Extra: A Change of Clothing

Extra: A Change of Clothing

Paladin, Ray Starling

Ten days had passed in Dendro since the incident started by a certain bastard in a lab coat.

Rook, Marie, and I were still staying here in Gideon, busy either sparring or fulfilling guild quests.

The need for repairs in the city had created a demand for building materials, and Shu's obliterating Jeand Grasslands had turned it into a habitat for strong monsters which needed to be culled. Such quests were so MMO-like that they reminded me that Dendro was, indeed, a

VRMMO.

As for the sparring... though I rarely came out as the victor, I'd learned quite a lot.

My opponents had included Marie, Shu, Xunyu, Figaro, and even the other local duel rankers. Though they'd allowed me to use consumable warding accessories, my victories had still been few and far between, which was a clear testament to just how strong they were.

Thankfully, all our duels had taken place within the arena barriers, so all the items used and accessories lost had come back to us once the battle was done. With the Lifesaving Brooch and the other stuff I'd used having a combined cost of about 10,000,000 lir, I'd never appreciated the restorative functions of the arenas as much as I did now.

10,000,000 lir — in other words, ten times more than we'd received for killing Gardranda. It was a great fortune no matter how you looked at it, and it was in no way an amount I could have used when I'd started out. But the current state of my finances allowed me this

luxury. After all, I'd recently had two great bursts of income.

First, there was the money I'd won by betting the reward for the Gouz-Maise Gang on Figaro. The 60,000,000 I'd put in had been multiplied by 1.2, giving me 72,000,000. Cleaning up after the mess made by a certain bastard in a lab coat had made the reward come a few days late, but it had come nonetheless.

Then there was the reward from Count Gideon.

He'd presented great amounts of money to all the Masters that'd fought in Franklin's game. The newbies who'd escaped the central arena and those who'd already been outside had received especially large portions.

Sadly, Marie hadn't been among the recipients, since only our inner circle knew that she was the Superior Killer, but she'd made her share of the Count's money by doing other work for him.

Naturally, Shu was rewarded with the greatest sum of us all.

"With this and the drops from the Suicide Series, I made back enough fur a tenth of the ammo I used," he told me.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to know the total cost.

That aside, the subject of our rewards wouldn't be complete without the story of how Rook used his, and my involvement in it.

It had happened two days ago...

◇

As I sat around, thinking of what to do with the copious amount of money I'd received from Count Gideon and through betting, Rook walked up to me.

"Ray, can I ask for your help with something?" Rook asked.

"Hm?" I said. "Well, this is unusual. It's rare for you to ask for

something."

"Perhaps," he admitted. "But this is something I just can't do by myself. It's related to my job change..."

For a while now, Rook had wanted to switch to being a Lost Heart

— the pimp grouping's high-rank job. It had three conditions: having reached level 50 as a Pimp, the sum total stats of all underlings being above a certain point, and at least 1,000,000 lir earned through Pimp work.

Rook had already cleared the first two, but the third one was proving to be an issue. He probably could've gotten the money when he'd done the modeling quest, but he'd chosen Marilyn and her carriage instead of a monetary reward, so it didn't count for the condition.

Because of his inability to move on to Lost Heart, after he'd maxed out Pimp during Franklin's Game, he'd switched to Tamer and leveled up his Monster Strengthening skill.

And I guess he's now found a way to solve the problem, I thought.

"Y ou have an idea for how to switch to Lost Heart?" I asked.

"Y es." He nodded as he reached into his inventory and took out a coin pouch. "Could you give me a job and use this money as my reward?"

"...Ohh, I get it," I said.

Earning 1,000,000 lir through honest Pimp work would likely take lots of time and effort. But if you prepared the necessary money and had a third party give you the job, you'd clear the condition as if it were no big deal.

I'm guessing this option became available thanks to Gideon's reward, I thought.

"This bag has 1,000,000 lir for my reward and 1,000,000 lir for the Pimp guild's charges — a total of 2,000,000 lir. Use it to give me a job," Rook said.

"Y eah, sur— Wait, the Pimp guild takes half the money?!"

Holy shit, what a kickback!

"I can't really fault them," said Rook. "The Pimp guild must pay lots of taxes to continue being an official guild. There are some Pimps who don't like that and do pimping on their own... but that's a crime here in the kingdom."

...So the Pimp job is a gray zone in and of itself, I thought.

Apparently, the merchant grouping's Slave Dealers were handled in

similar manner — work through a highly-taxed guild was legal, while freelance slave dealing wasn't. The kingdom was somewhat...

no, very strict about this.

Anyway, I took the money, went to the Pimp guild, and gave Rook a job.

It didn't matter what I requested, but I'd remembered seeing an elephant stand on a ball while watching the morning news, so I'd nonchalantly written down that I wanted to see Marilyn do the same.

It went without saying that I'd come to deeply regret not giving them an easier task.

They had taken quite some time just finding a ball large enough for

triceratops-sized creature to stand on, and then they had to spend an entire day and night training her to be able to do it. Naturally, I was really sorry about all this.

Still, her success had made her fulfill the request, and Rook had cleared the condition, letting him become a Lost Heart.

Also, a short while after my request, a rumor had spread

throughout the city that "some rich weirdo paid 1,000,000 lir to a guy just to see a monster step on a ball," creating a sort-of "ball-stepping boom" among Gideon's Pimps and Tamers.

◇

Now, back to my circumstances.

The money I'd won in the bet and the Count's reward had given me some leeway in spending, allowing me to buy lots of various equipment. I'd started by giving Shu the accessories I'd broken during my first quest, and then bought myself a Lifesaving Brooch and other items, among which was a simple prosthetic arm.

It could be best described as a hook that a generic pirate would wear. It didn't connect to my nerves or anything, and it was much like a long glove that I wore on what remained of my lost arm. I could use MP to make the hook tighten, but I couldn't fine-tune it, and the lack of fingers made it impossible to use as a normal hand.

Some would question the tightening function's usefulness, but the answer to that was simple: holding a horse's reins. According to Alejandro, the man who'd sold it to me, these prosthetic arms had been developed for knights and nobles who'd lost their arms, but who still wanted to ride their horses. As the proud owner of Silver, I greatly appreciated that function's existence.

There was the problem in that it limited my left side to only being able to hold the reins, making it a blind spot in horseback battles. And its shape didn't allow me to equip the left Miasmaflame Bracer, either. But there was no use in minding that right now.

Apparently, Legendaria and Huang He had high-quality magic prosthetics, while Dryfe was highly advanced in the mechanical side of the spectrum. However, all such prosthetics were custom-made specifically for the customers, so you couldn't find them anywhere on the market, which went doubly so here in the kingdom. I couldn't waste time trying to get what wasn't available here, so this prosthetic arm was more than enough, especially since I'd likely find a way to

heal my arm sooner or later.

Still, I couldn't help but note that those surrounding me — mainly Nemesis — looked at me as if they had something to say.

Well, the hook's pretty pirate-like. It probably stands out, I thought.

Anyway, with the leeway in my finances, I could allow myself to roll the gacha in Alejandro's shop. Specifically, one 100,000 lir roll per day. Honestly, I had the money for it and was up for more rolls, but Nemesis just wouldn't have it.

"That's all I will allow. Roll any more, and I'll eat food that costs as much money as you spend," she'd said, making me back down immediately. With how spacious her stomach was now, that threat sounded all too real.

That aside, the gacha had yet to give me any capsules above C rank. Unsurprisingly, Bs and above were considerably rarer than the ones below, meaning that Rook and I had been very lucky to land an X and an S on the same day. Still, I felt that it was high time the gacha blessed me with a B or an A.

With that thought in mind, I came to Alejandro's place, did my shopping, and stood before the gacha to make my daily roll.

"...Let me ask you something, Ray," said Nemesis. "The fortune in your hands allows you to buy most of the things you require, no? What compels you to roll the gacha?"

"It's the unknown," I replied.

"...I'd prefer it if you didn't try to make it sound so cool."

Was it wrong to find something attractive simply because you didn't know what it will give you?

Anyway, it was my turn, so I threw in today's 100,000 lir and

made my roll, which gave me...

"...An 'A'?"

The capsule was marked with a letter denoting the second highest level of rarity — not quite a jackpot, but close enough. However, my excitement was drowned out by my confusion at the capsule.

The S one that Rook had received had looked like a rainbow-colored mineral, while, aside from the obvious rarity, the X capsule I'd gotten Silver from had looked perfectly normal. But I definitely couldn't say the same for the capsule now in my hands.

It was black in color, the "A" on it was blood-red, and, for reasons unknown, the letter was written in a "melted" font. Not only that, but the capsule's surface was covered in lines much like blood vessels. To top it all off, it had letters on it saying, "WARNING: Please don't open when children are nearby."

...What the hell? was just about all I could think about it.

"What you hold in hand is a wealth coffer of hex and malediction," said a voice coming from my side.

I looked away from the capsule and towards the source, where I saw a girl wearing gothic-looking dress armor.

"Oh, Juliet," I said. She was an acquaintance of mine.

Juliet the Black Raven was one of Figaro's fellow duelists, and the fourth in the kingdom's duel rankings. She was one of the two Masters who had fought in the semi event before the Clash of the Superiors. I had come to know her through Figaro and sparred with her several times now.

Despite appearances, she was very easy to get along with, and since she was younger than me IRL, I could talk to her with no reservations to speak of.

"Heh heh heh," she chuckled in a curious manner. "We haven't been in one another's presence since our last immortal battle two nights ago, Light and Dark-Wielding Hero Clad in Violet and Crimson."

Sure, she talks a bit strangely and uses one of my weird nicknames, but she's an okay person, anyway.

"Oh, yeah, I haven't seen you since our sparring match two days ago," I said. "So, do you know something about this capsule?"

"Verily. The coffer seals a maledicted artifact soaked in blood and tainted by grudge. The mark of rarity speaks volumes about the treasure's power, but alas, that power might prove to be a double-edged blade that gnaws at the wielder's heart."

Mhm...

Basically, she was saying that "There's a cursed item inside. The A means that it's something good, but it also means that the curse is powerful, as well."

"Mh..." Nemesis looked at me in silence.

"When balance thrives, the one to suffer the malediction will be the wielder alone," Juliet added. "But when the stars of ill omen shine bright in the heavens, the calamity will fall upon those environing them, as well. Never banish this memory to oblivion, lest you bring about a new tragedy."

I see.

She was saying that "Normally, the curse only affects the one equipping the item, but it might sometimes extend to the people around you, so be careful."

"Mhh..." Nemesis continued quietly looking at me.

"All right," I said. "Then I guess I'll go open this somewhere with

no people around. Thanks for the warning."

"Heh heh heh," Juliet chuckled. "My advice needs no gratitude. But if you so desire, O Light and Dark-Wielding Hero Clad in Violet and Crimson, we may partake in yet another immortal battle."

"Sure, let's spar again sometime."

With that, Juliet and I parted ways.

All right, so I'll go open this where there aren't people around, and...

"...Might I ask you something?" Nemesis said with an indefinable expression on her face, finally breaking her silence.

"What is it?" I asked.

"How can you talk to her so smoothly?"

"What? Juliet? Sure, her gear is a bit scary, but she's a good, approachable girl."

"That's not what I... Oh, never mind. If you don't get it, I won't push it."

...What's with her? I wondered.

Anyway, we moved to the usual place: Nex Plains. Ever since I'd gotten Gardranda, this seemed to have become my go-to testing area for new items.

Upon confirming that there were no people within 100 meters of me, I opened the cursed capsule.

Inside, I found upper body armor called "CBR Armor," where "CBR" stood for "Cursed Bloody Regeneration."

It was a piece of light armor that was blood-red in color and generally looked very sinister.

It gave +200 to defense, making it even tougher than Gardranda — the hardest piece of equipment in my arsenal.

Additionally, it came with a level 3 skill called "Bloody Regeneration," which restored three HP per second. That didn't seem like much, but it was completely passive and didn't use a bit of my MP or SP.

Though not as unbalanced and broken as a special reward, CBR Armor was definitely a decent piece of equipment. However, it was called "Cursed" for a reason.

The item said:

CBR Armor

Armor mass-produced by a wicked alchemist.

Provides the user with regenerative abilities born of the grudge seeped into the steel through the blood of the victims.

This unstable source of power afflicts the wearer with various curses.

Curses: Bleeding, Doom, Weakness.

I was all too familiar with the effects of the debuffs named.

"Well, this thing sure doesn't have a pleasant background," I said. "And wearing it makes you bleed out, renders you immobile, and cuts your stats by half... Basically, this is just a damn blood bag generator."

can't use this at all, I thought. The decent positives don't make up for the insane negatives. What the hell was the guy thinking when mass-producing these?

Not only that, but it had a total level requirement of only 50, most likely to make it equipable so that it could curse as many people as possible, and if that wasn't kindness nobody wanted, I didn't know

what was.

What do I even do with this...? Can I sell it...? I don't think I'm getting my 100,000 lir back, though.

"A Dark Knight could probably wear it without a problem," I said.

Jobs from the dark knight grouping, like Juliet's Fallen Knight, had a skill that weakened the negative effects of cursed items.

Because of that, this armor would've been good for a Dark Knight, but I happen to be a Paladin.

"Eh?" Nemesis released a confused-sounding voice.

"Eh?" I responded the same way, confused by her confusion.

"...Oh, right," she said. "Y ou are a Paladin."

"Y ou shouldn't forget your partner's job," I said.

"Well, your battle style and clothing are a far cry from 'Paladin-like...' And to think you used to shine so bright." She put her hand over her mouth, so I couldn't make out much of what she was muttering.

But man, whoever thought that an armor that gives you Bleeding and Weakness was a good idea... Hm?

"Isn't that one fewer curse than before?" I asked.

still had the armor's description window open, and it felt like the text there had changed a bit.

The three debuffs became two, didn't th—? Oh, it dropped again.

Now it was just Bleeding, but soon enough, that one disappeared, as well. Not only that, but the skill level on Bloody Regeneration had dropped from 3 to 1.

It now said:

BR Armor

Armor mass-produced by a wicked alchemist.

Provides the user with regenerative abilities born of the grudge seeped into the steel through the blood of the victims.

It used to afflict the wearer with various curses, but they vanished when the grudge was dispersed. This weakened the armor's regenerative abilities.

Even its name and background were different.

"...Why?" I asked.

"How curious," said Nemesis.

Why had the grudge just gone and "dispersed"? Had it gotten sucked out or something?

"Ah," Nemesis and I simultaneously exclaimed and looked at my feet... towards my Grudge-soaked Greaves — an item that could absorb and store the surrounding grudge.

Unlike Gardranda, who I'd talked to while out cold, it didn't appear to have any remnants of consciousness, but I couldn't help but feel that it felt satisfied and well-fed.

Apparently, it had absorbed the grudge from the CBR Armor.

"...I had no idea you could be used like this," I said.

The curses had been caused by the grudge, and with it gone, they'd vanished, as well. As a result, the unusable CBR Armor had become the usable — if slightly weakened — BR Armor. It was definitely better than the armor I was wearing just to fill the slot, so I didn't hesitate to put it on.

"Hey, it looks spiky, but it's actually pretty easy to move in," I said.

quickly took a liking to it. With the good defense value and Bloody Regeneration, I had no reason not to use it.

"Mh..." Nemesis looked directly at me, clearly wanting to say something.

"What?"

"...Nothing. Y ou've made your choice, and I won't say anything against it."

"Hm?"

Nemesis wasn't as articulate as usual today.

"Is something troubling you?" I asked.

"I'd be lying if I said 'no,' but it's not something I can tell you," she replied.

could only assume that it was some girl thing, so I had no business pushing her any further.

"Fine by me," I said. "Let's get something to eat."

"...Very well."

And so, elated thanks to my new gear, Nemesis and I returned back to Gideon.

◆◆◆

Dryfe Imperium, Triangle of Wisdom headquarters

That day, a certain man in a lab coat — namely, the Giga Professor, Mr. Franklin — was checking the footage filmed by the spy monsters he'd sent to Gideon's surroundings.

He'd been gathering information this way for a while now, but things had changed recently.

Following Franklin's Game, Gideon had become filled with skilled counterespionage personnel, making it impossible for Franklin's spy monsters to enter the city. Because of this, nowadays, he was only sending monsters to the city's surroundings.

Of course, Franklin had no intention of executing any more plots in Gideon, but the city was the main haunt of the one he considered to be his archenemy, and he wanted to observe him to the best of his ability. This loathsome person happened to appear on one of his monster's footages as Franklin was casually eyeing them.

In the Nex Plains, he opened a capsule he'd gotten from a gacha machine, received a cursed piece of armor, spent some time thinking about something, then equipped it and returned to Gideon.

Upon seeing that, Franklin began to ponder.

"That appearance..."

A demonic bracer on his right hand.

A gnarled hook instead of his left.

A pair of boots fashioned from the dead.

Clad in armor rife with curses.

"...He honestly looks more like a Hell General than our actual Hell General."

Ray's fashion sense was staggeringly heinous, but the boy was completely oblivious to it.

Franklin was aware that someone who constantly wore a lab coat wasn't all that much better, but even he felt like there was a thing or two to say about Ray's appearance.

"Did no one tell him about this?" Franklin mumbled as he looked at the archenemy in his monitor with a hint of pity in his eyes.

Franklin's question was nothing but reasonable, and the answer to it was, "No. No one told him."

Ray was surrounded by people such as Shu, who was always in an animal costume; Rook, a guy in a Slime coat; Marie, who wore a suit despite being in a fantasy world; Figaro, who only cared about stats and wore a mishmash of gear because of it; Xunyu, who had prosthetic arms and legs far too long for anyone; and Juliet, who wore a highly-adolescent set of gothic dress armor.

Other Masters weren't all that different, so tians tended to simply ignore it, thinking something like, "Well, he's a Master, so..."

There was no one who could tell Ray about the state of his fashion, as anyone wanting to do so would be rendered incapable of doing so when they simply looked at themselves.

And so, spurred by their silence, Ray's fashion took a turn toward the dark side.

Extra: Reiji's Everyday Life / Ray and Nemesis's Everyday Life

March 29th, 2045, Reiji Mukudori

About two weeks had passed since I'd started playing Infinite Dendrogram.

I'd spent a lot of this time in the game, and thanks to its tripled time feature, those two weeks had felt way longer than usual. Then again, all the stuff I'd experienced so far would make even a whole six weeks seem short.

I'd rescued Milianne during Liliana's quest, encountered Marie in Noz Forest, met Figaro in Tomb Labyrinth, fought against Gardranda, met Hugo, rescued the children with him, struggled against Gouz-Maise, and defeated Franklin, ending his plot to break the kingdom's spirit.

All those events had happened during a span of just four real-life days, and I couldn't help but wonder how I'd ended up with such an event-heavy start in that world.

The days that came after were relatively peaceful. I did quests with my party, sparred against Figaro and his fellow duel rankers, tested Shu's cooking, and raided the Tomb Labyrinth with the three girls we'd met during Franklin's Game — all of which made for a pretty standard MMO experience.

According to Nemesis, "This is merely the calm before the storm. I'm certain that you will soon be involved in even greater trouble," and I could only hope that she was wrong.

Still, I couldn't deny that I had a tendency to get caught up in all sorts of incidents.

There was the car accident Shu had saved me from. Then there was the trip abroad that my sister had dragged me into, during which I'd gone through things that'd made me question whether it was actually real or I'd just dreamed it all.

Oh... just remembering that made my body tremble, so yeah, it had been very real.

That aside, there was something I had to do regardless of whether my new adventures in Dendro would be normal or not.

I had to go through college enrollment preparations.

Starting next month, I would be a college student. I'd spent half of the month remaining before college diving into Dendro so much that I'd rarely had time to go outside. In fact, I'd been online longer than I'd been off, and it wouldn't have been surprising for me to forget the important things in my life.

Still, I wasn't negligent enough to miss the days during which I had the necessary college-related procedures, and I'd already gone for the briefing, the cooperative, the textbook selling, the physical examination, and so on.

Today was the final such day — the one in which I'd settle everything related to the humanities course I was going to take.

Being fresh out of high school, I couldn't help but wonder whether this process really had to be so complex and split into so many parts, but this might've been normal here in college.

Well, it wasn't like my apartment was all that far from the place. I could get there in less than half an hour on bike, so I had no trouble being on time and going through whatever I had to do.

I'll be back by evening and log in to Dendro then, I thought as I walked towards the apartment building's elevator.

On my way, I passed a fellow resident.

"Hello," I greeted her.

"Ah, hello," she reciprocated with her slightly awkward Japanese.

She was a foreigner living on the same floor as me.

This apartment building was luxurious and secure, even by the city's standards, so it had no shortage of female tenants.

However, the high rent was a huge barrier preventing the common college student from living here, meaning that most of the collegians in this place were the children of particularly wealthy people. I was an exception to that, since I lived here thanks to Shu.

"Wait, that woman..." I muttered to myself.

The one I'd just passed was probably only a few years older than me.

Her lack of mastery over Japanese made it safe to guess she was a transfer student in some college. Even Shu had told me that there were lots of rich foreigners in this building. Since she was able to live here, she was probably a member of an upper class family.

No use thinking about a stranger's private life, I thought.

"But... what was her name, again?" I murmured.

When I'd moved in, I'd followed the cultural practice and greeted the neighbors on my floor with some soba. We'd introduced ourselves back then, and the fact that I couldn't remember her name bothered me so much, I stopped to think about it.

"It went something like Fra... Fra... Franklin? No, no, no, no."

Hearing "Fra" instantly made me picture that mad scientist lab coat bastard, but that was just wrong in all possible ways. Confusing that guy with that pretty blonde lady would be nothing if not rude. Her actual name was...

"Oh, right," I said as it came back to me. "It's Francesca."

Refreshed from having this weight on my mind lifted, I left the apartment building and went to college.

◇

During my high school years, I'd always thought that all educational facilities were nearly empty during spring break, but a few visits to campus had quickly changed that.

There were lots of people here, even though it was late March. Some went to seminars, some paid visits to labs, while others were busy with club activities. The most passionate people were the ones ready and waiting to invite new members into their clubs.

"Clubs, eh...?" I mumbled to myself.

was about to become a proper college student, so it might be a good idea for me to join one, too.

To my eye, the people promoting the sports-oriented clubs were the most enthusiastic of all. The mixed martial arts club, for one, was full of men with physiques larger than Shu's, showing off their muscles as they gave warm, or perhaps heated, invitations to the freshmen.

They also had a banner saying "Aim High! Leave a Mark in the Unlimited Pankration College Tournament!" — their goal, most certainly.

The Un-kra mention intrigued me, mostly due to the memories of Shu from when he'd still been in school.

However, unlike my superhuman brother or my downright inhuman sister, I was completely ordinary. Hell, I hadn't even been all that much into sports during my high school years, so I really had no business in that club.

"Ah, my high school years..." I muttered and went on a trip down memory lane.

Though I hadn't been in any clubs during my second and third years, I had been an active member of a club when I was a

freshman. It'd been called the "Electronic Game Research Society" or just "EGRS," and its activities had begun and ended with only one thing: playing video games.

The school must've been pretty lenient to allow something like that, but then again, we had also been active in various e-sports, going as far as to participate in several national tournaments.

The club president had won first place in a Verseair (card game) event, while the vice president had been the last survivor in a major War Grounds (FPS) battle royale. I, too, had left my mark in a Stream Fighter (fighting game) tournament, so we'd ended up with three trophies in our club room.

The president and vice president had graduated soon afterward, but

recalled them having been pretty satisfied with the good memories they'd made.

wonder what they're doing right now, I thought as I pictured them — the ones who had become college students two years before me. They send me New Year's cards, but those didn't say much about what they're doing. Knowing them, they're probably still gaming.

"I could try joining a game-related club like I did in high school, but... Oh, whatever, I'll think this through once I actually start college," I decided.

I'm too busy with Dendro right now, anyway.

Suddenly, I imagined a college life spent doing nothing but playing online games. I quickly shelved the picture to the depths of my mind and resolved to do my best with both my higher education and my job hunting two or three years later.

◇

was done with my student card creation and all the other college-related business before the clock hit noon. In fact, all I really had to do was present my fingerprint.

The simplicity had me bewildered, but apparently, this was normal these days.

According to an aged worker, "Things have gotten increasingly more computerized over the thirty years I've been working here. Even this procedure has become this simple."

The schools in the area I'd lived in were pretty advanced, too, but nothing there was this speedy, which went to show that metropolitan higher education facilities were always ahead.

Honestly, if it was this easy, I couldn't help but wonder why it wasn't done along with the briefing.

Anyway, though that was over with unexpectedly quickly, it was now past 11 o'clock — a bit early, but still a good time to have lunch. With that in mind, I made my way towards the cafeteria, hoping that the food I'd be eating here over the next four years would actually be good.

"Wow... There are multiple cafeterias here," I said as I entered one of them, surprised by how different it was from high school.

looked at the menu and noticed that it had multiple daily special meals and a great variety of noodles. While eyeing the intriguing, yet highly unappetizing, "Miso-Cooked Lobster Special," I ordered spaghetti in meat sauce — a favorite of mine.

"Hm..." I tasted some of it and concluded that it was normal. No, as far as school food went, it was definitely delicious. Still, I couldn't help but compare it with something else.

"The taste is... kinda dull."

It lacked a certain something I'd grown accustomed to.

Now that I think about it, I haven't cooked much recently, I realized.

used to help around the house a lot, so I was familiar with basic chores and cooking. Enough for my mom to be certain I wouldn't have any trouble living by myself. As things were, however, I was barely doing any cooking for myself, and was instead opting to eat basic onigiri or sandwiches from convenience stores, or cup-a-soups sent to me by my parents. It didn't take me long to figure out what had caused this change in my eating habits.

"It's all because of Dendro," I said.

All the food there was better than here in real life, as it had the strange powers unique to fantasy worlds.

To people familiar with RPGs, food was a thing that, for example, healed or raised stats — but in Dendro, a game which had taste, it didn't end there. There were foods and skills focused entirely on flavor, and restaurants built with certain construction skills gave a taste bonus to all food made inside. By stacking such effects, the popular establishments, according to Shu, could "easily surpass the fanciest places in real life."

Mind you, I didn't know how to feel about hearing him say that, considering he could easily surpass the enhanced Dendro restaurants by sense skill alone.

Recently, he'd called me to try his handmade candy, and it had been so good that I'd experienced some indefinable phenomenon called "taste inflation."

Back to the matter at hand... Basically, the food in Dendro was so good that it made real food feel lacking. I wasn't doing any cooking because I just hadn't felt that anything I could make would be worth the effort.

Lavish eating in Dendro, basic nutrition intake in real life... I've read about this online, I thought as I realized I was unintentionally following the so-called "Dendro Diet," popular among women and avid players.

"Mh..." I silently continued eating my spaghetti.

By all reasonable standards, it was good food, but it seemed to lack the power to overwhelm my taste buds.

...Let's try adding this Tabasco sauce and grated cheese, I decided.

"Ahh, I'm finally done with everything I had to do," said a woman sitting at a table behind me. "What a pain that was."

"Well done," said a man accompanying her.

There weren't many people in the cafeteria at this time of the day, so I could hear their conversation quite clearly.

"It must be nice to have all your stuff done long before the deadline, eh, Kage?" she continued. "Y ou coulda shown me what you'd done, you know?"

"I consider schoolwork to be something you do by yourself," replied the man.

The woman had a Kansai accent, slightly Kyoto-like, while the man talked in a very polite manner.

Looks like college really is a place for people from all across the country, I thought.

Once done with my lunch, I went towards the cafeteria's exit and noticed the papers hung on a nearby bulletin board. Surprised that such an advanced college was still using something so archaic, I took a moment to look through it.

While most of the papers were about in-campus contacts and clubs, there were also some leaflets for part-time jobs. There seemed to be demand for cafeteria, shop workers, and even private tutors.

was living fine on just my allowance right now, but I probably had to consider eventually getting a part-time job for extra income.

Well, perhaps I'll do it when I'm not as busy with Dendro as I am now, I thought as I walked out.

◇

Once done with my college business, I went to buy some necessities and returned home a little past noon.

As I was handling what I'd bought, my mobile began to vibrate as someone called me. The display said that it was Mom, so I didn't hesitate to answer and bring the mobile to my ear.

"Hello? Reiji?" Sure enough, it was my mother, speaking to me with the same voice I'd heard yesterday.

"Hi, Mom. What's wrong?" I asked.

"The schedule says that it's the day of the last part of the enrollment process, and I was just wondering if you'd actually gone..."

Yeah, I expected as much, I thought.

My mom was highly prone to worrying, and didn't hesitate to call me on days when I had something going on. She'd also called me yesterday morning, saying "Today's the physical examination, isn't it? Are you ready for it?"

According to Shu, she had always been this much of a worrywart. I supposed I couldn't really blame her, considering she'd had my sister as her first child.

Ever since my sister was young, even her most basic antics had been outside the realm of reason. Just like in the various misadventures I'd recalled this morning, my sister had a tendency to get caught up in the most absurd of situations and make it through them using nothing but brute force, and because of this, our parents had had a really hard time with her.

To make things worse, Shu had been born soon after her, and

though he wasn't as absurd a creature as our sister, he certainly wasn't normal, either.

In his younger years, he'd entered showbiz and became both a child singer and actor. Later down the line, during his middle and high school years, he'd dabbled in martial arts and gone on to win Un-kra. And when he'd started going to college, he'd casually picked up cooking and made food so good that it made people pass out.

Basically, he could do just about anything he tried.

As far as I was aware, the only exception to this was art. I recalled having looked at his "works" and thinking that I would probably have to be an alien creature for them to make even a bit of sense.

Anyway, having those two abnormals as their children must've been pretty taxing on my parents, and I could totally understand why they would worry about me, as well.

Still, compared to them... no, without any comparisons, I was as normal as people come, so they really didn't have to mind me all that much.

...Weird. An auditory hallucination bearing Nemesis's voice had just asked, "Does a normal person fight by eating undead flesh? What about punching people's faces with a charred arm? Is that normal?"

...Hey, I'm still more normal than my siblings, I replied silently.

"Reiji?" Mom spoke up in a worried tone, returning me to reality. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Uh, no, it's nothing," I said to calm her down. "I did all I had to before noon. It's all good. Now, I just have to wait for the opening the day after tomorrow."

Which was true. This year's April 1st, the day when the term would usually start, was a Saturday, so the event had been moved to Friday, March 31st. Still, it would be nothing but a guidance event, and the

schedule said that the actual entrance ceremony would be held some time after college began.

remembered finding it weird that the entrance ceremony would be separate from the actual entrance.

"Well, that's good to know," said Mom. "Y our dad and I will come see you at the entrance ceremony. If you need anything, you can ask Shu for help. He's not far from you."

"Y eah, I know."

Shu said the same thing, I thought.

"But wow... my little Reiji is a college student. Time sure flies..." Though we were talking by phone, I could easily tell that she was turning sentimental. "Y ou were such an easy child to raise... Well, I could say the same for Shu, but he was just too little trouble. Y our sister, though..."

could almost see her place her hand on her head as she recalled something. She was either remembering the same sister-related events I was, or deeds that had happened before I was even born.

Unless...

"Did something happen to her again?" I asked.

"She called me from overseas yesterday and said, 'I got caught up in a bomb terror plot in Val Verde. Y ou might see my name on the news, but know that I'm perfectly fine. I even caught the one who set it up.'"

"Y ikes..."

The fact that she'd caught the terrorist made it obvious that she hasn't changed at all.

Wait, Val Verde...? She's in South America again? I thought.

"Sometimes I wonder if she isn't some sort of Superman or Terminator," my mom added.

Considering my sister's love for Western movies, that comparison was very much like her, but...

told Mom, "Last I asked, she said, 'Hospital examinations say that I'm an Earthling. Oh, and DNA tests support that, too, of course.'"

"That girl is just so..." my mom said and sighed. "I can understand Shu, since he's a man without a steady job, but I'd really like to see your sister settle down soon. At this rate, she'll enter her thirties without anything changing."

"Well, you'd first need to find someone brave enough to bond with her," I commented.

I certainly know I wouldn't do it, even if we weren't family, I thought.

"What about you, Reiji? Got any sweet stories to share?" Mom asked suddenly.

"...Eh?" I exclaimed, confused as to why the subject had switched to me.

"Have you gotten a girlfriend in college yet?"

"I've only been to the briefing and gone through the enrollment process," I protested. "There's no way I could have gotten one at this stage."

In Dendro, I'd become acquainted with Liliana, Marie, and the duel ranker girls such as Juliet or Chelsea, but those were all just friends — far from the "girlfriend" Mom had in mind.

"What about food? Have you had a girl make lunch for you yet?"

"...Nope."

Sure, Marie had made us a midnight snack while we were heading to Gideon. However, considering the thing she'd made to be food was an insult to all cooking everywhere, it didn't count... surely.

"Have you at least gone for a drive with a girl?"

"I don't even have a license to drive cars," I retorted. "I have one for motorbikes, but I don't have one of those here."

Nemesis and I occasionally rode Silver, but riding a horse was different from "driving," so, again, it didn't count.

"I see," said Mom. "I just thought that you were the one best suited for love out of you three."

"What? Wouldn't that be Shu?"

As far as I knew, he was extremely popular among girls. I could clearly remember the loads of chocolates he'd brought home on Valentine's Days when he was in high school.

"Well, he's unemployed right now..."

"Ohh..."

True enough. These days, he was in Dendro around the clock, so he probably wasn't as popular as he used to be. Or maybe he was and I just didn't know about it? To my knowledge, he was only popular among children, and even then, only as nothing more than a bear-shaped jungle gym mascot thing.

"Oh, but Mom," I argued, "Shu doesn't have a job, but he has an income, right? I'm sure he'll be popular with women who marry for money. It's fine."

"That seems like a problem in and of itself..."

...Yeah, I realized that right after saying it, I thought.

"Would I be asking for too much if I wanted to see a grandchild within the next ten years?" she asked.

"Well, Shu will be married before he closes in on his forties," I answered. "Probably."

"And your sister?"

"..." Deafening silence.

I'm sorry, Mom, I thought. I just can't picture her ever getting married. That might be a possibility that would have to be seized from far, far beyond the radix point.

◇◇◇

Duel city Gideon, Paladin, Ray Starling

After wrapping up my exchange with Mom, I logged in to Infinite Dendrogram.

First things first: I checked the time and found out that it was right about three in the afternoon here.

As I did that, Nemesis left the crest.

"Are you done with your college business and whatnot?" she asked.

"Y eah." I nodded. "I went through the last part of the procedure."

Which means that, today and tomorrow, I can focus on Dendro entirely, I thought.

Then again, I'd start going to college soon after that... but that was something I could think about later.

"So, what shall we do today?" Nemesis asked. "The meeting with Rook and Marie was tomorrow in this world's time, no?"

Being a party, we regularly went on various quests.

The particularly popular ones were those related to the Jeand Grasslands. The drastic change to the area had affected the local ecosystem, creating conditions that made new monsters come dangerously close to the city. Quests to cull the more threatening ones were becoming more common by the day.

We'd intended to go on such a quest today, but my business with college had ended unexpectedly quickly, giving me lots of free time.

looked at my friends list and, sure enough, Rook and Marie weren't online.

"Well... I guess I'll pay a visit to the knight offices," I said.

"The usual business, I assume?" asked Nemesis.

"Y eah."

When I came there, a worker greeted me and led me to the usual place, clearly used to doing this by now. We stood before a heavily sealed door as the worker used some spells to undo the seals.

Once beyond it, I was surrounded by a load of container-shaped inventories, all of which contained nothing but cursed items.

There were many ways weapons and armor could become cursed. Some got cursed due to the grudge of the dead; some were designed to be cursed by the Dark Knights using them; some were merely left behind by Hexers, a job focused entirely on cursing people and objects; some became cursed due to monster skills; et cetera, et cetera.

Though some curses could be lifted by the common clergyman from the priest job grouping, many were too strong for that, demanding the powers of skilled, max level tians — a rarity in the kingdom, and doubly so in Gideon, since most hardened clergymen were in the capital.

Another problem with cursed items was that they could neither be disposed of — since someone might find them and be subjected to the

curse — or destroyed — since the cursed item might react to that by unleashing the curse. There was also the fact that these had once been good items, so people were somewhat reluctant to get rid of them.

Because of these reasons, the long years of "purify or store" handling had created this massive hoard of cursed items. Since the game had started and Masters had entered this world, resulting in an increase in high-level clergymen, the situation here had slowly gotten better, but the cursed items were still great in number.

Many of the items being held here had once been powerful pieces of equipment. Returning them to a usable state would give the people greater power while dealing with events like Franklin's Game or the wars to come, and because of this, Count Gideon had been pushing to get them uncursed.

But it had been going too slowly, and while they'd been wondering what to do, I'd received and uncursed the CBR Armor using my special reward.

The Count had somehow heard of this — likely from Elizabeth, who'd heard it from Marie — and sent me a request to undo the curses on the items here. I'd accepted, provided I wasn't bound to any schedule and could do it whenever I had free time.

Thus, I paid occasional visits to the offices and worked to undo the curses on the items here.

It took me about two hours to uncurse a single inventory. That might seem like a long time, but clergymen had it even worse. Due to MP and cooldown limitations on their skills, they had to gradually purify items over the course of an entire day, while my Grudge-soaked Greaves did it much faster with me doing nothing but being close to the inventory. Still, it would be a pretty long time until I was done uncursing everything here.

"The equipment purification will take quite a while, I assume?" asked Nemesis.

"Well, they've spent many years hoarding these," I answered. "Just look around."

"So it's a great mess, even for Gouz-Maise the grudge vacuum."

"...Grudge vacuum? Well, that's pretty on-point."

Whatever the case, I was allowed to do this whenever I pleased, so could purify it all at my own leisure.

Hell, doing this was advantageous for me, too. After all, the MP and SP stored in the Grudge-soaked Greaves grew the more grudge it absorbed, and considering the chances of my wanting to use it in future battles, having more of it certainly wouldn't hurt.

The reward for this activity, by the way, wasn't monetary. For every ten inventories I purified, they let me pick any one of the purified weapons. These inventories contained sacred swords, mystic blades, and gem brands, and I was allowed to take any one of the ones I'd uncursed.

Considering that there might situations in the future in which I'd have to fight without Nemesis at my side, or with her helping me in human form, I figured that having a spare weapon was a good idea, and I hadn't hesitated to accept those conditions.

But alas...

"No good," said Nemesis. "This one is lacking, as well."

"Tsk..."

When I'd told her about the spare weaponry, Nemesis said that she wouldn't allow it unless the weapon passed her examination.

She was so strict that none of the ten weapons I'd purified so far had made the cut.

There were some really strong-looking blades, too, I thought.

"I still don't see a single sword that passes!" she declared.

knew she'd said, "I'll have to make sure that it's fully worthy!" but I'd certainly had no idea she would be so strict.

Does a weapon that passes her examination even exist? I thought to myself.

◇

After purifying one inventory, I left the room, looked outside, and saw that it was evening. Once done reporting today's results to the person in charge, I went out to the hallway...

"Oh?"

...and saw someone familiar — Liliana.

Her face was red, and she was talking to several people while looking somewhat anxious.

"So she's no longer in Gideon," she said before coughing loudly. "I do not think we couldn't find her if she was anywhere in the city, so we can only assume she went outside..."

The people she was talking to were clad in navy blue shinobi clothing, and wore masks and plated headbands on their heads, making them look like the most standard of ninjas. These days, they weren't an uncommon sight here in Gideon — you could see them jumping from rooftop to rooftop at noon and midnight alike.

The primary cause of these sightings was one of our party members: Marie.

Count Gideon was really bitter about his city being subjected to the horrors of the Gouz-Maise Gang and the terror of Franklin's Game. Because of that, he'd decided that he had to be strong on policing and intelligence, leading him to ready his pocket money to set up an intelligence agency.

Since such a group would handle sensitive information, Count Gideon had wanted it to be made up of tians, rather than Masters, but there had been a significant lack of qualified people.

During the attack by a SUBM called the Tri-Zenith Dragon, Gloria, and the war that had come later, the kingdom had lost many of its battle-focused tians, leaving the country's forces underleveled and underskilled. Most of the few capable tians were in the knight orders and other groups rooted in the capital. Thus, to form an intelligence agency that could double as police, the Count had first had to acquire the right people, and he'd chosen Marie to help him with this purpose.

After Franklin's Game, Elizabeth had introduced her to the Count, and Marie had taken the opportunity to sell him the Jewels storing the monsters that only attacked Masters, which had gone on to be used to train and powerlevel tian knights.

She'd also revealed to him that she was the Superior Killer and the Death Shadow — the Superior Job of Tenchi's onmitsu grouping. Upon hearing that, the Count had wondered if he could use Marie's connections to hire some Tenchi ninjas for his intelligence agency, since they were known to be highly capable operatives.

Marie had accepted his request and contacted the Tenchi ninja group she was still connected to, which was the shinobi village where she got her onmitsu jobs, apparently.

As luck would have it, a civil war in Tenchi had destroyed their employer's household and left them wandering, searching for a new boss.

Count Gideon's wants and the ninja group's wants had matched perfectly, and soon enough, the entire village had moved to the city.

"Soon enough" was a bit of an understatement, actually, considering they'd come all the way here from Tenchi — the other side of the continent — in less than a week's time. It was a speed impossible for most Masters, let alone tians, and naturally, the Count had been absolutely dumbfounded.

When he'd asked about it, however, they'd merely said, "It's a trade secret. Nin-nin," in a manner as questionable as it was ninja-like. Apparently, not even Marie knew how they'd pulled it off.

Whatever the case, true to their reputation, the ninjas were highly skilled.

Tenchi, the land where the Gideon Shinobi Force had originated, was known as the country with the strongest tians. For Tenchi's battle-focused tians, reaching level 500 was more like a starting point than anything else, since they would then begin to hone their techniques until they became true martial artists worthy of the name. Because of this and other reasons, Tenchi was often referred to as the "land of strife."

Luckily or unluckily, depending on your perspective, the country's current state was much like that of Japan during the Sengoku Era, so almost none of their great power was directed toward other countries.

It's not like a constant civil war is all that better, but still, I thought.

Anyway, the highly stereotypical ninjas were all max level stalwarts, making them simply perfect for the job. Count Gideon had quickly hired them and set up the Gideon Shinobi Force, an information agency answering directly to him. And thus, we now had a Rome-like city in which ninjas were a common sight.

Also, Marie had made big bank for her role as mediator, and she'd gone on to treat us to some food.

So yeah, the ninjas were a normal part of Gideon by now, but Liliana's panicked expression as she talked to them certainly wasn't.

"We will split up and search Gideon's surroundings," said one of the ninjas.

"Please do so," replied Liliana and coughed yet again. "I'll join you soon."

"Do not overdo it."

The ninjas kicked the floor beneath, dashed away, and vanished like shades in sunlight.

"Ah, Ray!" Liliana cried as she saw us nearby, again looking somewhat anxious.

"Are you okay, Liliana?" I asked.

Her pallid expression made it evident that she wasn't in good health.

"Oh, don't mind me," she said and coughed again. "Her Highness escaped today. Have you seen her, perchance?"

She showed little intention to answer my question, instead revealing that she was caught up in more Elizabeth-related trouble.

"...No," I said, shaking my head in response.

The kingdom's second princess was a very free and brazen character, as well as a genius escape artist. Though she refrained from doing it on days with official business, her leaving the Gideon residence she was staying at had become a nearly daily occurrence by this point.

The fact that she was able to escape while being observed by the Royal Guard and several max level ninjas spoke volumes about the extent of her skill. It was hard to believe she was just a child who didn't even have a single job.

...Well, the primary reason why Elizabeth had become so good at escaping was the coaching from Rook, who, for reasons unknown, had been trained in such things in real life.

Our party is full of eccentrics, I thought.

"And you're no exception," Nemesis commented telepathically.

...I can't really deny that.

"Well... I know I probably shouldn't say this, but isn't that a common thing at this point?" I asked Liliana.

"Indeed it is." She nodded. "But things are slightly different this time."

"In what way?"

Elizabeth had sneaked out, and the officials had gone out to find her. What could be different there?

"A short time ago, as a countermeasure against her antics, we gave Her Highness a Jewel."

Jewels were items that allowed the storage of tamed monsters that obeyed their owners. Even if they couldn't fit the monsters into their minion capacity, children and low-level humans could use them by putting them in party slots.

"I see," I said. "Since you can't prevent her from escaping, you decided to give her a means to protect herself." As far as safety was concerned, that was perfectly reasonable.

"Y es," Liliana said and coughed again. "Count Gideon used his connections to procure a Pure-Dragon and presented it to her."

"Well, that's something..."

Their rarity on the market made Pure-Dragons quite a luxury. While Demi-Dragons went for about 1,000,000 lir, Pure-Dragons were often over ten times more expensive.

figured the Count hadn't hesitated to fork up the money for something so costly because he'd felt responsible about Elizabeth getting kidnapped during Franklin's Game.

But man, Count Gideon sure is rich, I thought.

He'd rewarded the Masters, given money to the families of those that'd died, paid for city repairs, created the Gideon Shinobi Force, and he'd still had more funds to spend. His wealth might've been another reason why Franklin had picked Gideon as his target city.

"And, well... the Pure-Dragon's name is 'Stealth Dragon,'" Liliana added.

"Oh, 'Stealth Dragon,' eh?" I said. "Wait... Stealth?"

I have a bad feeling about this.

"Stealth Dragons have the ability to hide themselves and the people riding them," she explained.

...I more or less see how it is.

She went on, "Count Gideon assumed that this quality would make it an optimal bodyguard, since it could hide Her Highness and take her away from trouble, but..."

"...it was also an optimal escape partner," I finished her sentence.

The escape artist princess had been given the perfect ally: a monster that was basically a huge, flying Marie. Sure, it didn't have Arc-en-Ciel, but that wouldn't stop it from being stupidly troublesome.

"Y es." Liliana nodded. "We've been searching for Her Highness and the Stealth Dragon ever since they disappeared in the morning, but we can't find them anywhere in Gideon, so we assume that they might've left the city."

"That's... plausible," I said.

Among the ninjas, there were many people from the onmitsu grouping, just like Marie. That grouping excelled at both hiding and finding hidden things, so if they'd had no luck finding Elizabeth in Gideon, it was likely that she'd gone outside the city.

Thanks to the Gideon Shinobi Force, the city was now considerably more peaceful and safer. However, the same couldn't be said for the city's monster-ridden outskirts. Even if you had a Pure-Dragon bodyguard, this was a world where you could easily be ambushed by something even more powerful.

"I had the Gideon Shinobi Force extend their search to the outside of the city," said Liliana as she walked towards the exit. "I'm about to join them and—"

She cut her words short and coughed so heavily that she staggered.

It had been bothering me ever since I'd seen her today. The red face, the coughs — it was clear that she was ill.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Do you have a Cold?"

"...Y es, but it's just a normal Cold, rather than the Epidemic they had in the capital."

In Dendro, illnesses were classified as disease-based debuffs. However, unlike the basic poisons and the like, they could be significantly more troublesome, as many of them couldn't be removed by your standard Elixirs or Antidotes.

The Food Poisoning I'd once gotten had disappeared after I'd taken just one drug, but there were Epidemics that could only be cleared by healing skills from Superior Jobs. Alas, not everyone had access to people with such skills, so most had to settle for slowly healing themselves with medicine made by people in the doctor grouping, simply waiting for the illness to go away, or...

"Liliana," I said slowly. "Have you met with Her Majesty before she ran away today?"

"Y es." She nodded. "But she disappeared soon afterwards..."

I'm starting to see what's going on here, I thought.

"All right, I'll search for her, too. But you have to stay in Gideon and rest."

"But I...!"

"Leave it to me," I said while looking her in the eyes. She momentarily hesitated before giving me a light nod.

"Very well," she said. "I leave Her Majesty to you."

"Don't worry, I'll find her no matter what." I nodded confidently and left the knight offices.

[Quest Received: Search — Elizabeth S. Altar, Difficulty 5]

[Confirm the quest details in the quest window]

The message I received was highly reminiscent of an event I'd experienced a month ago.

◇

After leaving the offices, I took Silver out of my inventory and jumped on him, and as I made my prosthetic left arm hold the reins, Nemesis climbed up behind me. Then I activated Silver's Wind Hoof skill and dashed through the air towards my destination.

"Y ou know where to find Elizabeth, Ray?" asked Nemesis.

"Y eah," I said. "I'm almost completely certain that she went out to look for a food that works on Colds."

Dendro had loads of foods that made people healthy, and some of them were effective against Colds. One such food were Clearberries — a type of berry often found in the areas surrounding Gideon. However, Clearberries also weakened the symptoms of the Epidemic

that had attacked the capital recently, so most of Gideon's Clearberries had been sent there. Alejandro had told me that the storage was completely empty.

This morning, when she'd seen Liliana suffering from a Cold, Elizabeth had clearly wanted to do something about it and decided to get her some Clearberries. And if she hadn't found any of them in Gideon's shops, it was entirely possible that she'd used her mount-bodyguard to go forage for them directly.

"Well, she's a proactive girl, after all," said Nemesis.

Thanks to a quest I'd done not long ago, I knew where I could find Clearberries. They grew in the area southwest of Gideon, the Saudade Woods.

"The monsters there aren't particularly high level, so it's not too dangerous," said Nemesis. "A little girl with a Pure-Dragon at her side should fare just fine, no?"

"The monsters there were below Demi-Dragon-tier, so it wasn't too dangerous," I replied, emphasizing certain words.

"...Past tense, eh?"

"Y eah. Things are different now."

Following Franklin's Game, the ecosystem in Gideon's surroundings had slowly begun to change. The most noticeable difference was that the more powerful monsters that had once lived farther away had started coming closer to the city.

When I'd been searching for quests to take with my party, I'd learned that the southwestern woods was now a habitat for Pure-Dragon-tier monsters and above.

◇◆◇

Southwest of Gideon, Saudade Woods

In the middle of Saudade Woods, there was a girl and a Pure-Dragon.

"Phew, this should be more than enough!" The second princess of the Kingdom of Altar, Elizabeth S. Altar, nodded in a satisfied manner while looking at a basket full of Clearberries.

"KY ULULU." The white Pure-Dragon with rabbit-like fur released a voice, as if agreeing with its owner. It was a Stealth Dragon called "Kyululu" — named so by Elizabeth because of the sound it made.

"Let's go back, then," said Elizabeth. "It's already evening. If we don't come back now, they might start to worry."

Little did she know that they were already worried. The girl's standards regarding this were quite unlike those of the people responsible for her.

Elizabeth climbed up on Kyululu's back and, just like when they'd arrived here, had it use Optic Camouflage and Presence Block to hide them both and leave the Saudade Woods.

Kyululu spread its wings, ready to take flight...

"Kyu?!"

It jumped to the side in surprise. A moment later, something large broke through the surface and burst out of the ground.

"SHAAAAAAH..."

It was a large monster bearing the head of a cobra-like snake and many centipede-like legs.

It bent its head and looked directly at Kyululu and Elizabeth as though Optic Camouflage had no effect at all.

"Wh-What?!" Elizabeth cried.

"KY ULULULU!"

As Elizabeth got frightened, Kyululu began jumping away from the monster, careful to not throw the girl off.

The snake-head creature went after Kyululu with a precision so great, it was scary.

"Kyululu! Can't you fly?!" shouted Elizabeth in desperation.

"KY ULULU...!"

Despite having wings capable of flight, Kyululu was running on land. Its instincts were telling it that flying would instantly kill them both.

The monster chasing them was a Viperhead Dragon Worm. It was

Pure-Dragon-tier monster bearing Poison, the worm-like ability to dig underground, and the snake-like skill called "Heat Perception."

It was much like thermography, and it allowed the creature to see Kyululu despite its Optic Camouflage.

"SHAAAAAAH!"

Though Kyululu was a Pure-Dragon, too, its focus on camouflage and surprise attacks made it have relatively low stats.

The Viperhead Dragon Worm not only had greater stats, but it also nullified Kyululu's prime merit, Optic Camouflage, by using its Heat Perception.

The creature was basically the Stealth Dragon's natural predator.

Its only way out of this predicament was to fly, but it would all be over if the Viperhead spat its Poison over Kyululu when it stopped to take flight. It had to increase the distance between them, but the creature was gaining on it with frightening precision.

Soon enough, the Viperhead's poisonous fangs reached for Elizabeth, but then...

"Counter Absorption!"

...a barrier of light appeared in the creature's way.

"Eh?" the girl exclaimed in confusion.

"KY ULU...?" the Stealth Dragon cried as it and its owner both tried to turn around and see what caused the crashing sound behind them.

"Don't turn around! Just run! Get some distance, fly, and get out of here!"

Urged by the loud order, they both looked forward and continued running.

Kyululu quickly created the necessary distance and flew up into the sky.

That was when Elizabeth turned around for the first time.

There, she saw a dark-red knight on a silver horse fighting the snake-headed insectoid.

◇◇◇

Paladin, Ray Starling

Upon hearing dragon wings flutter behind me, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was uncomfortably close," said Nemesis.

"Seriously." I couldn't help but agree. I dreaded to imagine what would've happened if I'd been just a second late, and I was really glad I'd made it.

"Now, we just have to do something about this snake-head," Nemesis added.

"True."

The snake-head before me — a "Viperhead Dragon Worm," apparently — seemed to be quite irritated. I could only assume it was upset about me getting in the way and letting its Pure-Dragon feast escape.

It threatened me with snake-like movements and sounds.

"Well? Should we escape it?" asked Nemesis.

"We saved the princess, but if a monster like this lives near Gideon, it might eventually kill someone else," I answered.

And that would leave a bad taste in my mouth, so...

"...we'll kill it," I finished aloud. "Here and now."

"Understood!"

Thus began the battle.

"SHAAAAAAH!" Treating us as enemies to be killed, rather than prey to be eaten, the snake-head opened its mouth, not for a bite, but to release a Poison breath. The green smoke buried my vision and afflicted me with Poison, which quickly drained my HP.

"Form Shift — The Flag Halberd!" I shouted.

And so, the damage was reversed.

Right as Nemesis became a halberd, I activated Like a Flag Flying the Reversal, the skill that reversed the effects of debuffs. With that, the Poison began healing me.

The snake-head, surprised by me still standing strong upon taking its Poison, slightly backed away from me.

Not missing the opening, I held my right hand in front and made my Miasmaflame Bracer release its Hellish Miasma while also

activating Silver's Wind Hoof barrier to protect me from the three debuffs.

The monster was staggered. It had a resistance to Poison, but Weakness and Intoxication worked on it just fine.

"The stage is set," I said. "Let's go, Nemesis!"

"Certainly!"

My strategy was the same as with Gardranda. I repeatedly let it damage me and healed myself with the reversed Poison, accumulating the damage needed to end it with a well-placed Vengeance is Mine.

It was safe to assume that, unlike the demon, this one wouldn't turn more powerful once I took its head.

"Still, even though it's Weakened, its stats are far higher than yours," said Nemesis. "Mess up one time too many, and you might die."

"True," I said, acknowledging that my own stats were equal to or less than Demi-Dragon-tier. "Our chances of winning are about... forty percent?"

"Ha ha ha! Forty percent, you say?" she laughed. "That's much higher than any of our previous encounters!"

"Damn right!"

Recalling the battles we'd gone through, we charged towards the enemy.

With Silver as my steed and Nemesis in hand, I clashed with a creature far stronger than myself.

Just like we'd done before, and just like we would be doing from this point onward, we struggled against adversity while reaching for

the possibility we wanted to seize.

As the enemy's fangs ripped into me, as my blade sunk into the enemy, as I narrowly avoided death from its lethal attacks, and as its unexpected actions caught me off guard, we continued fighting until the end.

And so, after an hour-long battle...

"Vengeance is Mine!"

...we launched an attack that obliterated its head.

◇

After the battle, we returned to Gideon.

"...Man, am I tired," I sighed.

"That's only natural," said Nemesis. "Y ou've been fighting for so long."

The Poison I'd received had gone away with just a healing item, but sadly, the exhaustion wasn't so easy to get rid of. I hauled my somewhat-heavy body through the city's streets.

"Still, I'm glad Elizabeth's okay," I said.

After killing the monster, I'd gone to the knight offices to see whether she'd made it back safely, and found her being scolded by Liliana.

They'd decided that the Pure-Dragon she'd used to escape — "Kyululu," apparently — would have its ownership switched to another person. Elizabeth would still be allowed to keep it as a pet, but that was it. The knights looking after her would take turns owning Kyululu until it was clear that she wouldn't escape anymore.

The scene reminded me of the times my mom had confiscated a toy when I was a child.

Though Elizabeth was sad about being scolded, she seemed to understand that she'd deserved it for making Liliana and the others so worried, so she definitely wasn't a bad girl.

Also, the moment when Elizabeth fearfully presented Liliana with a basket full of Clearberries, bringing Liliana to the verge of tears, left a pretty big impression on me.

"This is very much a happy ending," said Nemesis.

"Y ep. Glad it all worked out."

But man, a quest from Liliana where I look for a girl and fight a worm...

It was just like the first quest I'd done upon starting Dendro.

In the first battle, the one in which Nemesis and I had first met, I'd faced a Demi-Dragon Worm and narrowly seized the possibility with Nemesis at my side. And today, Nemesis and I had fought a monster far stronger and still ended up seizing the possibility.

It felt somewhat easier than the first time, though, I thought.

"That's because you've grown since then," said Nemesis.

I'd changed quite a bit during my month in this world, but I didn't think that me becoming stronger was the biggest difference. The biggest difference was that I'd had Nemesis with me right from the start this time.

On my first day, I'd protected Milia until I was beaten to a pulp, had to beg for a possibility, and had Nemesis answer. Today, Nemesis had supported me right from the start, and if that wasn't the biggest difference, I didn't know what was.

Hm... I silently pondered.

It was likely that, just like everything before now and just like

today, I'd be at the center of many various incidents. Some might be

far worse, more intense, or scarier than any of the ones before. But...

"Hm? Why are you looking at me like that?" Nemesis asked.

"No reason..."

No matter what came my way, I felt that I could overcome it as long as I was with my partner. Thus, my everyday life would go on with Nemesis and me clearing all the trouble we get caught up in.

"Anyway, it's late," I said. "Should we go get something to eat?"

"Certainly," said Nemesis. "The snake-head's Coffer contained nothing but items you convert into money, so let's use that new wealth to have a feast!"

"...Don't overdo it, though."

And so, Nemesis and I walked through the late evening streets.

The End

Afterword

Bear: "Time fur the afterword! It's me again! Brother Bear, AKA Shu Starling!"

Cat: "I'm Cheshiiire! The one who seeks to get a turn in these wastelands of the afterworrd!"

Xun: "What the hell Are 'wastelands of thE afterword'...? I'm XunyU."

Cat: "Anyway, like I said in the midword, this is the end of the first part of Dendro."

Bear: "We only clawed our way this far thanks to our dear readers."

Cat: "Indeed. The work's popularity allowed us to complete the first part without having to force it into fewer than the necessary five volumes."

Xun: "Y ou mentioNEd in the midword that the authOr had a few spare pages he could use to add morE story, right?"

Cat: "Y es. The short story even portrays some of Ray's real life."

Xun: "Now that I think abOUt it, he's been online throUghout pretty much the whole of the story sO far."

Bear: "He was only offline before logging in for the first time and after he got his first death penalty."

Cat: "Y es, and since the work is in the VRMMO genre, the author figured that having some real life scenes was important, as well, so he went and wrote that short story. VRMMOs wouldn't be VRMMOs if actual reality didn't exist and the differences weren't there for all to see!"

Xun: "...Still, a cErtain someone is a bit too differeNt."

Bear: "Who do you mean?"

Xun: "The one who got an illustration in the short story."

Bear: "Ohh..."

Cat: "The author was really surprised when Editor K told him that she would get an illustration."

Bear: "Abearently, this was done at the request of Taiki."

Xun: "Well, she sure is pOpular..."

Cat: "Please continue supporting Mr. Franklin — the one bearing the face of a mad scientist (Dendro) and of a cool beauty (real life)."

Xun: (...I'm not sUre if many people want to suppoRt her.) Bear:

"Now, it's time for the usual serious comment from the author."

Thank you very much for reading Infinite Dendrogram's fifth volume and completing the first arc of the series. We've only made it this far thanks to you — our readers.

At the time I'm writing this, it was recently announced that Infinite Dendrogram got first place in BookWalker's New Light Novel Awards 2017. According to Editor K, this was mostly due to votes from readers and bookstore employees. Y ou have my sincere thanks for the result and for letting me complete the first part with little trouble.

The upcoming sixth volume would mark the start of the second arc, but we are also considering releasing a short story collection, as well.

New characters, new happenings, new battles — it would bring me great joy if you continued to enjoy and look out for the ever-heating story of Infinite Dendrogram.

Cat: "Anyway, with the author's comment done, it's time to announce the next volume..."

Bear: "Y ou do it, Cheshire."

Cat: "Eh?"

Xun: "Y ou've wanted tO do this for a while, so go foR it. Wrap up the first aRc."

Cat: "...Thanks, you guys. All right, here I go! Volume si—"

?: "Volume six is set to come out at the end of 2017! (In Japan)!"

Cat: "Eh? Ehh?!"

Bear: "Some beary jaunty individual just stole your announcement..."

Xun: "...Oh, it's thE person who made a brief appearance in the secOnd short story."

Cat: "Hngh... AAAAHH! Y OU THIEVING CAT!"

Bear, Xun: (Y ou're the cat here, dude...) ?: "So yeah, look forward to volume six and my proper first appearance!"