t the case. This too, was a way to defeat those stronger than yourself — the ultimate manifestation of this one seemingly-unfair notion: every giant will fall if you are simply bigger and stronger than they are.

  In fact, Baldr might have been the more impressive one in this scenario, simply because he was able to fight with her toe-to-toe.

  KoD’s Baldr’s power wasn’t as pure as Leviathan’s. Wide-area firepower, ammo-production, dominance on both land and sea, an array of transformations... Dedicating all these Resources to this wide variety of functions left it with little left over for pure physical enhancement. Even after using its ultimate skill, its stats still couldn’t match Leviathan’s.

  It was unheard of for an Embryo as versatile as Baldr to be a match for the manifestation of pure power that was Leviathan.

  The abnormal thing here isn’t actually the Embryo... but the Master, Leviathan thought as she fought.

  She was genuinely impressed. She only knew two other entities that could match her like this.

  My speed is higher, but he reads my movements and attacks me when he can minimize damage to himself. But these aren’t mere tricks... he’s just using his power in the most optimal way... I see... So this is what it’s like to be awed...

  Leviathan was surprised, but she also derived some enjoyment from this — in spite of the fact that she was taking more damage as a result.

  As things are, I could probably win even as I am now. Shu had predicted the overall damage and thus the ultimate result of this fight.

  When it came to stats, Baldr was below Leviathan. However, it made up for its lackluster AGI with its flair for battle and ability to read the enemy, letting it deliver attacks using its superior STR. Baldr wasn’t exactly coming out of this unscathed, but Leviathan was the one who was suffering more.

  Also, at certain points of this battle, Shu could use Baldr’s various armaments to give himself an advantage, while Leviathan had absolutely no means of expanding her range of strategies. After all, she didn’t have a single skill she could use on her own.

  Leviathan may have had the highest stats among Embryos. However, it had to be said — that didn’t mean that she was the strongest.

  The true power of Embryos and UBMs lay in their unique skills. When faced with special abilities that warped the universe itself, pure stats would always fall short.

  And without skills, all she could do was use physical attacks. She was like an RPG boss that had max stats but could only use the “Attack” command, and it wasn’t hard to counter those.

  Again, her immense stats didn’t mean that she was — or ever would be — the true strongest.

  “Gh...!” Despite that, and the fact that Leviathan was currently being overwhelmed, Shu was starting to panic.

  From his perspective, he had to defeat Leviathan as soon as possible. He knew that if he didn’t, the consequences would be dire.

  “Those left behind are worthless weaklings,” said the Queen of Beasts with a muffled voice. “But Behemot, like myself, couldn’t leave Gideon while we were busy keeping you there. I’m sure she is savoring her first taste of real freedom.”

  “...That so?!” Shu replied as he punched with Baldr’s fist.

  “I also haven’t had a chance to enjoy something like this for a long time... Let’s have fun while Behemot’s still playing around.” Leviathan smiled—injured, but still full of vigor.

  The two displayed opposite emotions, but the reason behind them was the same.

  King of Beasts, Behemot was the source of both Shu’s panic and Leviathan’s confidence.

  Leviathan was in some senses the “greatest,” but she was not the “apex.” “The Physical Apex” was the title given to Leviathan and her Master as a duo, and the reason for this — what really elevated simple excellence to the level of absolute apex — was the Guardian-Jaguarman Theory.

  ◇◆

  The buil
d known as “Guardian-Jaguarman Theory” swept the world of Infinite Dendrogram back when it was leaving the early stages of its post-release phase. At that time, absurd Superior Embryos were almost non-existent and nearly no Master had attained the uncapped Superior Jobs. The dominant Masters were level 500s with high-rank Embryos.

  It was a time when everyone still considered and sought power that made sense.

  Most of the player activity went into theorycrafting about what might be the strongest possible build, and many people conjured up numerous configurations worthy of that title: Nobushi Ambusher OHKO Theory, Sacrifice MP-Spec Theory, and Gem Production-Spam Theory, to name a few. Many discussions were had both within Infinite Dendrogram and the communities outside of it.

  And out of the many that were considered, the one that came out on top as the “strongest possible build” was the Guardian-Jaguarman Theory.

  The jaguarman job grouping didn’t get much attention during the period when there were only tians. It had poor stat growth and only one skill. In that respect it was similar to Death Soldier, but not quite as absurd. Still, it wasn’t a job you’d pick if you wanted to get stronger. The only tians who selected it were members of certain Legendarian tribes with traditions surrounding the job.

  Jaguarman’s only skill was Beastheart Possession, which gave the user a bonus to their stats based on the base stats of the monsters within their Minion Capacity.

  The power of the bonus was based on the user’s skill level, but even at level 10 — the maximum allowed by the high-rank job in the grouping, Beast Ogre — Beastheart Possession only granted the user 60% of their monsters’ stats.

  And despite having this as their only skill, the grouping gave a disproportionately small Minion Capacity. In order to employ the most useful monsters, you’d have to fill all your other job slots with options from the tamer grouping. However, doing that greatly limited the battle-focused skills you could take — so even if you used all your Minion Capacity on a Pure-Dragon, you end up with high stats and nothing else.

  And “high” in this case was only 60% of a Pure-Dragon’s stats. Since Beastheart Possession only used the monster’s base stats, you couldn’t even benefit from tamer skills that buffed your monsters. There was also the fundamental problem that capturing powerful monsters like Pure-Dragons was difficult, and the amount of people from the jaguarman grouping that were using them in any case was smaller than one percent.