Chapter Four: The Two Leaders
High Pilot Hugo Lesseps.
The clan I was part of was a gathering of players that mostly focused on crafting.
Engineers, Mechanics, Pharmacists, Smiths... This world had many such jobs that produced all sorts of things, but when the work of tians and players was compared, most of the time, players were the ones that came out on top.
Just like with battle jobs, this was due to the abilities and bonuses to stat growth given to them by their Embryos. The quality of the item and the production success rate were dependent on skill level and DEX — not any real-life ability. Due to that, even a player who was a novice at the craft could produce work showing true mastery.
As my clan leader often said: “Unlike battle — which now involves moving your body — production in this game isn’t too different from how it was when MMORPGs weren’t VR. That’s why even the slowest klutz can do it.”
That wasn’t all, though.
“Mind you, that only applies when they’re making something that has already been made,” he liked to continue. “To create something new, you need the power to imagine it. When making something without the instructions, the necessary materials and inventiveness are on a completely different level.”
Infinite Dendrogram’s crafting came in two types — the production of known items and the creation of new items.
Both methods required the person to have sufficient materials, skills, and stats.
However, while known items could easily be made by following the instructions displayed on Recipes, the creation of new items required the creation of those very instructions.
Naturally, they weren’t easy to make, since they required a deeper understanding of the processes involved, detailed knowledge of this world’s science and magic, and a proper grasp of the necessary materials.
Simply put, creating new items was far too taxing. Thus, even after half a year had passed since the game’s release, Masters had still been making only known or slightly customized items.
That had changed with our clan.
Our clan leader had made a breakthrough in the game’s crafting department. In hindsight, it had been pretty simple, for he’d merely begun gathering people who were skilled and knowledgeable in reality.
The Dryfe Imperium was a country that had machine technology. Though there were many differences — such as the fuel of the machines being magic — the Imperium’s technology had similarities to what we had in reality. The clan leader had made good use of that fact.
He’d gathered various people who had knowledge about machines, which included graduate school students that had majored in mechanical engineering, skilled workers from automobile factories, designers of heavy machinery, and even those who were simply nutty about cars, trains, or weapons. And it was all for the goal of creating a new item.
Of course, people hadn’t gone to him just because he was recruiting. The clan leader had begun to receive a significant amount of applications when he’d revealed a specific project of his.
Its goal was to create a humanoid battle robot.
Back then, Dryfe hadn’t had any humanoid mobile weapon-type Magingears. When the game had begun, the only Magingears Dryfe had had in their arsenal were the powered suits nicknamed “Marshall” and the tanks known as “Geist.” While bipedal, human-like robots weren’t even being invented. Thus, the clan leader had made it his goal to create them.
Many people had been intrigued by the idea, so by the time the clan had been created, it’d already had dozens of knowledgeable and skilled people. They’d all quickly begun cooperating and working towards the common goal.
“All you need is knowledge, equipment, manpower, materials, money, imagination, skill level, luck, and guinea pigs!” the leader had announced when he’d kickstarted the project.
Clearly, it had been a demanding task. However, they’d been able to prepare everything they needed.
They’d mixed and matched their knowledges of machinery, compared and adjusted their magic technology, and performed lots of trial and error while trying to make it all click. There had been countless failures, great costs, and members leaving one after the other. However, they’d continued despite the many problems.
One of the senior members had compared the whole thing to something called “Project X,” and there had been many who’d nodded to his words. I had been uninformed and knew nothing about that show, but it seemed to click with those from his generation — especially the Japanese people.
And so, after two months in real life — half a year in Infinite Dendrogram — all the trouble has finally paid off as they completed a new item.
The name given to it was “Marshall II.” It was a mass-producible weapon with the power equivalent of a Demi-Dragon. The humanoid battle robot Magingear was a straight upgrade to a Marshall — the powered suit.
Once the Marshall II was complete and the Recipe became public, our clan quickly began growing into the largest one in Dryfe Imperium.
The battle before the fortress was nearing its end.
“Hugo, five o’clock, one Gunner,” said Cyco.
“Oui.”
As Cyco scouted the fog and gave me directions, I acted accordingly by turning my frame and firing from the Hand Canon on my left hand.
The Gunner that was aiming at me with a magic gun failed to evade my attack, and the explosive shot from my MRW03 Hand Canon made him burst into little pieces, leaving only the arm that was gripping the weapon.
That gun is one of the Imperium’s older models, I thought. Looks like our technology is leaking through that country’s black market again.
“Six o’clock, two Fighters,” said Cyco.
“Got it.”
I made my upper half turn around and used the centrifugal force to cut them down with my SRW02 Battle Knife.
The first one was unable to react as it broke through his armor, flesh, bone, flesh, armor — in that order — and split him at his torso. The second one reacted and stopped my Battle Knife with his greatshield.
Unlike in reality, Infinite Dendrogram’s Fighters of this vein were tough. Though a Marshall II had power that made most heavy machinery pale in comparison, many Fighters could — evidently — block mine’s attacks and even harm it.
This one had both reaction speed and power.
However...
“Your legs are wide open,” I said.
Making sure he didn’t move by forcing him to struggle against the force of my Battle Knife, I used the Marshall II’s legs to step on his. The robot’s overall weight — which reached a whole ten tons — was far too great for his plated boots to handle, and his legs were crushed.
“HHHH?!”
The moment he released a voiceless scream and lowered the power on his shield arm, I used my blade — now free to move — to split his head in half.
“No enemies nearby,” said Cyco.
“Got it,” I replied. “Continue keeping an eye out. And dedicate extra attention to the direction of the fortress.”
“Oui.”
Apparently, I’d handled everything they’ve sent at me so far. The realization that I’d prevailed made me heave a deep sigh.
My Marshall II was standing in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by countless bandit corpses. I silently looked around. The one responsible for this horrible scene was me.
I was fully aware that there were things to be said about me killing so many people, but my actions didn’t make my heart hurt, nor did I regret them.
I’d known about the existence of the Gouz-Maise Gang before Rebecca had told me about them. In fact, I’d been aware of them before I’d even come to Gideon. During the research we’d done for the plan, I’d noticed them among the factions surrounding the city and engraved them onto my mind.
They had killed far too many children and far too many noble souls trying to save them. It was only natural for people who took the lives of other humans to — in turn — be killed by them, as well. I thoroughly believed that to be true.
Though, considering that I was an immortal Master, that belief might be insolent and contradictory.
“All right, now...” I muttered.
Though the result of the battle made it seem like my victory had been flawless, that was far from the truth. My own HP hadn’t dropped a single percent, but the damage to my Marshall II was severe. Due to the attacks it had sustained, about a third of its armor had come off, which had exposed the inner frame to considerable amounts of damage. The movement of its left arm had become quite slow, as well.
Special equipment like cars, ships, and Magingear didn’t have any HP displays, but if they did, my Marshall II’s gauge would be at about 30% of the total. That was a testament to just how difficult the battle had been.
Though a Marshall II was a humanoid robot straight out of science fiction, my opponents were all true inhabitants of this fantasy world. The axes they’d swung could break steel, and the arrows they’d fired had easily pierced through the robot’s armor. If my fellow clan members hadn’t increased the Marshall II’s stats by fine tuning it for better use by the clan’s Masters, and if I hadn’t given it the bonuses from a High Pilot riding it, I would’ve been overwhelmed by their numbers and lost.
I sighed yet again, reached into my inventory and took out an MP Recovery Potion.
Moving and fighting in the Magingear came at a cost to my MP. During the battle, it had dropped to a mere 20% of the total, and if I didn’t restore it, the damage to my Marshall II would be the least of my worries in the upcoming battles.
“Hugo,” Cyco addressed me.
I drank the contents of the bottle and replied to her. “What is it, Cyco?” “It wouldn’t have been this hard if you’d used your Embryo’s skill,” she said.
“Indeed.” I nodded in response. She was completely right. If I’d used my Embryo’s skill, I could’ve won without getting as much as a scratch on me. After all, it was basically the natural enemy of people such as these.
However...
“I can’t,” I said. “I will only allow myself to use that skill after the plan begins. I am not touching it before that. That’s an order from the clan leader, and I made a promise to follow it.”
“But no one’s watching — not even Ray.”
“Even so,” I said. “If I were to use the skill before the plan begins, it would have to be a situation when I simply have to do it.” And thankfully, it hadn’t come to that.
“How stubborn,” she said.
“I’m aware,” I nodded. “Now, I wonder if there are any kidnapped children in those carriages.”
I could easily help them right now, but doing so would made it obvious that using them as hostages would be effective against me. If another battle began while they were aware of that, the scum would begin using them to threaten me.
That would be fine if there were no more bandits left or if Ray had exterminated all the ones still at the fortress, but if some were still alive, trying to help the children in the carriages would be dangerous. I had to leave them there for now.
As such thoughts went through my head...
“...Heh,” I grinned.
“Hugo,” said Cyco.
“I know.”
I sighed slightly and moved the levers to make the Magingear replace the Hand Cannon’s empty explosive shot magazine with a full one it had hanging on its waist. Even while doing such a simple action, I couldn’t help but be aware that the left arm’s movements were noticeably duller.
“I could’ve put the Marshall II back in the Garage and fixed it up, but it seems I’ll have to give up on that,” I said. After all — I was all out of time.
Aiming towards the entrance of the fortress, I fired a shot from my Hand Cannon. It went through the open gates and exploded upon hitting the thing standing right behind them.
Any normal human hit by such an attack would’ve burst into pieces so small that none of them would’ve reached one kilogram in mass. However, that didn’t happen to the creature standing there.
“Damn, that hurts!” it said. “It’s kinda hot, too.”
With those words, the thing showed itself while displaying no signs of injury or pain.
It was a demon of a large stature. Despite its head being that of an ox, the teeth lining its mouth were all hound-like fangs.
Its height almost matched that of my Marshall II. It even had to bend a bit to fit through the fortress’ gates, which were twice as tall as the average person. A single glance was enough to know that it was on an entirely different level from the bandits I’d been fighting until now.
The sight of it made me tremble.
“...I assume you’re one of the leaders of the Gouz-Maise Gang?” I asked.
“Ayup,” it said. “Yer talkin’ to one of the two great leaders of the Gouz-Maise Gang — Strong Gladiator Gouz.”
“Hugo, do you know about category-based personality analysis?” the clan leader had asked soon after I’d joined the clan. It had happened about a month ago in terms of reality’s time.
The clan had already become the largest in Dryfe. It was known for having played a great role in the war and was flourishing in terms of both budget and human resources. There was no end to the Masters trying to join, and the total number of members was quickly closing in on a thousand.
Back then, I had still been a rookie whose total Infinite Dendrogram playtime didn’t even break a month — a Master who’d just happened to join at that particular time. However, due to some things in reality, the leader had taken an interest in me and invited me into his clan. Because of those circumstances, he and I often had talks such as these.
“Is it something like blood type-based personality analysis?” I asked. “It certainly sounds like it.”
I wasn’t fond of the idea behind blood type-based personality analysis. Rather than trying to research my character by examining the traits I was born with, I preferred to strive to be someone I wanted to be. A person’s character was best left for the person to decide. Whether here or in reality, I sincerely believed that to be true.
“Blood types, eh?” said the leader. “I don’t like personality analysis based on that because the basis for it is extremely weak. I still think that brain — not blood — should be the first thing to look at if you wanted to know how a person ticks. Well, anyway...”
He reached into his inventory and took out a whiteboard. Then he began writing something down on it with a marker. He liked explaining things, so he always had those objects with him.
He also liked scheming, so he often used them to lay out the plans that came to his mind. It wouldn’t have been too bad if the schemes could be laughed off, but he often made plots which — while amusing to us — were nothing short of tragic to those affected.
A part of me was often disturbed by such plans, but the part of me that would stop him simply didn’t exist.
...Back to the matter at hand.
On the whiteboard, the leader drew a humanoid shape which represented a Master and wrote down several Embryo categories to the side of it.
“You know how, in the Zeroth Form, an Embryo examines the Master’s actions, character, and other personal things before using the results to go into the First Form, right? Well, some decided to turn it around, creating this idea that you can find out what kind of person a Master is by looking at the type of their Embryo.”
That made sense. Since Embryos were born from the inner workings of Masters, they were far more reliable than blood types.
“The idea was popular about one year ago in terms of real time,” said the leader. “I tried my hand at it, too. However, High-Rank Embryos and above had so many irregularities that I couldn’t make sense of them at all. There were even some Embryos like mine — completely unique in terms of typing. In the end, the only results that were somewhat reliable were those I got from four of the five base categories and a certain extra.”
The categories he wrote down were Arms, Guardian, Castle, Territory, and just “extra.”
“Boss,” I spoke up. “I don’t see Chariot among the five main categories.”
“Chariot, eh?” he repeated. “I actually didn’t notice anything definite among Masters with those Embryos. That’s why it’s not in my results.”
What a shame, I thought. I was actually quite curious about that category.
“Now, let me describe them for you,” he said. “Arms often belong to people who are courageous and unafraid to get hurt. Reckless, stupid, emotional, hot-blooded. There are many ways to describe them. Guardian Masters are the opposite — they’re cowardly, afraid to get hurt, lonely, or just want to have someone protect them. These two fit the general image, don’t you think?”
Weapons and defenses. When the nature of those Embryos was considered, that evaluation seemed to be quite correct. Though I couldn’t help but wonder where non-weapon Arms were in all of this.
“Castle Masters are introverted, gentle, careful, cooperative, and have an artisan’s temperament. Seems right, no?” he said. “Territory Masters have a lust for control, tend to hoard their stress, create rules for themselves, and are self-righteous and lone wolves. By the way, my Embryo’s first category was Castle.”
I see, I thought. So, depending on the person, there was room for objections. Especially when you considered the leader’s personality and aligned it with the description of Castle Masters.
“There are some hybrids that mix several categories at once, so it’s hard to be completely sure,” he added. “But anyway, that’s the main categories covered.”
“So, boss,” I spoke up. “What’s the extra category?”
“Maiden.”
His answer made my eyes widen, though only a little bit.
“Type Maiden,” he said. “A rare category you will encounter every now and then. These Embryos have two main features. First, they’re always hybrids that come equipped with another category. And second, their base form is always that of a human. Sure, there are Guardians that take the shape of humanoid monsters, but Maidens are always humans, through and through.”
I was fully aware of those features.
“Just so you know, the term ‘Maiden’ is only used when their human form is female,” he continued. “It’s different when it’s male, but those are just so damn rare.”
“So, leader... what are Maiden Masters like?” I asked.
“They don’t think that this world is a game. To them, the weight of the lives here is just as great as it is in reality.”
His answer made me silently gasp.
“So, got anything to say about my deductions, Hugo?”
I had trouble formulating an answer to that.
Finally, one of the two leaders of the gang had left the fortress and introduced himself as Gouz, the Strong Gladiator.
“Strong Gladiator” was one of the high-rank jobs from the gladiator grouping. I’d heard that it focused mainly on hand-to-hand combat. What mattered more than the job itself, however, was the fact that he even had a job, which meant that — despite appearing so monstrous — he was actually a Demi-Human. That reality was also supported by the fact that he could hold a conversation.
“Man, did you make a mess here,” he said. “My boys were such a nice little bunch, and you went and killed them all.”
“You say that,” I replied, “but I don’t see a hint of anger or sadness in you.”
“Well, yeah, means I get a buncha free meals, right?”
...This wretch, I thought.
“A kid’s meat is sweet and tender, sure,” he continued. “But every now and then, I feel like sinking my teeth into the bitter meat of an adult. Did ya know that adult flesh actually becomes more bitter and tastier the more of a dreg they are?”
“Sorry, but I’m a vegetarian,” I snapped.
“Really, now? Surprised ya can stay healthy like that. Guess that immortality you Masters have comes packaged with some tough bodies, eh?”
So he knew I was a Master.
“I was watchin’ the whole fight from the fortress,” he went on. “Your movements are too good. Don’t hafta be a genius to see that you’re not the usual soldier.”
“Heh,” I grinned. “Then you could’ve come out before I’d killed every single one of your underlings.”
“Oh, but having you take care of them saved us the hassle,” he said.
“...What?”
“Well, we were actually planning to move out of here,” he explained. “By ‘we,’ I mean me and the other leader, of course. The underlings and the brats were just in the way, ya know? We planned to kill and eat them all.”
The leaders were leaving their hideout and getting rid of their underlings? I thought. What drove them to do that?
“So what’s the reason?” I asked.
“Not telling,” he said. “Well, I don’t actually need any reasons. He said we’re doing it, so I’m just tagging along.”
So the other leader was above him, while he merely acted as his right hand man.
...That relationship reminded me of a certain someone.
“Thanks to you killing our underlings, all that’s left is to eat ’em,” he added. “Then just gotta take care of the brats in the dungeon... and the ones the boys just brought us.”
He shifted his gaze towards the carriages behind me... specifically, towards the children inside.
“I won’t allow that,” I said coldly. I made my Marshall II brandish the Battle Knife and aim the Hand Cannon at him.
“Ha ha ha!” he laughed. “Thought as much. But...”
Gouz lowered his center of gravity, and...
“Y’CAN’T WIN AGAINST ME WITH THAT BROKEN PILE OF JUNK, YA DUMB SHIT!”
...with a roar that seemed to shake the fortress — no, the whole ground around him — he charged at me while perking his shoulders.
In response to that unrefined — almost suicidal — attack, I swung my Battle Knife at him. Since the explosive shot from my Hand Cannon hadn’t worked, I chose to use my melee weapon — a means of attack with a more focused type of damage — to hit his weak point. Specifically, I aimed at his carotid artery, which was sure to become a fatal injury when damaged.
However, the result was far from my expectations.
“NOT GONNA WORK!”
My Battle Knife actually broke — not by his horns or claws, but by the skin covering his carotid artery.
“Huh?!” I exclaimed.
A moment later, Gouz’s large body rammed into my Marshall II and greatly shook the inside of the cockpit.
“MGHHHOOOOOO!”
Though the robot was several times heavier than him, his power was great enough to overcome that difference in weight. After pushing the Marshall II for more than ten meters, Gouz grabbed hold of its torso and threw it in an uncertain direction. Following a momentary floating sensation, the Marshall II crashed into the ground.
“Ghh! Ahhh!” Though the harness fixing me to the machine didn’t show any signs of letting go, the force of the impact made the air escape my lungs. I hurriedly tried to regain my breath, but my respiratory system didn’t seem to be functioning properly.
I then tried to move the levers to make the Magingear get into a proper position, but it didn’t go too well. The Marshall II or myself — I couldn’t tell which one was broken.
“Hugo!” said Cyco.
“Heh... ha ha ha,” I laughed. “I underestimated him. This ox-head’s tough. Clearly among the best high-rank job wielders. He could even aim for a Superior Job if the conditions were right.”
However, that couldn’t ever happen because the Superior Job of the gladiator grouping — Over Gladiator — had already been taken by that “Figaro” fellow.
Still, there was no denying that Gouz was strong. He could easily defeat high-rank Masters such as myself. Honestly, I wasn’t certain if I could’ve won against him even if the Marshall II had been in perfect shape.
This robot’s ability was equivalent to that of a Demi-Dragon. My level 7 Piloting skill increased its power by 140%, but that still wasn’t enough to match this man.
“Hugo,” Cyco said again.
“Yes, I can hear you, Cyco,” I responded.
“Will you use the skill?” she asked.
I was silent. I still didn’t know if that was a good idea.
My power was below that of Gouz. The gap between us was made even greater by the damage I’d sustained.
The Marshall II and I can’t hope to win against this tough man-eater, I thought. However, if I use the skill — my Embryo’s skill — the result will change drastically. My victory will become certain due to the fact that he is a tough man-eater.
However, I’d made it a point not to use my Embryo’s skill until the project, and...
“Man, I’m really workin’ up an appetite here,” he cut my thoughts short with his words.
Hearing Gouz say that, I looked at him through the Marshall II’s cracked camera-eye. Despite being in battle with me, he was facing towards the other direction. Considering my condition, he might’ve been thinking that the battle was over.
Gouz was messing with a corpse of one of his underlings. He removed the armor, stripped off the clothes... and sank his fangs into the flesh.
“Mm, them’s good eatin’,” he spoke while eating, courtesy be damned. “It’s just so... complete. Wouldn’t expect less from my boys.”
With those words, bite by bite, he devoured his underling whole. As the sight filled me with an urge to vomit, I looked at my equipment window and tested the levers to determine the Marshall II’s condition.
More than 70% of the armor was lost, while the damage to the armor that remained was critical. The left arm wasn’t moving at all. The right arm’s movements were dull. The legs, however, were still mobile.
As for weapons... the Hand Cannon had been lost along with the left hand. The Battle Knife had been completely destroyed. The Marshall II had been rendered useless for battle.
“My choices are...”
...to use the skill or retreat without using it, I thought.
I couldn’t use the skill because of the plan.
I couldn’t let myself get the death penalty here because the plan was commencing tomorrow.
Thus, I had to run away...
But if I retreated, Ray was still here. There was the possibility that he could defeat Gouz. Therefore, even if I retreated...
“Main course over — guess I’ll have dessert!” He cut my thoughts short again and took something out of the bag hanging at his waist.
Once I realized what it was... my mind almost blanked out completely.
The thing in Gouz’s hand was about the size of a ball. Small eyes — open wide and filled with terror, swaying hair — long and drenched in blood... It was unmistakably a human head. The head of a little girl.
Gouz threw it into his mouth as nonchalantly as one would a piece of candy. The demonic fangs lining his oral cavity fell downwards, mashing the child’s skull with ease.
“Man, it’s so good,” he said. “Kid meat’s tastiest when they know they’re about to die, y’know that? But my appetite ain’t quite sated yet.”
Saying that, Gouz began making his way towards the carriage, and his intentions became immediately clear.
“Gh...” The deed I’d just witnessed and the realization of what he was going to do made all the hesitation in my mind fade away like it had never been there. What took its place was pure, unadulterated wrath.
“Hugo!” Cyco called out to me again.
“Cyco,” I replied.
“Will you use the skill?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
Though it was still severely damaged, I made my Marshall II stand upright.
“Gouz!” I yelled.
The ox-head turned around when he heard his own name called out.
“Huhh? Ya still awake, ya Master piece of shit?” he asked.
Awake? I repeated the word in my head. How appropriate.
Indeed — I had been half-asleep until now. I hadn’t used the skill because of the plan. And because of the same plan, I’d chosen to avoid getting the death penalty and run away.
How thoroughly absurd. That wasn’t me at all.
The Hugo Lesseps I strived to be wasn’t this unsightly an individual.
Thus, I made my wrath known.
“I declare that I will no longer tolerate you!”
My words made Gouz laugh. “Ha ha ha! Big words, comin’ from a Master who treats my entire world like a little game! You aren’t the first of your kind to come here, and let me tell ya — none of the ones before ya were actually serious about whatever they were doing. You shits can’t die in this world, so what’s it matter to you? You can’t ever know the fear of death my kind know!”
“Indeed,” I said. “We Masters all enter this world with the intention to play. However, there are some that listen to the voices of those who call this world their home. Some that grieve when hearing the dying cries of the weak. And some who use that to set what they really are.”
Thus, I had decided on my role in this world.
I was the thorn of a rose. A spike meant to pierce any and all scoundrels trying to ravage beautiful flowers and precious lives.
That was the true Hugo Lesseps. The role I’d willingly given to myself.
“Be aware,” I said. “For the sin of ending lives too many to count, I will send you into the bowels of Hell.”
Following the set role, I faced the scoundrel — Gouz — and declared, “My hell will destroy you.” He would pay for all his sins.
“DO YOUR WORST, YA PIECE OF SHIT!” Gouz screamed in exasperation, and charged at me once again.
Another attack from him could completely destroy the Marshall II and kill me alongside it. However, that had no chance of happening at this point.
“Cyco!”
Cyco stood up on the robot’s shoulder.
“Crest Disguise... Disable,” she said. Through the camera-eye, I could see Gouz’s face fill with surprise. It was only natural, considering what he’d just seen.
Cyco suddenly appeared on the Marshall II and made the crest on her left hand — the proof of a Master — disappear.
Indeed — Cyco was not a Master.
A Master of that name simply didn’t exist.
Cyco’s true identity was...
“Cocytus, it’s time.”
“Yes, Master.”
Cyco — Cocytus — disintegrated to become a gathering of white and blue particles that showered the Marshall II, merged with it, and drastically changed its appearance.
The surroundings were momentarily overwhelmed by a whirling blizzard, followed by a brief whiteout.
In the center of it all stood Cocytus and I — taking the shape of a completely reconstructed Marshall II.
The robot was now equipped with new armor reminiscent of transparent, white ice. In its hands and on its head were cross-like blades that were made of blue ice.
Due to its replenished magic, the Marshall II’s output was now greater than it had been when it was completely unharmed. Its appearance was reminiscent of an anthropomorphized church made of ice.
This was my Embryo.
The true form of Cocytus — a Type Maiden with Chariot.
“GRRROOAAAAGGHHHHHHH!”
Despite what had just transpired, Gouz didn’t stop his charge.
That was the correct reaction. Not knowing hesitation or fear, Gouz was a perfect example of a true warrior.
He was strong, indeed.
But it was already over for him. The moment I’d decided to use Cocytus’ power, Gouz had lost all chance of emerging victorious. It didn’t matter how tough of a man-eater he was.
The stage was set.
The gates of hell were opening to welcome another sinner.
“Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes.”
After reciting the words etched onto the entrance to hell — “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” — I activated the skill.
“La Porte de l’Enfer.”
Moments later, Gouz’s life reached a bitter end.
Paladin Ray Starling
The world of Infinite Dendrogram had a job system.
Just as I had my “Paladin” job, so did other Masters and tians have theirs. The only people who didn’t have jobs were Masters who had just started Infinite Dendrogram and tian children.
Jobs were many and varied. Vanguard roles alone had job groupings such as Knight — which included my Paladin job — Swordsman, Warrior, Gladiator, Pugilist, Samurai, and so on.
Then there were job groupings for rearguard roles, support roles, crafting roles, et cetera... When summed up, they were just too many to properly grasp.
The catalog my brother had given me had the conditions for acquiring every low-rank and high-rank job. The entries there amounted to several thousands, and — naturally — I still had trouble remembering them all. The number of active Masters was several hundred thousand, and I had a feeling that — if jobs had been split evenly among them — there would’ve been fewer than one hundred people on each of them. Of course, the actual job distribution was nowhere near “even.” Rook’s Pimp job, for example, wasn’t too popular among Masters.
There was no denying that the number of jobs available for people in other MMORPGS was incomparable to that of Dendro’s freedom. But despite this overwhelmingly great amount, there was one job that was etched into my mind. It was one I couldn’t quite forget about.
It was a job named “Necromancer.”
Its selling points were its many debuff skills, offensive dark magic skills...
...and, of course, Necromancy — the skill that allowed one to turn corpses into tamed monsters at the cost of MP.
It could be used on both people and creatures without any problems.
Of course, the difficulty of turning a corpse into a tamed monster depended on how powerful the creature was when alive.
On the other hand, that meant that children — being nearly powerless — could be turned into undead without much trouble.
The catalog said that one of the conditions to get the high-rank job of the Necromancer grouping was related to the number of successful uses of the Necromancy skill. I’d read on the wiki that some tian criminals were Necromancers who used children and the sickly to increase that counter for that very purpose. Some theorized that getting the Superior Job of this grouping involved a similar condition.
The implications of the idea made me sick, so I’d etched the existence of Necromancers into my memory. And now, it all came back to me.
Trying to make sense of why the Gouz-Maise Gang was kidnapping children, I made my way towards the end of the underground hallway.
It was a straight path without any branches, so all I had to do was go forward.
Although I didn’t encounter any bandits, I had to face some undead — adults this time — blocking my way.
They’d probably been made from corpses that had gathered here when the fortress had still been occupied by the army. Then again, they could’ve just as well been the remains of the adventurers the bandits had defeated.
I destroyed each and every undead in my way. Even if they had been people once, I couldn’t let them stop me. If I did, the dead would just keep piling up.
Finally, I reached the end of the hallway, where I was greeted by a door. A heavy-set thing of wood, secured by a steel padlock, it separated me from the room behind it, where I felt the presence of living creatures.
“Hhgh!”
I swung my Nemesis down on the door itself, rather than the padlock. As pieces of wood scattered all over, I jumped inside and examined the surroundings.
I was fully ready to cut down any gang members that were awaiting me, but the only living creatures here were caged children.
There was a total of seven of them.
From their closed eyes, I could tell that they were in deep sleep. I didn’t know which, but I had little doubt that one of them was Roddie — the one we had to save. Of course, I fully intended to save them all, quest-related or not.
I found it a bit strange that the children seemed to be the only people here.
“Not a single gang member?” I said in confusion.
“This room had a padlock on it, after all,” said Nemesis. “It might be fair to assume they left the child-watching to the undead.”
“I guess that makes sense.” I cautiously examined the children and the condition they were in. Reaching through the grates, I gently shook some of them, but they showed no signs of awakening.
“I assume they’re either drugged or under the effect of some debuff spell,” commented Nemesis.
“Probably,” I nodded. It was just my intuition, but I believed it to be magic. After all, the one who’d done it was probably the one who’d made undead out of those children in the hallway.
To him, they were just cards to use to get ransom money. And if it didn’t come, he’d readily kill them and use his Necromancy to desecrate their corpses. I was beyond disgusted.
“Master, look to the right,” Nemesis said.
I looked, saw another door — an iron one this time. Upon approaching it, I lightly spun the doorknob. The way it felt made it obvious that it wasn’t locked and that I’d have no trouble opening it.
“Will you go inside?” asked Nemesis.
“Of course,” I replied.
I spun the doorknob and quickly kicked the door open. I had already broken one door. If there was someone in here, then there was no reason for me to act all stealthy.
“Is that a...?” I began.
The first thing I saw after entering was a person. A young boy, to be precise. He was sleeping — just like the children in the cages. In the middle of the room, on the floor under him, there was a highly detailed magic circle.
“There’s a lot to be said about the tastes of the owner of this room.” Nemesis’ voice was steeped in anger.
The magic circle on the floor wasn’t the only thing she was referring to. In fact, the magic circle was tame when compared to the rest of the scene.
Stains of blood covered both the walls and the ceiling. Something’s leather was heaped against the edge of the room. A nearby barrel was overflowing with white bones. The table next to the wall was covered in utensils and materials, but nothing really stood out until I saw a taxidermy construction of a right hand with twenty fingers, which compelled me to shift my gaze away.
I silently suppressed my rage. There was no denying that we were standing in the laboratory of the Necromancer who’d created those undead.
However, the Necromancer himself was nowhere in sight. It was safe to assume that he’d gone out to face Hugo.
The child on the magic circle was probably going to be his next guinea pig. We’d saved him by coming here.
“What now?” asked Nemesis. “Should we ensure the children’s safety or go help Hugo with the bandit elimination?”
That was a hard decision to make. Saving the children was our primary goal, but carrying all seven of them somewhere safe would be too difficult for me alone. However, if I left them here and went out to fight, I’d increase the possibility of them being used as hostages.
My other option was to stay here and protect the children while Hugo took care of the bandits, but it’d all go to hell if Hugo got killed.
“Man, this is a tough one...” I sighed.
“For now, I think you should take that youngling to the other room,” said Nemesis. “I don’t know what kind of magic circle that is, but I don’t believe it’s safe for a child to sleep on.”
I nodded and moved towards the child in the circle.
After a few steps, I stepped on something that seemed strange. It was a particularly thick piece of cloth. At first glance, it looked like a thin mattress made of felt, but I soon noticed that it had a pair of sleeves sewn on it, making it clear that it was a piece of clothing — a robe, to be precise. What seemed strange wasn’t the fact that clothing was lying on the ground, but the fact that I could feel something hard under it.
I kicked the robe away to find out what it was.
“These are...”
...bones — that was the source of the hard sensation beneath my feet.
Their presence didn’t surprise me in the least. The nearby barrel was full of them, after all. However, I found it strange that half of the bones were those of a human, while the other half belonged to something else. The non-human bones were thicker and reminded me of a horse skeleton I’d seen in a museum once.
“How did human and horse bones end up lying in the same place?” I asked.
“I would guess they belong to a horse-man,” said Nemesis. “As far as I am aware, this is just about how their skeletal remains look.”
That reminded me that, back in Gideon, I had seen some members of a race that looked much like the centaurs from Greek myth.
I glanced back down at my feet. The upper body and skull bones clearly belonged to a human, while the bones that matched to the lower body seemed about the right fit for an equine. Indeed, there was little doubt that they belonged to a horse-man.
However, there were things to be said about their large size. I didn’t know that race’s average, but at the very least, it was clear that it didn’t belong to a child.
How did the bones of a mature horse-man end up here? I thought.
“The Necromancer might’ve somehow gotten his hands on one of their corpses and used it in his experiments,” said Nemesis.
“He would’ve cleaned it up if that was the case,” I argued. “After all, he’s already preparing his next guinea pig.”
I looked at the child on the magic circle. It didn’t take a genius to see that the Necromancer was fully ready for the next experiment. He wouldn’t have left the bones from a previous experiment just lying on the floor like this.
I mean, the madman is methodical enough to put all the other bones in that barrel there, I thought.
“Trying to understand the thought process of a madman is a fool’s errand, if you ask me,” said Nemesis.
“...No point in considering it, huh?” I muttered.
She had a point. My prime objective was to move that child away from here.
After using Nemesis to shatter the magic circle multiple times and making sure that I wouldn’t activate some strange magic, I stepped inside and picked the boy up.
Sleeping on the cold floor had made his body temperature drop. Still, he was breathing properly and had a stable pulse. Slightly relieved, I began carrying him on my back and made my way out of the room.
Suddenly, I felt his breath behind me.
That was normal — considering where he was — but for some reason, a chill arced down my spine like lightning...
“Die.”
I was unsure of where that word came from. But it was too late. I heard the sound of a blade slicing my neck.
Somehow I’d missed it, but the child on my back had a dagger in his hands.
As my carotid artery began oozing blood, I fell to the cold, stony floor.
One of the two leaders of the Gouz-Maise Gang, Lich Maise
This world had a power most referred to as “Superior Jobs.”
Out of the thousands of jobs available to humanoid creatures, those were the ultimate peak — available only to a select few.
Superior Jobs allowed people to surpass the limits of their corporeal form.
One of the people who had a Superior Job was the Arch Wiseman — the one they called the kingdom’s guardian deity. His magic power was nothing short of divine. He could part the ground beneath and even bring down the heavens themselves.
However, in the war with Dryfe, the Arch Wiseman had been defeated by the King of Beasts — a Master and another owner of a Superior Job.
Though that had been nothing but a tragedy for the Kingdom of Altar, a number of people were glad that he was gone. After all — the throne of a Superior Job was exclusive to the one possessing it. With the kingdom’s Arch Wiseman dying, the role of the Arch Wiseman became open for those wanting to take it.
I, too, was aiming for a Superior Job. However, it was a job completely unlike the Wiseman’s.
The Superior Job I set my sights upon was at the apex of the Necromancer grouping. It was a job known as the King of Corpses.
Its power was far above the magic of common Necromancers... and beyond even the Necromancy of Liches — those who became undead themselves.
Anyone seated in the throne of corpses would be immortal, undying, and commanding power surpassing that of all the deceased. It was the only method to receive the undeath that only Masters had.
That was the King of Corpses.
I started leading the Gouz-Maise gang to further my efforts at getting this Superior Job. The kidnapped children were there to help me practice my Necromancy. The money was necessary for me to get certain magic items and to bribe Caldina.
In that country, money was the start and the end of the conversation. Everything in Caldina had a price. A sufficiently-greased palm could even get their army to act in response to movements from Gideon’s soldiers.
Since this place was near the border, that made the kingdom hesitant to attack us because it could provoke Caldina.
Also, with all the Conceal and Presence Manipulation magic items I’d bought from them, the kidnapping of materials had become significantly easier. Blessed with abundant ingredients and the perfect environment, I was able to study the path of Necromancy to my heart’s content and slowly made my way towards the throne of the King of Corpses.
Getting this Superior Job required the fulfillment of several difficult conditions and then passing a certain test. I had learned the conditions by deciphering an ancient text describing the secret processes.
The first condition there was “Turn 5,000 years’ worth of life into death,” which I’d easily achieved by making this fortress my hideout and having the gang work for me. Since I focused on children — who were both easy to convert into undead and still had long, happy futures ahead of them — it all went extremely smoothly. I needed fewer than a hundred of them for this, but since the undead were a great asset, I continued on doing it.
The second condition — which I’d achieved, as well — was the creation of a Crystal of Resentment. It was made by forcing enormous amounts of fear — or grudge, to be more precise — into a Crystal of Purity — an item that cleansed the corruption of the undead.
Gouz helped me a lot with this. The fear of the children he ate while they were still alive manifested in exquisite, sorrowful grudges.
Of course, the grudge I got from them when using the Anguish Circle to turn them into materials for the undead wasn’t too bad, either.
The once-white crystal that had emitted an irritatingly divine light was now blackened to the very core.
With that, I’d had already fulfilled the conditions to become the King of Corpses. All that was left was going to Legendaria — the place where the job’s throne was sealed — to clear the ordeal quest and make the title my own.
Both the fortress and the gang had outlived their use. Gideon would soon become crowded with some particularly pesky individuals. Before that happened, I planned to take Gouz — my only useful subordinate — with me, then destroy all the knowledge I might’ve left here and leave once and for all.
That was when a particularly reckless intruder sneaked into the fortress.
“???? — Abyssal Delusion!”
Dead Man’s Bind!
I quickly used the most vile hexes I had at my disposal. They were two high-rank debuff spells — one was vocal and came accompanied by a chant, while the other came from the magic item on my right hand and didn’t need any words.
Abyssal Delusion was a powerful hex that gave the affected the Death Sentence, Weakness, and Deterioration status effects, making them rot and become corpses while still alive. Dead Man’s Bind was another spell with three debuffs — Binding, Curse, and Lethargy. Together, they gave a total of six particularly powerful status effects.
This combination had sent many of my enemies to their deaths. Anyone unlucky enough to receive it was rendered completely immobile.
“Ghaah!”
Yet he didn’t stop. As though he’d reversed the effects of my hexes, he became more intimidating and horizontally swung his halberd — shining with Purifying Silverlight — towards me.
“Guh?!” I exclaimed. If I had been but a step closer, his attack would’ve split my torso.
I couldn’t let that happen. Taking fatal damage from him was something I had to avoid at all costs.
I was a Lich — an undead master of magic. Most of my wounds would mend a moment after they’d happened. I could lose an arm or get my body split in half — no such damage was critical to me.
However, in this case, the mending didn’t work at all. In fact, the arm he’d cut off had already turned to dust.
That was only natural. After all — he was wielding Purifying Silverlight. It was a gleam used only by a limited number of Paladins and Temple Knights — a light meant for the sole purpose of purging the undead. No matter how great of a Lich I was, I couldn’t come back from a fatal attack by a weapon blessed with that loathsome shine.
The fear of death overwhelmed me. It was a feeling that had become alien to me over time. It was a feeling that would never again strike me once I became the King of Corpses. But here and now, it was raw. It shook my very being.
“Awaken Undead!” Using my Necromancy, I activated the undead monsters I’d stored in the barrel in this room.
Countless Skeleton Soldiers answered my call.
However, they meant little.
There was no chance of them winning against this aberration, but it mattered not. They only had to buy the time I needed to run away.
As the undead began charging at him, I turned around and left the laboratory. If I stayed any longer, I knew it would become my grave.
Then — as my breath became ragged — I ran towards the surface through the underground hallway. Once we Liches became undead, our hearts and lungs ceased their function and were replaced by a gathering of crystallized magic. Thus, physical lack of breath was something I should never have experienced again. And yet, I felt as though I was suffocating.
“Why is a Master...?!” Through my ragged breath, I voiced my dread. “Why is one of those immortal abominations... actually furious?”
This fear was unknown to me. The fear of that thing’s emotion. The terror I felt towards that aberration.
Terror — that was the word. Having one of those abominations direct such pure killing intent and rage towards me was nothing short of terrifying. After all, that meant that an immortal, indestructible animal would be hunting me for all eternity.
I had to escape. Anywhere near that aberration was certain death, so I had to leave this fortress and run where he could never find me.
I had to do it — and I could do it.
Though I was a Lich, my Agility was greater than his, so it would be perfectly possible for me to distance myself from him.
Reaching the surface would mean regrouping with Gouz. Then, I’d simply have to make him fight the abomination while I made my escape.
“I can do it...!” Picturing that future made me relieved.
Due to me being a horse-man, the underground hallway’s soundscape was dominated by the sound of my horse legs hitting the floor.
However, the sound soon mingled with another.
“...What?” I burst out.
Its source was approaching me from behind. Systematic, yet rough impacts on the ground — the sound was exactly the same as the ones coming from under my feet. It was the sound of a galloping horse.
“Gh...!”
Unable to bear the tension caused by the approaching sound, I turned around.
What I saw was far beyond my imagination. It was an artificial, silver horse, speeding through the underground hallway. And to the side of it was the abomination.
For some reason, he wasn’t riding it. The aberration was holding the silver horse’s reins with his right hand, scraping his leg armor across the ground. It was reminiscent of a Granvaloan water sport.
In his left hand, he was still holding the halberd as the flag flowing out of it fluttered wildly in the air.
Why isn’t he using his Riding skill? I thought.
That way of riding it should soon break his legs and render them useless, right? But why doesn’t it look like he’s taking any damage?
The strange sight left me with several questions, but their answers didn’t matter.
What mattered was the fact that he was still chasing me... and that the horse was faster than me, meaning that he would soon catch up.
“AAAAUUUGHHHHHHH!”
Disregarding my shame and reputation, I screamed in fear while running towards the surface as fast as I could.
On the surface, I would meet up with Gouz. He could buy me all the time I needed to run away.
“Awaken... AWAKEN UNDEAAAAD!” Not slowing down whatsoever, I activated the undead monsters I had buried in the walls for emergencies such as these.
They were called “High-End Skeleton Warriors.” I had made these high-rank undead by using the corpses of skilled tians. They were the remains of the party Gouz and I had taken care of.
Six High-End Skeleton Warriors stood between me and him. Though turned undead, they had all been owners of high-rank jobs once, so there was a chance that...
“Out of our way!” two voices — his and another, feminine one — said that at the same time. A moment later, the mass of silver went through the Skeletons and returned them all to dust.
The halberd in his left hand and the hooves of the man-made horse ended my undead in a blink of an eye. I then noticed that not just the halberd, but the entire body of the steed was shining with the Silverlight.
“Aaagh?!”
That was no living horse — it was a piece of equipment. Emitting the Silverlight and galloping at a great speed, it pulverized all and any undead that touched it.
It didn’t matter if the undead were high-rank. The thing was the bane of all undead. It was a silver bullet that brought forth the ultimate end.
“GGGHAAAHHHHH!”
Completely desperate, I used the moment my undead monsters had bought me to climb up the stairs leading to the surface. With the Master being dragged by the horse, he couldn’t get up the stairs properly. It ought to affect his speed.
A moment before he could catch up, I ran up the stairs and escaped to the surface.
“GOUZ! GOOUUUZ!” I screamed while dashing through the fortress.
Once I ran through the hallway on the first floor and could see the gates of the fortress, I was overcome with relief. That was because I saw Gouz’s face.
A moment later, that relief changed into despair.
That was because Gouz’s face... was the only thing there.
I couldn’t grasp what had happened, but Gouz’s dismembered head — completely frozen — was impaled on the gate.
Wh-Where did his brawny body go? I asked myself. It was nowhere in sight. All I could see were pieces of frozen meat, scattered all over the area outside the gate. Two of those pieces — placed close to each other — looked much like Gouz’s feet.
Right next to them stood an anomaly looking much like an anthropomorphized church made of ice — an enemy of my kind if I ever saw one.
“Choose your fate, sinner,” spoke the anomaly. “Which end do you desire? Hell, or Divine Retribution?”
I instantly understood what it was talking about.
It was telling me to choose to meet my end, either at the hands of the icy anomaly or the silver aberration.
“No!” I shouted. “This is not happening!”
I can’t die here! I’ve come so far! And now, when the throne of the King of Corpses is within arms reach, I...
“Why...?!” I voiced my despair yet again. “What...?!”
What did I do to deserve this?!
“Very well,” the anomaly spoke again. “Divine punishment it is.”
It then pointed an icy blade towards something behind me.
I turned around and saw the silver aberration.
The abomination had caught up with me.
A sound thick with dread escaped my mouth. I could no longer run or hide.
Th-There must be something I can do! I thought. Don’t I have a teleportation magic item on me? No?! I should have something! I just...!
“Huh...?” As I dug through the inventory in my robe, my fingers touched something that made me gasp. I slowly took it out. It was a pitch black, crystalline object that emitted no light whatsoever — a Crystal of Resentment.
“No...” I said in despair. I held the obsidian-like object in my hand. It was an item without which I had no hope of becoming the King of Corpses. Creating it had required me to lead the Gouz-Maise Gang and spend nearly a year sacrificing a great number of children.
However, aside from being the condition for becoming the King of Corpses, the crystal was also the ultimate medium for the Necromancer grouping’s magic. Using it here was painful, but...
“If I die... it will have all been for naught!” I screamed.
I had to pick between dying and using the Crystal to survive, so I gladly picked the latter. If I didn’t, the time and effort I’d dedicated to my cause would’ve all gone to waste. I simply had to survive and do it all over again in some other town. After all — the time, the work I was willing to dedicate and the sacrifices were endless.
As long as I’m alive, I can restart as many times as I have to! I thought. Indeed — I cannot let myself die here! Dying to this accidental encounter is unacceptable!
“YOU DISGUSTING, MONSTROUS CURS!” I roared while filling the Crystal of Resentment — my greatest treasure — with great amounts of magic. “YOU MONSTERS WILL NOT TAKE MY LIFE FROM ME!”
After reforming the wicked feelings within the crystal to pure destructive energy, I released it all towards the abomination, fully aware that it would destroy the fortress, as well. After all, it was the strongest offensive magic skill any Lich could have.
“DEADLY MIXEEERRRR!”
With great dread and frenzy overwhelming me, I unleashed the most powerful attack I’d ever cast. It was great enough to instantly eradicate a Pure-Dragon. There was simply no way for him to survive it.
“Counter Absorption.”
And yet...
“Ah...? Ugh...? Eahhh...?” Confusion escaped my mouth in the form of strange sounds. The magic I’d dedicated my entire being to was blocked by a barrier of light he created before it. “Th-This cannot be!”
The shock made me lose my footing and fall to the ground. A moment later, the abomination was right in front of me.
“Ghah?! N-No!”
The moment I attempted to stand up and run away in fear, his halberd — still emitting a silver gleam — penetrated my torso and pinned me to the spot.
“GYYAAAHH!”
I was unable to move — both due to the halberd piercing me and the pain caused by Silverlight — and the aberration stood before me.
“Stop... running,” it hissed through its ragged breath.
“W-Wait!” I said. “I won’t run! You caught me!”
Escape was impossible at this point, but I still had to survive, even if it meant begging for my life.
“L-Let’s make a deal!” I spoke in a panic. “M-Money! I’ll give you money! I still have lots of it! 70,000,000 lir, to be precise! It’s yours! Take it all, but please, let me go!”
The aberration said nothing.
Yes! I thought. He reacted to my offer! I don’t care if I have to give him all my coins! I have already sacrificed my Crystal of Resentment! Money is a small price to pay for survival!
“Hhaaahh...” He sighed and extended his right palm towards me.
Excellent! It worked!
“Khah! Hahahah!” I laughed. “G-Give me a moment. I’ll just take it all out of the inventory, so—”
“Your life is payment enough,” he said, cutting my words short.
“Eh?”
As confusion overtook me, his open hand changed into a fist, and the bracer on it began to emit that painfully-familiar silver light.
I heard my own skull crack and squelch. And then I was gone.
Paladin Ray Starling
The headless corpse of the Lich became dust and began to crumble.
At the same time, my body quickly became too heavy for me to stand properly and I dropped to the ground before I could do anything to soften my fall.
“Looks like... it’s over,” I forced out a mutter. My status window displayed Poison, Paralysis, Death Sentence, Weakness, Deterioration, and a number of other debuffs. There were so many that keeping track of them all seemed like a fool’s errand.
However, the fact that the status effects I’d gotten from my opponent had come back left me with no doubt that he was defeated.
“Like a Flag Flying the Reversal.” That was the unique skill that Nemesis had gained with her second form — The Flag Halberd. It reversed all the debuffs given to me by hostile creatures. On the flip side, that meant that it would stop the moment the relevant hostiles were dead. The return of his debuffs was the ultimate proof of his death.
The moment after he’d manipulated the child into slicing my neck, I’d made Nemesis go from her greatsword form into The Flag Halberd and activated the Reversal. Thus my reaction to the debuffs displayed in my status window. Once the skill was active, Bleeding began to increase my bloodflow, Poison healed me, and Paralysis upped my physical abilities.
The damage I’d gotten from the surprise attack had been healed by the reversed Poison while I was still on the ground. Once that effect had closed the wound on my neck, the Bleeding status effect had completely disappeared.
Later, when he’d hit me with those debuff spells, I’d turned them all into buffs, as well. Though I’d felt that some of them didn’t seem like they got reversed, it was clear that I was under no negative effects.
He’d ended up greatly buffing me and reversing the power balance.
He’d also had the problem of compatibility. The Purifying Silverlight was a skill meant for purging undead, and that was exactly what a Lich was. Also, Silver had been a great help in catching up to him when he’d run away.
Of course, I still didn’t have the Riding skill. So I hadn’t been riding him, per se. I’d merely let Silver gallop towards the Lich while I held on to him, letting my feet get dragged along the floor.
It hadn’t been too different from one of those generic Western flick scenes where people got pulled around while tied to horses. In that state, my feet had gotten continuously damaged, but I’d been able to cover it with the healing from the reversed Poison.
Once on the surface, I’d blocked his final spell with Counter Absorption. Though it was far more powerful than Gardranda’s flames, we had somehow been able to handle it.
For a moment, I’d thought the debuffs would make me collapse, but after the attack had been done, Nemesis had quickly changed back to The Flag Halberd and re-activated the Reversal, letting me come out of it unscathed. Then I’d pinned him with down with my weapon and ended his life with my fist.
This whole battle had been extremely dangerous to me. I had only managed due to the convergence of several very specific circumstances. This wasn’t a feat I’d be repeating any time soon.
“...I got really lucky here,” I said.
“I know all the reasons why we emerged victorious, but even I can’t help but think the same,” Nemesis agreed.
Perhaps fate itself helped me hunt down and punish the scumbag who toyed with the lives of countless children, I thought.
I silently looked at my hand. The sensation I’d felt when I’d pulverized his head was still there. Either due to him being undead or because of my Silverlight, it had felt much like shattering a withered tree, but it’d been there nonetheless.
Though he was a piece of filth beyond any redemption, he was also the first tian I’d killed.
If I — being a Maiden’s Master — felt as strongly about this world as I did about reality, this killing might cause me pain.
“I have nothing against such considerations, but you should leave it for later,” said Nemesis.
“Nemesis?” I asked, slightly puzzled. She had already returned to her human form and was looking down at me.
She pointed at one part of the status window — specifically, the Death Sentence debuff. Upon further inspection, I noticed that it had a counter next to it, saying “362 seconds.”
Is this one of those debuffs that kills you when the counter reaches 0? I thought.
“So, Master, do you happen to have any anti-debuff medicine?” she asked.
“I’ve got some Antidotes for poisons, but I never expected to get a debuff like this,” I said.
This is bad... Really bad. At this rate, I’ll get the death penalty.
Hugo was here, the children were safe, and the gang was eliminated, so I didn’t have to worry about any of that. However, dying would mean missing the time we’d agreed on with Marie. I didn’t like that scenario at all.
“Curse you, you wretched horse zombie!” shouted Nemesis. “You just had to leave us with this parting gift!”
“...Crap,” I muttered. Due to all the debuffs on me, only my mouth worked properly, so I couldn’t even hold my head in despair.
Nemesis began rummaging through my inventory to see if I had something that could help me. Silver — who I still hadn’t called back — was looking down at me in a somewhat worried manner.
“You should drink this.” Something hard was pushed against my jaw.
I looked and saw Hugo — who’d just jumped out of... what I could only describe as a see-through ice robot with a Magingear inside — pushing a potion against my mouth.
Once I gulped down the contents, my body became so light that it felt as though the debuffs were never there.
He followed it up with another potion. Once I drank that one, I looked at the status window and saw that all the status effects were gone.
“I’m healed!” I cried.
“Indeed you are!” said Nemesis. “You have our thanks, Hugo!”
“You’re welcome,” he smiled.
“What was this medicine, anyway?” I asked.
“An Elixir and a curse-removing High Spirit Water,” he said.
“And you didn’t mind giving them to me?” I asked.
“Not at all. After all, they came out of the inventory of the one I defeated.” Hugo pointed at the ox head hanging on the gate.
I looked at that general direction and saw a number of items lying around the remains.
Some of them were bottles, just like the one I’d just drunk from.
“Why are the items scattered like that?” I asked.
“His inventory broke with my attack,” answered Hugo. “I, uh... might’ve overdone it.”
That made me remember the tutorial, when Cheshire had said that this was just about what happened when an inventory shattered. Though the power of the release often left the contents break, it was the easiest way to take the possessions of others. Due to that, some bad guys chose to attack rich people and spread their items all over the place.
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 gang 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.
While 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”]
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