Infinite Dendrogram_Volume 1

by Sakon Kaidou

  As the something trampled on the corpse — now reduced to fruit-like mush — it faced the nearby adventurers.

  “Wh-Wha?!”

  “I-Is this actually... the UBM... Gar—”

  They weren’t even given the time to say anything coherent.

  The something before them and the goblins that had caught up quickly overwhelmed them all.

  “GOOOAAAAAHHHHH!”

  And so, after a satiating feast, the something and the horde of goblins returned to their den.

  All of them were full of excitement for the next time they’d become hungry and have another feast pass their territory.

  ◆

  The area’s name was “Nex Plains.”

  It was south of Sauda Mountain Pass and north of Gideon, city of duels.

  ...And anyone making their way to Gideon would simply have to pass through it.

  Chapter Seven: The Ordeal of Rookies

  In Royal Capital Altea, in the front of the Adventurer’s guild — Paladin Ray Starling.

  After we had taken the quest at the adventurer’s guild and began getting ready to go to Gideon, Rook spoke up and raised his right hand.

  “You can leave the means of travel to me,” he said. There was a pale, gem-like object on his hand.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “It’s a ‘Jewel’ — an item where you keep your monsters,” he answered. “It’s the reward I got for my modeling.”

  Rook began explaining. In the process, he also answered a certain question I’d had while looking at his skills.

  Being a Pimp, he had a skill that strengthened his underlings, and seeing that had made me curious about what happened to them outside of battle.

  Since we were players, we would return to reality every now and then. Thus, I wondered what his little minions would do while we were away. I was saddened by the very idea of a player who stopped playing after having left some monsters or slaves in a cage or something.

  Such problems were solved by Jewels, such as the one Rook had.

  Jewels were basically the animal version of the item boxes we always used. It allowed the storage of any underlings you owned, and it was possible to set it so that time inside wouldn’t flow at all.

  The storage would work even while the player was logged out, and if they didn’t log in for two months of real time or half a year of game time, the Jewels would automatically release the creatures inside.

  I see, I thought. Having underlings in such a realistic world would be really difficult without these things.

  Well, there was a need to feed and have them rest outside the Jewel, but that was all part and parcel of being an underling owner.

  It was also possible to make the time inside the Jewel go on as normal. Logging out while the underlings were released was an option, too. However, while being outside, the underlings could always get into some sort of trouble, so whether it would be done or not depended entirely on the owner.

  “So, you already have a monster in there, huh?” I asked as I pointed at the Jewel.

  “Yes,” Rook answered. “Mr. Grantzian told me choose one reward out of a few, but since I had a skill that strengthened monsters, I chose this one.”

  Pimp was a job that had a low combat ability, but compensated for it with the use of monsters, so that had been the right choice to make.

  “Let me show you,” said Rook. “‘Call’ — Marilyn.”

  Following his words and the unique roar, the Jewel began to shine.

  “MMHOOOOOO!”

  And, sure enough, a monster named “Marilyn” appeared before us, but...

  “...Marilyn?” I raised an eyebrow.

  ...it was arguable whether the name “Marilyn” was appropriate.

  A succinct description of Marilyn would go as such: a triceratops pulling a carriage. Its gigantic body was covered in a blue, solid shell, while its back and shoulders could easily be compared to heavy armor. The very real horns on its head were intimidating enough to make me feel as though they could topple the castle walls.

  It was far too obvious that the monster was stronger than us. The thing could even put up a fight against a Demi-Dragon Worm.

  Hell, I wouldn’t even be surprised if it came out on top, I thought.

  “This is Marilyn — a Trihorn Demi-Dragon,” Rook introduced the monster. “The dragon carriage came as a bonus.”

  “Demi-Dragon?” Seriously? I thought. It actually is on the same tier as the worms, then. That name has some serious power behind it.

  I was momentarily taken aback by the fact that you could get such a thing as a reward, but since the difficulty of the quest had been higher than the one where I’d saved Milianne, it wasn’t that strange.

  “Why ‘Marilyn,’ though?” I asked.

  “It’s a girl, so I named her after a famous actress,” Rook answered.

  I see. It’s a girl, huh? I guess it’s all fine, then, I thought. ...Marilyn Monroe might or might not be turning in her grave right now.

  “Wow, what a sight!” Marie commented. “Though, something this strong might exceed your Minion Capacity.”

  “Minion Capacity?” Rook and I asked simultaneously.

  “Oh, let me explain it, then.” Marie reached into her item box, took out a sketchbook-like item, and began her explanation while drawing something on it.

  A sketchbook? I thought. Why does she even have something like that? Is it because she’s a Journalist?

  “First of all, in Infinite Dendrogram, the maximum number of people you can fit in a party is six.” Marie finished drawing and showed us the result — little chibi versions of me, Rook and herself. All the detail on them made the drawings seem strangely high-quality.

  “In our case, three of those slots are already taken,” she said. “Now, the other three slots can be taken by tamed monsters or Guardian-type Embryos.” Marie added chibi versions of Babi and Marilyn.

  “You say they ‘can’ be taken... Does that mean it’s possible to make the monsters fight without doing that?” asked Rook.

  “Yes,” she answered. “It’s possible to not count them as party members and instead treat them as an extension of the owner’s power. That’s where Minion Capacity comes in.”

  Underneath Rook’s picture, Marie drew a small tree diagram that led to Babi and Marilyn.

  “With this method, they won’t use party slots, but there is a limit to it,” she said. “Minion Capacity is basically the name for that limit.”

  “I see,” I nodded.

  “Open your status screen and look at the additional entries.”

  I did as she’d said and took a look at the auxiliary screen. Sure enough, I saw an entry that said “Minion Capacity 0/50.”

  “Is this it?” I asked.

  “Yes, monsters that fit the Capacity can be used as part of your own power,” she explained. “The amount of the Capacity taken depends entirely on the individual monster. For example, one level 1 Little Goblin would take 1 point.” That meant that I could control a total of fifty level 1 Little Goblins. A nice number, but questionable overall. I could just picture them all getting blown away by a single area attack.

  “My Capacity is 500, so I can own five hundred of them,” said Rook.

  That’s ten times more than mine, I thought.

  “Pimp is a job with a high Capacity,” Marie said. “Though, Ray, since your job is in the knight grouping, you will have to use mounts, so I think that your Capacity is above the high-rank class average.”

  Mounts, huh? I thought. I should get one of those someday.

  “Anyway, I see how it works now...” I said.

  If it was impossible to call your monsters without using party slots, jobs such as Tamer and Pimp — both of which had low base fighting ability — would have a hard time getting into parties. With the use of Capacity instead, they could count their monsters as part of their own power, making them no worse — if not better — than any other job.

  “What h
appens if you exceed the Capacity?” I asked.

  “You get a limit on your abilities and stop gaining XP,” she answered.

  That’s quite a huge demerit, I thought.

  “Miss Marilyn here is too much for your Capacity, Rook,” said Marie. “Demi-Dragons are strong and have a cost that represents that.”

  If I had to choose between fighting 500 Little Goblins or one Demi-Dragon Worm, I’d pick the former without a moment’s hesitation, I thought. That’s just how much stronger the latter option is.

  “With that in mind, let’s place Marilyn in the party,” Marie suggested. “There aren’t many of us, so we have some free slots, after all.”

  “Hey, I have a question! What’s my cost?” asked Babi.

  “An Embryo’s cost is always 0,” she answered. “If it weren’t, then Masters who evolved Guardian-type Embryos wouldn’t be able to draw out their full potential.”

  That was true.

  “Well, that sure took a while to explain. Now, let’s return to the matter at hand,” Marie continued. “By riding Marilyn’s dragon carriage, we could reach Gideon in about one whole day.”

  “Then I guess we’ll have to give up on doing it now and depart tomorrow morning, instead,” I said. “Do you two have any plans?”

  I was referring to real-life stuff. Our journey to Gideon would take us a total of three days, which meant that we’d have to dedicate an entire real-life day to this.

  “Not really,” said Rook. “I’ll be free the whole time.”

  “Same here,” said Marie. “I’m jobless right now.”

  ...I’m having trouble figuring out if I should laugh at that or not, I thought.

  ◇

  The next day, we were riding Marilyn’s dragon carriage on the road to Gideon.

  The road was wide enough to let two Marilyns ride side-by-side without any problems. Her size had made me wonder if she would block the road, but my worries seemed to have been completely unfounded.

  Marilyn’s walking speed was greater than I’d expected, too. She could pull the dragon carriage uphill without even the slightest drop in speed, which reminded me of four-wheel drive off-road cars.

  Looks like our journey to Gideon will be smooth, I thought.

  Although we had to take care of the occasional monster attack, so it wasn’t like we could get there without stopping. However, since we were going through a newbies’ hunting ground, the monsters never attacked us in large groups. The most we’d had to fend off at once was three.

  In fact, Rook, Babi, and I had just defeated such a group. Marie, meanwhile, stayed sitting in the dragon carriage and cheering for us while sipping on some tea. There were things to be said about this setup. Still, she wasn’t doing nothing without reason. Honestly, it was my own fault for not asking her about it beforehand.

  “Journalist” wasn’t a battle job in any sense of the term. However, Journalists had a characteristic skill called “The Pen is Mightier than the Sword,” which increased the XP gain of the entire party in exchange for rendering the Journalist unable to fight. The skill couldn’t be turned off, either. With that in mind, it was safe to conclude that Journalists were like a decoration that were of absolutely no use in battle.

  Sure, I appreciated the bonus XP. And yes, we were going through a newbies’ hunting ground, so the enemies weren’t something we couldn’t handle ourselves. She was also more knowledgeable than us. The advice she gave was useful, and her monster info was accurate.

  Still, I can’t help but feel that... well, whatever, I thought.

  “The skill is called ‘The Pen is Mightier than the Sword,’ so I was expecting it to be an attack with a pen,” said Nemesis.

  “That saying’s meaning isn’t physical,” I said.

  Though I wouldn’t be surprised if this world had a pen that was stronger than a sword, I thought.

  All the same, the journey was going smoothly. Due to the XP bonus, both Rook and I had already gotten some levels. I was now level 16, while Rook was level 27.

  The battles were coming and going in a satisfying manner, and it didn’t look like we’d have any trouble with the monsters of this level range.

  Speaking of “no trouble,” the mountain pass before us had once been blocked by a bear-like monster. Just from appearance alone, it had seemed like the boss monster of this area. However, before we could even begin our fight with it, Marilyn — seemingly angry at it for blocking her way — had defeated the bear as if it wasn’t a big deal at all.

  Rook had retrieved the drops, which had come in a “box,” so yes, it had been an actual boss monster. A boss’s loot was always a welcome thing. However, as a rule of thumb, boss monsters were always the most powerful creatures an area could offer.

  And it sure didn’t seem like that when Marilyn handled him, I thought.

  Another thing to note was that most boss monsters were multiple-of-a-kind and took part in the ecosystem, but according to Marie, there were some monsters that were unlike any other. They were called UBMs — Unique Boss Monsters.

  All of them — without exception — were equipped with special abilities, and some were even powerful enough to eliminate high-rank parties without much difficulty. However, since they were one-of-a-kind, even encountering them was rare.

  Once out of the wavy Sauda Mountain Pass, we entered an area of nothing but wide plains. The area was named “Nex Fields,” and the road leading through it was supposed to take us to Gideon.

  As we all were thinking about just how smooth of a journey this was, something entered our vision.

  On the road ahead, there were several carriages which looked like they belonged to peddlers. They were all under attack by a throng of goblins that easily numbered more than a hundred.

  ◇

  The goblins in this horde had a significantly better physique than the Little Goblins Rook and I had fought back on Easter Plains.

  While the standard Little Goblin was about half my size, the ones here reached approximately 80%. Not only that, but they also wielded swords and bows, and were clad in proper armor. Some of them were even riding some small monsters resembling carnivorous dinosaurs. The names above them — Goblin Warrior, Goblin Archer, and Goblin Rider — made it all the more obvious that they were superior to the ones we were familiar with.

  And a proper throng of them was attacking the peddler carriages.

  I could see some tian-looking people try to fend them off, but alas, the numbers were against them.

  “...That sure is a lot of goblins. And it seems like every single one of them is stronger than the monsters in the Mountain Pass. What shall we do?” Marie evaluated the enemy, asking whether we should join the battle or not.

  I began to ponder. We were rookies, and calling us strong would be nothing but a mistake. Marie was a veteran, yes, but she couldn’t participate in any battles, not to mention the fact that the opposing force greatly would outnumber us even if she could.

  We clearly had a low chance of victory. The safest option would be to turn around, retreat to the Mountain Pass, wait for the goblin horde to go away, and return on the path to Gideon then.

  However, that would mean leaving the people there for dead. And that... would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

  “Rook, Marie,” I spoke up. “We might get the death penalty and fail the quest because of it, but...”

  ...if you guys don’t mind that, then...

  “Let’s do it,” Rook said before I could finish. Then he freed Marilyn from the dragon carriage...

  “Run them over.”

  ...and set her on the goblins.

  “MMHOOOOOOO!” she roared and burst into a dash.

  Keeping her three horns at the forefront, Marilyn charged into the goblin throng with all she had. Once they noticed the presence of something other than the carriages — their prey — it was already too late. Nearly fourteen goblins got pulverized by Marilyn’s horns.

  “Let’s go, Ray,” said Rook. “Marilyn might be
strong, but that’s still too much for her alone.”

  “...Yeah!” I agreed.

  “I see.” Nemesis seemed to realize something. “Just like my unexpectedly fiery Master, this Rook fellow seems to have a dangerous side to him, too.”

  “Mrrgh!” grumbled Babi. “No fair, Marilyn! I was with him first, so I’m supposed to do the most!”

  Rook, Babi, and I all jumped through the space opened by Marilyn and began fighting the goblins around us.

  “Hghaah!” I tightened my grip on Nemesis — who was already in her greatsword form — and swung her at the Goblin Warrior before me with all I had. The blade sank into the top of the Warrior’s shoulder, but the armor he wore made it stop after going only about ten centimeters.

  “Ghghee!” The wound wasn’t fatal, so the Warrior still tried to swing his weapon at me.

  “Then how about... this?!” I raised my greatsword upwards — lifting the Warrior along with it — and quickly swung it down to the ground. The momentum added to my attack made the Warrior — and his armor — split in half.

  Thanks to the levels I’d gained recently, such feats weren’t particularly hard for me.

  But it takes a while to do it, I thought. So next time, I’ll be aiming straight for the neck.

  “Heh heh heh, what an aggressive battle,” chortled Nemesis. “It’s to my liking.”

  Well, someone seems to be having fun, I thought. I find it a bit strange that she can’t handle zombies, but she’s just fine with all this gore here.

  “Behind you!” she warned me.

  “...Whoa!” I turned around, swung my greatsword sideways and decapitated the Warrior that had tried to attack me from behind.

  Sadly for him, having Nemesis at my side basically let me see from every direction. Being surrounded wasn’t a big problem for me.

  “What are you people?!” one of the escorts fighting to protect the carriages exclaimed.

  I chose to make our explanation succinct.

  “We’re Masters heading to Gideon,” I said. “We’re here to help. That Demi-Dragon is with us, so don’t attack it.”

  “I see! We will make sure not to harm it, then! Thank you for your help!” Convinced, he began telling his comrades about us.