Infinite Dendrogram [Volume 4]

by Sakon Kaidou

  Continuation: Inside Their Minds

  Three hours before The Clash of the Superiors, Count Gideon’s residence

  Gideon’s first district was a gathering of official buildings and institutions. Among them were the knight offices, right next to which was the residence of the local ruler: Count Gideon.

  Due to both buildings sharing a similar design focused on steadiness and modesty, most would’ve assumed that Count Gideon’s mansion was nothing but an extension of the offices. This was because the first Count Gideon had believed that the spirit of Gideon lied within its arenas, and that gaudy castles wouldn’t fit the city’s character.

  However, many matches since then had been attended by royalty and other guests of honor, making it necessary for the Gideons to build a luxurious guest house for them to stay in.

  Thus, the residence of Count Gideon was a curious structure with a modest main building and a fancy annexe. The main office of said modest building was currently occupied by three people wearing serious facial expressions.

  One was the young Count Gideon, Aschbarray Gideon.

  One was the Vice Commander of the Knights of the Royal Guard, the Paladin Liliana Grandria.

  And the last one was the second princess of the Kingdom of Altar, Elizabeth S. Altar.

  They were among the most important tians currently present in the city.

  Elizabeth broke the silence. “So my older sister isn’t coming?”

  “Yes.” Count Gideon nodded. “I’ve been informed that she is currently unwell and could not heal in time to depart for Gideon today. Apparently, there’s an Epidemic happening in the capital.” He was passing on to them what he’d been told via communication magic from the capital.

  Elizabeth had arrived at this city to attend the great event happening this evening — The Clash of the Superiors. But it had originally been planned that her older sister, the current leader of the country, would attend it as well.

  “An Epidemic...” sighed Liliana while covering her mouth and making a sour expression.

  “Epidemic” was a term used to describe any sudden diseases that spread among the weak and strong alike. Masters saw it as an unpatterned, irregular, widespread Infinite Dendrogram event. There were various Epidemics that covered many large areas, creating sufferers among both Masters and tians. Though some went away with the passage of time, some required special healing methods such as vaccines or healing magic available only to Superior Jobs.

  Fortunately, the Epidemic that had spread through the kingdom this time wasn’t life-threatening, being more like a common cold than any other disease.

  However, Epidemics completely ignored all stats and resistances. Even high-level Masters would become bedridden or simply log out until the disease went away. They were considered to be natural disasters above human knowledge. Indeed, it was quite fortuitous that the damage being done by the current Epidemic was so meager.

  Still, Count Gideon, the host of today’s event, could barely hide his chagrin about its inconvenient timing, and Liliana shared his sentiment.

  There had been trouble caused by Elizabeth sneaking out of the building yesterday, but most of the official business and preparations relating to the event were already done.

  Most of it had had to do with the arrival and welcoming of Elizabeth’s older sister, first princess Altimia, and now it had all gone to waste. Being an older sister herself, Liliana tried to be considerate of Elizabeth’s feelings about this.

  “I see! Very well!” Elizabeth said with a voice that made it seem like Liliana’s worries had been misplaced. “It’s a shame, but we should not dwell on what we can do nothing about! Now, we should be thinking about how to make this event a success! Am I right, Count Gideon?!”

  “Indeed you are!” he said heartily.

  Elizabeth’s words were full of resolve. Though her beloved sister couldn’t come, she was determined to do her duty, in the hopes that it would help her sister.

  “Your Highness...” muttered Liliana. Though Elizabeth’s current bearing wasn’t completely unlike her, the lady knight felt as if there was something different about her — as if she had become more of an adult.

  Perhaps something happened when she sneaked out yesterday? Liliana wondered.

  Suddenly, Elizabeth grabbed her hand in both of hers. “Liliana, I want you to protect me!” she declared.

  “...Of course! I will keep you safe no matter what happens,” replied Liliana, fully ready to fulfill her duty.

  She would protect the girl under any circumstances — no matter what awaited them.

  Chapter One: “The Weakest, The Worst” Superior

  Journalist/Death Shadow, Marie Adler

  I knew about the top three of the Dryfe Imperium’s rankings before the war even happened. Being both a Journalist and a player killer, I had to be fully informed about the strongest Masters.

  The tops of Dryfe’s duel, kill, and clan rankings were all cut from different cloths.

  The commander of devilish armies was the Hell General, Logan Goddhart, the “Contradictory Equation.”

  The one bearing the greatest stats was the King of Beasts, the “Physically Strongest.”

  Finally, the leader of the imperium’s top clan was the Triangle of Wisdom, Giga Professor, Mr. Franklin.

  The only one out of the three who hadn’t been a Superior at the time of the war was Franklin. Not only that, his only job was a non-battle job, and he had stats that put him below even the average low-rank battle job. Comparing him to King of Beasts the “Physically Strongest” or The Earth the “Magically Strongest” made him seem absolutely meaningless.

  Of course, unlike the other rankings, clan rankings were focused on the scopes of the clans.

  Though the leader of a top clan lacking power was curious, it had absolutely no impact on the clan’s position.

  Most thought that, in war, the person at the top of the clan rankings was supposed to show their ability through the whole clan, rather than as an individual. But to everyone’s surprise, the result had been entirely different. What the war had shown was not the fearsomeness of the Triangle of Wisdom, but of Franklin himself.

  Despite not being a Superior at that point in time, he definitely hadn’t been outdone by the other two.

  The Superior Job of Giga Professor specialized in monster research, while Franklin’s Embryo, Pandemonium, specialized in monster production.

  Though focused on the same subject, research and production were completely different things, and Franklin combined them to create monsters with many various qualities.

  Some were immune to physical attacks, some reflected magic, some exploded when nearing death, some latched on and assumed control, etcetera, etcetera...

  The ones who had faced Franklin’s wicked band had been the few kingdom’s Masters who’d participated in the war and the kingdom’s own army. When both sides clashed, the results had been simply tragic.

  The fact that every monster was a wild card with unpredictable abilities had quickly brought disorder into the kingdom’s ranks, which had left them open to the specially-made monsters that rivaled Superior Jobs in power. Naturally, they had made short work of the kingdom’s Masters and gone on to feast on the king himself.

  The price of making this monstrous army had no doubt been astronomical, for the necessary funds to acquire the materials required for monster creation were great. However, for Franklin, who was the top of Dryfe’s largest clan and also had the backing of the imperium itself, money was no issue. That allowed him and his clan to participate in the war at full capacity and demonstrate just how fearsome an individual he was.

  After the war, I, as a PKer... as the Superior Killer...
had received many requests for Franklin’s murder.

  The ones making the requests had been Masters who’d been pushed into the death penalty by him, or friends and family of the tian soldiers who’d died. I had rejected each and every one of these requests.

  Of course, I hadn’t neglected to consider them. If he was a foe I could kill, I would just do it. But that simply wasn’t the case.

  With a single glance, I knew that I could kill him easily, but I couldn’t do it because I knew that something bad would happen if I did.

  Some time had passed since I’d refused those requests. The people who’d made them weren’t the only ones with a grudge against Franklin. Many had tried attacking him themselves, and though most of them had been destroyed by his monsters, one person had actually defeated him.

  Considering Franklin’s poor stats, it hadn’t been exactly unexpected. However, what had happened afterwards was simply off. After returning from his death penalty, Franklin had hunted down the one who’d killed him, fought him, and emerged victorious this time.

  Then, he did it again.

  And again, and again, and again.

  And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again...

  Franklin had created monsters that the guy had the worst compatibility with and spent a whole month of real-world time relentlessly killing the one who’d defeated him. Eventually, the person had stopped logging in to Infinite Dendrogram.

  Though weak, he made the worst monsters.

  Though weak, he had the worst disposition.

  “The Weakest, The Worst” was my exact evaluation of him, and his most popular nickname.

  In all honesty, I was aware of another good contestant for “The Worst,” but that was irrelevant here.

  Anyway, his sudden appearance meant far more than just that “one of the kingdom’s irreconcilable enemies had appeared.”

  There was no doubt that he was about to do something bad.

  ◇◇◇

  Paladin, Ray Starling

  The moment Franklin named himself, countless people in the venue showered him in arrows, bullets, and offensive magic.

  With him standing on the top of the barrier, many of the attacks got canceled by it. However, it was still a fearsome barrage of damage. I could even spot a number of high-rank attacks like the ones I’d seen during the matches, some of which might’ve actually been done by Superior Jobs. The barrier underneath Franklin’s feet shook wildly as explosions hit it and covered the top with smoke.

  Despite bearing the brunt of the barrage, Franklin came out alive.

  “Get a load of you people. Duel City folk. Hot-blooded as they come and always quick to react,” he sneered.

  His lab coat being scorched here and there was proof that he’d been hit, but for some reason, it hadn’t killed him.

  “Why is he alive?” I asked.

  “There’s nothing special about what he’s done so far,” said Marie.

  “Yeah.” Shu nodded.

  I had no idea what had happened, but they seemed to have full understanding of it.

  “He survived the first few critical attacks with warding accessories and equipment skills,” Marie continued.

  “Then, he used Castling to shelter himself from the rest,” added Shu.

  “What’s ‘Castling’?” asked Rook.

  “It’s a skill that lets the user change places with one of his monsters, Rook,” explained Marie. “It’s a high-rank skill, but its effective range is so small that it’s rare for it to be used as a teleport skill. Still, merely being among the few teleport skills is enough to make it noteworthy.”

  I see, I thought. So he’d survived the first attacks using the same things I’d used against the Demi-Dragon and the rest by simply disappearing away from here.

  “Oh, but do be careful not to attack me anymore! Don’t wanna end up in the gaol, now, do we?” Franklin mocked.

  The gaol?

  Confused by his words, I focused my gaze on him. As I watched, a single songbird appeared in his arms.

  “Because that’s exactly where you’re going if you accidentally hit this little lady,” said Franklin, and a moment later, the bird got replaced by something else — a girl, to be precise.

  “Ellie!” Marie burst out, with a voice full of shock.

  It was Elizabeth S. Altar — the person from the photo I’d seen yesterday and in the noble seats today. I hastily looked to the guest of honor seating and, sure enough, she wasn’t there.

  “So... this guy actually made a monster that can do Castling with third parties,” said Shu.

  What? Is it even possible to create something like that? I asked myself, but the answer was obvious with a single glance at the results — the second princess was out of her seat and in Franklin’s hands.

  Seemingly unconscious, the girl didn’t even struggle.

  “Have I made myself clear, you dumbasses?” Franklin smirked. “Royalty killers go straight to the gaol, you know? Careful not to do that... Not like I’m one to talk! Ayyyyy... HAHAHAHAHAH!”

  The man who’d killed the father of the girl in his hands laughed as though he’d just said the funniest joke in the world.

  “Aaaaall righty, then,” he continued. “With your hands all tied up now, allow me to make a sug—”

  Before Franklin could finish, someone in the audience launched offensive magic that exploded right next to him.

  “Huh?!” I exclaimed and looked to the spell’s source, where I saw a Master doing a fist pump.

  “Is he an idiot?!” Marie shouted my thoughts before I could.

  The guy has the princess right next to him! You can’t be so careless about this!

  “Ooookaaaayyy,” Franklin said as he appeared out of the smoke caused by the explosion. Both he and the princess were unharmed, meaning that he’d done something to prevent the effects of that attack.

  “Do you fail to grasp the situation?” he asked the attacker. “I have taken the princess as a hostage. I am also talking... trying to talk... And then there’s youuuu! Why did you attack me?! Why? I just can’t understand it! Are you an idiot? Or a hothead? Or perhaps both?”

  Franklin roughly scratched his head, clearly none too pleased with the situation.

  “Hotheaded idiots like you should just cool off,” he said, causing a blue liquid to gush out beneath the Master that had attacked him.

  The blue liquid, the Slime, instantly surrounded the Master. “Hhh——————”

  It created a scene that was downright hellish.

  A moment after he got consumed, both his skin and equipment melted, becoming indistinguishable from each other. He screamed, but the blue Slime’s body reduced his voice to bubbles that didn’t even make it outside. If that had been the extent of it, this Slime would’ve been much like the carnivorous slime from that one horror movie. However, it had other qualities.

  Specifically, its surroundings were freezing.

  Not only did it melt anything inside it — it also spread damaging frost to its surroundings.

  “Say hello to my little Oxygen Slime, working title: Destroyer,” said Franklin. “Handmade by yours truly, he’s among the better ones I’ve created recently, if I say so myself.”

  The tone he had while presenting the Oxygen Slime was much like that of someone submitting a cake to a cookery contest. Yet, naturally, it was nothing that hearty. The Oxygen Slime was consuming, melting, and freezing the spectators unfortunate enough to be around it. Soon enough, one of them released a surge of fire towards it.

  “Good job, dum-dum,” muttered Franklin as the blaze hit the Slime and caused a large explosion.

  First frost, now flame — a sizeable part of the audience seating was engulfed in a blue inferno.

  “Come on now. I know that the go-to response to Slimes is fire, but I didn’t expect to see some brainlets here actually go with that. Were you even listening to me? I called it an ‘Oxygen Slime.’ Do you even know what ‘oxygen’ is? I hope for e
veryone’s safety that your stupid, liquid oxygen-lighting ass is forbidden from participating in experiments during science class.”

  Liquid oxygen — a substance acquired by condensing oxygen gas in the extremely low temperature of minus 182.96 Celsius. It was a highly hazardous, volatile substance that had a great enough oxidation potential to see it used as rocket fuel.

  “All of that blue is actually liquid oxygen...” I muttered.

  “I remember having to mess with it in a chemistry class,” said Shu.

  I had similar recollections. We had done experiments where we had to cool plastic bags full of oxygen using liquid nitrogen.

  “By the way, there’s no point in lighting him even when you’re prepared for the explosion,” added Franklin. “Blow him up, and my boy Destroyer instantly regenerates using the oxygen in the air.” Sure enough, at the center of the explosion, there was the Oxygen Slime, quickly restoring itself until it regained its original size.

  A creature that’s corrosive, indestructible, and explosive... Likely among the worst monsters you could face, I thought as I noticed something.

  The Masters that had died because of it had become particles and vanished. There were no corpses to be seen within the reach of the explosion.

  No tians got caught up in it, it seems. What a silver lining.

  “Anyway, this brainlet interference derailed us a bit, but I think I’m free to speak my demands now, yeah? Unless anyone else wants to try and play hero,” he said while standing on the barrier, looking fully confident that no one would get in his way.

  “Let’s play a game!” he shouted as he procured a strange switch and held it in his hand.

  “BEEP,” he said as he pressed it, making another Oxygen Slime pop out in another part of the audience.

  Thankfully, unlike the first time, no one got caught up in it, but its appearance alone was enough to make the spectators there panic and start running away from it.

  “That might’ve been enough for you to understand, but this switch is linked to the gadgets I set. As for what they do... they release the monsters I’ve prepared, like my Destroyers here. One press releases one monster at random,” he said, making most of the audience hastily get up and try to leave, but his words didn’t end there. “By the way, even if I don’t press it, all of them will be released in about an hour, and I have these gadgets placed all over Gideon.”