Infinite Dendrogram_Volume 2

by Sakon Kaidou

  The other ways to take someone’s items were the Bandit grouping’s Steal skill — which directly stole the items from people’s inventories — and the Burglar grouping’s Plunder skill — which switched the ownership of the taken items to the user. When I’d learned that, I had wondered why these two skills were in different job groupings despite not being that different.

  “Hm? Is that a...?”

  I noticed the inventory of the Lich I’d defeated peeking out from under his robe. While mine had the shape of a bag, his was a black, cube-like box.

  In his last moments, he had been reaching into it to take his money and buy me off. So, by breaking that, I could probably get the money and some of the rare items he owned, but...

  “I don’t feel like touching the stuff left behind by that freak,” I said.

  His life was more than enough for me. Also, it was easy for me to imagine how he’d come to have those riches, and that didn’t make them look attractive at all.

  “I share the sentiment,” said Nemesis. “That money is so dirty that simply picking it up might sully our hearts.”

  “I understand,” said Hugo. “Feel free to leave it there, then. Someone will come across and take it eventually.”

  “True,” I nodded.

  Though, with the defeat of the Gouz-Maise Gang, this fortress was now as abandoned as it had been before they’d made it their hideout. It was uncertain if anyone would ever set foot here again.

  Then again, reporting this event to the Adventurers’ Guild would probably cause them to launch an investigation. It might be a good idea to tell them to gather any treasure the scumbags had left behind. Perhaps the money would become cleaner if it was used for the good of society... and those who’d suffered due to the gang’s vile deeds.

  “Oh yeah, Hugo,” I said. That thought reminded me of something. “I encountered some kidnapped children in the dungeon. Eight of them are still alive. From what I can tell, they’ve been put to sleep via magic. I’d like us to band up and carry them outside, so... Wait, where’s Cyco?”

  We were done with everything here, and yet she was nowhere in sight.

  I recall her leaving her party slot before the battle began, but she wasn’t showing up at all anymore, so... did she get the death penalty?

  “Cyco’s fine,” said Hugo. “Give me a moment. Cyco, come here... Yeah, it’s fine.”

  He said that while facing the Magingear clad in armor that looked much like an icy church. A moment later, the armor scattered into countless white and blue light particles.

  Without the frozen armor, the Magingear collapsed, making Hugo say something about getting a spare one from some “leader.” However, Nemesis and I were more interested in where the light particles were heading. They all gathered in one spot and took a humanoid form.

  “Hellooo.”

  It was the Master clad in white — Cyco. However, she no longer had the proof of Masterhood — the crest on her left hand.

  Also, the way she’d changed shape was like a differently-colored version of Nemesis’ shapeshifting.

  “I see,” said Nemesis. “So Cyco and I... are birds of a feather.”

  “Yes,” she nodded. “My real name is Cocytus.”

  “Birds of a feather...?” I raised an eyebrow. “So she’s actually a...”

  ...Type Maiden Embryo — the same as Nemesis. And Hugo was her Master.

  “But didn’t she have a crest on her left hand before?” I asked.

  “It was there because of Crest Disguise — a skill unique to Type Maiden Embryos,” answered Hugo. “It makes their hands and status displays look like those of a Master.”

  “I had no idea such a skill existed...” I said, slightly surprised.

  “They get it after a while of fighting in their human forms,” he said.

  During my entire play time, I had yet to let Nemesis fight on her own. Obviously, I didn’t have it.

  “What use is that skill, anyway?” I asked.

  “You’d be surprised,” said Hugo. “Due to them being unique and unpredictable, Embryos are powerful wild cards. With Crest Disguise, you can make it seem like there are more Masters — and thus, Embryos — than it appears.”

  So you can use it for bluffing, huh? I thought. I feel like it might have other uses, too, so perhaps we should learn that skill ourselves.

  “Anyway, now that we’re all here, we should go to the dungeon and take the children back to the light of day,” I said.

  “Agreed,” nodded Hugo.

  Nemesis, Hugo, Cyco, and I all began making our way towards the fortress’ dungeon.

  With there being four of us and with me having Silver, there was a chance that we could take them all in one trip. Also, with the Lich being dead, the children might’ve woken up from his spell, so we had to hurry up and calm them down.

  ◆◆◆

  The surroundings of the abandoned fortress.

  “...Are they gone?” a voice asked.

  “Yeah, they went in the fortress.”

  In the forest surrounding the abandoned fortress, in an area that had even denser foliage than the route taken by Hugo’s Marshall II, there were five suspicious-looking men.

  “I didn’t expect the bosses to get beaten,” said one of them.

  These were the remnants of the Gouz-Maise Gang, and the very same five men that Ray and Hugo had encountered back in Gideon.

  After Ray and Cyco had beaten them up and handed them over to the guards, some of their allies had jumped out and rescued them before they could be jailed.

  After that, they’d followed the gang’s carriages from a considerable distance — just to make sure that they weren’t followed — and when they’d reached the fortress, they’d found their hideout and fellow gang members being completely destroyed.

  They’d been lucky that they were in a place where Cyco’s Enemy Detect skill couldn’t reach them. Thus, they’d been able to hide it out and survive the massacre.

  “What now?” asked one of them.

  “What do you mean, ‘what’ — we’re getting outta here!” answered another. “We can’t do shit against monsters that can kill our bosses, who were pretty damn monster-like themselves.”

  “Crap, that means that we have to leave all the treasure behind.” One of the men — specifically, the one that’d gotten punched by Ray — clicked his tongue in frustration. “...Oh, wait.” He seemed to have just gotten an idea. “Yeah, that’s what we should do!”

  He nodded, completely satisfied with himself.

  “The hell’s got into you?” The other men looked at him, completely confused.

  “They’re in the fortress now, right?” he spoke up. “So it’s a good time for us to take all the money and items the bosses left behind! Also, we can easily take the brats in them carriages there. We can use them to get the ransom money or just sell them somewhere in Caldina. Or maybe we can buy our way into some other local gangs!”

  “Oh, man!” another man cried.

  “That’s an idea I can get behind!”

  Their fellow gang member’s suggestion made the other men turn joyous.

  “There’s no better time than now, then...” said one.

  “Yeah!” howled another. “Let’s get the items and the brats and get the hell out!”

  They then split up. Some began gathering the items, while the others linked the living horses to the carriages with the children.

  However, one of them — the one that’d suggested that they do what they were doing — was tilting his head near Maise’s corpse, which was nothing but dust now.

  “What’s up with you?” asked another man.

  “Boss Maise’s inventory isn’t broken,” he answered. It was the very same inventory that Ray and Hugo had decided not to break.

  “Huuhh? Break it, then, retard,” the other man said. “All of us who had Plunder have already croaked, so that’s the only thing we can do here.”

  As was natural for a band of brigands, the ga
ng had people with Steal and Plunder skills. However, all of them had died to Hugo’s Marshall II.

  “True that,” the man nodded. “Guess I’ll do just that, then.”

  The man took out a dagger and — with great force — pierced through the inventory. Naturally, it broke and released its contents all over the area.

  “Whooaaaahhhh! Get a load of all these coins!”

  “Seriously! I don’t think we even have to be bandits anymore! We can live like nobles with this!”

  “We have the brats, too, so maybe we should start being Slave Dealers!”

  “Good idea!”

  The money Maise had left behind made them all imagine a bright future. They were surrounded by great riches. Just as Maise had said to Ray, the amount he’d had on him was over 70,000,000 lir. Of course, there were many rare gems, equipment pieces, and materials, as well.

  With all of this, they could easily make all their dreams come true. Their futures would become even more secure after the next step. Every man was thinking it at this point. Every man wanted to kill the others and make all of the riches their exclusive property.

  However... that was completely impossible.

  “Huh?” one spoke in confusion. “What’s this?”

  He picked up an item that was lying on the ground. From its outline alone, it looked much like a hen’s egg. However, it was dark red in color and had a single area on it that looked much like an eyelid.

  At first glance, it didn’t look too different from the materials owned by Maise the Lich, but the man holding it wouldn’t have said the same.

  He had a high level Identification skill and could identify just about every item he came across, but he didn’t get any results for the egg-like object. It confused him, for he’d never had any problems identifying materials or monster eggs. However, it was obvious that he couldn’t see what the thing in his hand was. After all, it wasn’t an item, a monster, or any other living creature, for that matter.

  It was nothing but a curse.

  “Awakening.”

  A voice rang out from every inch of the shell as the egg opened its “eyelid.”

  “Eee!”

  It surprised the man into attempting to throw it away, but the egg seemed to be stuck to his fingers like a strong vacuum.

  “What?”

  “What’s wrong?”

  The other men called out to the one who’d screamed — their faces still grinning due to the great amount of coin in their hands.

  If they’d had the mind to realize that something was wrong and run away, the man with the egg in his hand would’ve been the only one to die.

  However, that was hopeless. Anyone with that amount of sensitivity to danger would’ve never touched the belongings of Maise in the first place.

  Maise had been among the greatest users of Necromancy in the Kingdom of Altar. Not only was he extremely thorough in his work towards becoming the King of Corpses — he was also a man who made use of people in a way most couldn’t fathom.

  He was the type of person to discard his most precious Crystal of Resentment — a necessity in becoming the King of Corpses — just to survive. He also hadn’t hesitated to try prolonging his life by trying to buy off Ray with all the riches he’d amassed.

  If a man with such an attachment to life were to be killed and had his treasure taken away...

  Just what would he do?

  Just how far would he go?

  The men were defeated the moment they didn’t consider those questions.

  “Destruction of inventory: confirmed,” said the egg. “Search: Lich Maise’s Magical Wavelength... No response. Termination of Lich Maise: Confirmed. Assumption: plundering by hostiles. Invoking final spell — Undead Grudge Construction.”

  Once the voice had finished speaking, the fingers of the man touching the egg were sucked into it. Much like sewage going down a drain, his body began falling into the egg, his body cracking and spurting out blood as his form was compressed.

  “AUGH!! UuGgh!! EeuGH!!”

  Leaving only his completely inhuman screams, the thing that was once a man disappeared into the object.

  The egg gained in size, becoming about as large as the egg of an ostrich.

  “EEEEEK!”

  “WH-WHAT THE HELL?!”

  The spectacle made the other men panic, and they turned around and attempted to run away.

  A moment later, the egg released pipes reminiscent of blood vessels and forced them into the backs of three out of four men that tried to escape. And — as if drinking juice through a straw — the egg began sucking the men into itself.

  “GHHHY! JAUHGHH! EIHH!”

  “EGGH... UGHAAAHH!!”

  “ASSHHDIEDEAAAGAUGHH!!!”

  Experiencing pain beyond their imagination, the men disappeared while speaking words that didn’t belong in the realm of the sane.

  “AAAAAHHHHH!”

  The only survivor — the one who’d suggested they take the riches to begin with — dropped to the ground in fear and tried backing away while wetting himself. He thought the egg would launch a pipe at him, as well, but for some reason, it didn’t happen. Instead, the egg began extending pipes towards the corpses surrounding the area.

  The remains were numerous. All of them belonged to the Gouz-Maise Gang members who’d lost their lives in the battle against the Marshall II. The pipes reached into the pieces of meat scattered by cannon shots, the body halves split by knives, the corpses crushed by the robot’s frame, and the head of Gouz hanging on the gate.

  That wasn’t all — the egg’s surface also grew a funnel-like organ that began absorbing something invisible — the grudges — from both the air and the ground beneath. And — though his body had already become dust — that also included the regrets, hatred, and sorrow of Maise the Lich. All the flesh and grudge it’d gathered made the egg expand once more.

  It was now an orb that seemed to mix the size of a gas tank and the fragility of a balloon. The scene before his eyes put the last survivor of the Gouz-Maise Gang into a complete stupor.

  Soon enough, the orb cracked.

  A moment later, it broke and birthed a beast too foul. A beast too hideous.

  It was the ultimate result of the Gouz-Maise Gang and all they had done.

  It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say that this creature — this gathering of villainous flesh and emotion — was like a being straight out of hell. The corpses of hundreds were linked together like a jigsaw puzzle, forming the shape of an ox-headed horse-man.

  Instead of blood, the only thing flowing through its veins was ill will, malicious grudges.

  The gathering of the deceased showed nothing but disdain for all living creatures and moved only with the dark intention to make the whole world as dead as they were.

  And, of course, the first target of its grudge was...

  “Ah... Eh... Aahh?” ...the last survivor of the Gouz-Maise Gang.

  The abomination’s cadaverous hands grabbed hold of the man. Then it switched to holding him by the arms — with only its thumbs and index fingers — before beginning to pull on them. The action was so slow that it almost seemed gentle.

  “AGH! AAGHYAAAAAHHHH!”

  Slowly, surely... like a child toying with an insect... it continued pulling until one of the man’s arms was torn from his body. Then it did exactly the same with the legs. And when the man was left with only one limb, the ox-headed horse-man opened its large mouth.

  Though the pain he was in drove the man to the edge of insanity, he still had enough mind to understand why the creature was doing what it did. After all, he’d seen it happen many times during his days with the Gouz-Maise Gang.

  “Ahaha... am I the... dessert...?”

  Torn apart like an insect, the man was finally pulled into the ox’s mouth and crushed by the countless, lethal fangs there.

  And so, the Gouz-Maise Gang became one. Literally as one, they all composed a single being of hatred.

  Whil
e the metaphorical sense might’ve been noble and grand, what was actually happening here was nothing short of vomit-inducing.

  It was the birth of the most hideous undead.

  ◆◆◆

  [Non-player announcement]

  [Discovered a monster that meets the conditions to be recognized as a Unique Boss Monster]

  [Confirmed that no similar specimens have existed prior]

  [Informed the control AI managing UBMs]

  [Received approval from the control AI managing UBMs]

  [Recognizing target as UBM]

  [Strengthening the target’s ability and providing it with the upon-death special reward function]

  [Granting the target Epic status. Granting the target the name of “Revenant Ox-Horse, Gouz-Maise”]

  Chapter Five: Revenant Ox-Horse

  Paladin Ray Starling

  The children had already woken up by the time we got to the dungeon, likely because the Lich had fallen.

  At first, they thought we were with the bandits. They began to cry with fear, but thanks to Cyco and Nemesis calming them down, they soon believed that we wouldn’t harm them.

  As it turned out, Roddie — the child our quest requested us to save — was the very same boy that’d slit my throat back in the lab. He had no memory of ever being controlled, so I didn’t see the need to bring it up.

  When we were about to take the children back to the surface, I saw Hugo — who’d been looking around the lab — inquisitively examine the documents he’d found on the table there.

  “Research on grudge, the Crystal of Resentment... and that’s not all,” he said. “It looks like he’d been studying the means of creating a Flesh Golem that uses grudge as its power source. Heh, reminds me of that one prototype we had. I guess people thinking the exact same thing exist everywhere in this world. Though I’d never have expected anyone to create something like this completely on their own... It’s both impressive and horrific at the same time.”

  He put the documents he’d been examining into his inventory.