by Sakon Kaidou
“Why would anyone do such a thing...?”
“She’s teaching you the lesson, ‘Surprise attacks like this exist, so you need to be careful, okaaay,’ by letting you experience it.”
Oh, I see, I thought. No wonder I thought the people who didn’t drink her alcohol seemed like they were grinning or looking on with nostalgia. I’m sure they received the same welcome earlier.
“...I learned a good lesson, then,” I said.
“By the way, she’s one of the Masters I mentioned yesterday who bears a Superior Embryo,” said my brother. “She’s also known as the Prodigal of Feasts Lei-Lei.”
“Prodigal of Feasts...” I murmured.
She seems like an extraordinary person, but I wonder how she got a second name like that?
“Oh, also by the way, she wasn’t able to participate in the previous war due to a schedule conflict in real life, it seems,” said my brother.
I guess it goes without saying, but there are people who’re too busy to participate in the game’s events.
◇
In the end, I wasn’t able to move during the morning until my hangover had passed.
...The item someone from the restaurant gave me to cure the Hangover effect didn’t work, I thought unhappily. That’s some pretty nasty poison for you not to be able to cure its status effect...
Putting that aside, we were back to normal, so we had decided to go shopping in town.
“Hey, Bro, I want to sell the drop item I got from the Demi-Drag and buy some beginner equipment, Dragonscales, and brooches. Do you know where they sell those?” I asked.
“What? You’re going to stock up on those?” Bro Bear’s expression looked troubled.
Nemesis’s skill requires that I take damage, so I was thinking that the Lifesaving Brooch and Dragonscale Ward were a must, but...
“Is there some sort of problem?” I asked.
“Those accessories are beary expensive,” he said. “The Dragonscale Ward is the top ward-type accessory and costs about 300,000 lir for one. The Lifesaving Brooch goes for about 5,000,000 lir.”
“Say what?” I burst out.
That’s 3,000,000 and 50,000,000 in yen. Those items were that expensive? I was taken aback. However, thinking about it, I guess that’s reasonable. It is on the level of determining life or death for you. I would’ve died several times if it hadn’t been for them.
“...I’ll hold off for now,” I said. Also, sorry for breaking them all yesterday...
“That’d be for the beary best,” my brother said. “As for beginner equipment, I know a player-run shop that’s fair. By the way, did you already open the Demi-Drag’s drop item?”
“Open it?” I asked.
“For boss monsters like the Demi-Drag, the items they drop are usually crates. Inside should be one item derived from the boss you defeated, and then one to five random items based on the boss’s level.”
“Oh, really?” I asked.
Come to think of it, the item it dropped was a Demi-Dragon Worm Treasure Coffer, I remembered. I’m pretty sure “coffer” is another word for “chest.”
I selected it from the item list and the message “Will you open this item?” was displayed.
“Would it be better to open this?” I asked.
“Hmm... There’s a chance it’ll be a miss, so you could just sell it as-is,” said my brother. “But if it’s from a Demi-Drag, then it might have something quite good in it. So I think it’s okay to open it.”
“Okay, then ‘yes’ it is.”
Acquired Natural Demi-Dragon Worm Full-body Armor.
Acquired Ementerium.
“It says I got natural full-body armor and Ementerium,” I said.
“Full-body armor is beary nice,” he said. “It should have a skill that reduces physical damage by 150.”
Wow, that’s really good... I think, but I’m not sure anymore after having seen Bro Bear’s costume.
“What does ‘natural’ mean?” I asked.
“Oh, it means that it’s a naturally-made full-body armor.”
...What does “a naturally-made full-body armor” mean?
“All right, then I’ll equip it right away...” I said. “Huh? I can’t.”
I looked closer and saw that the following messages were displayed: “You do not meet the level requirement,” and “You must have a total level of 150 and a job level of 51 in order to equip this item.”
“...I guess I can’t use this for a while,” I said in disappointment.
“It looks like it’ll be some time before you can equip it, so I think it’d be fine if you sold it,” said my brother. “It’ll fetch you at least 400,000 lir. Also, Ementerium is an item you sell. It’s worth about 20,000 lir.”
Ohh, those are pretty good prices, I thought. Although they don’t even come close to reaching the brooch.
“Ementerium though... For the Demi-Drag’s drop item that you’re supposed to sell, it only goes for 20,000?” I said to myself.
If, for example, the full-body armor that he said was a winner hadn’t been in the crate, and instead it had been an item based on the Demi-Drag with the same value as Ementerium, then that’d be a total of 40,000, I thought. I’m finally starting to understand how extraordinary Dryfe’s rewards were that I heard about yesterday. I’m sure it’d be much easier to defeat eight soldiers than one Demi-Drag. I bet it was a profitable battlefield for those that took part.
...In any case, I’ve acquired some war funds, so I guess I’ll go buy some equipment.
At the shop my brother had recommended, I had them choose a few items for me that I could equip even at level 0.
The equipment was supposedly part of something called the Riot series, and they were widely used by lower level players. It was a set consisting of light armor, bracers, pants, and boots.
The equipment I had bought happened to be the quality product of an armor craftsmen. Due to this, the Riot light armor had received the following bonus effects: Increased HP, HP +200; and Reduced Damage, which reduced physical damage by 10.
This will probably be a big help while my level is still low.
“Nemesis will do fine for my weapon, so I should be good to go grind levels now,” I said.
“Not ‘Nemesis will do fine!’ You should be saying, ‘Nemesis is the greatest!’” my Embryo shouted.
“Ne-me-sis is the grea-test,” I intoned.
“Don’t say it so monotone!”
I had also sold the drop items to this shop for the market value of 420,000 lir. Buying the set of equipment and some healing items, by the way, had cost me only about 20,000 lir. I still had the complete amount I had received for selling the full-body armor, but as there was no need to use it, I decided to just keep it.
At any rate, I was now prepared to go grind levels.
“Ah, hold on a sec,” said my brother. “Before you go grind levels, you should equip a job. You’ll be at level 0 forever if you don’t.”
“...Ohh,” I said. I forgot. I’m still jobless.
“Should I explain a bit about jobs?” asked my brother.
“Please do,” I replied.
My brother explained the following things to me.
Jobs in Infinite Dendrogram were divided into three large categories: low-rank jobs, high-rank jobs, and Superior jobs.
Low-rank jobs were ones that jobless players acquired first. They were easy to get, and had a level cap of 50. High-rank jobs had set conditions for acquiring them, and they were capped at 100. Six low-rank and two high-rank jobs could be equipped at once, giving a player a total level cap of 500.
So then what about Superior jobs?
Superior jobs were extremely difficult to acquire, and on top of that, only the first player that acquired the job would be allowed to equip it. Also, the greatest feature of Superior jobs was that they had no level cap.
That’s right. With Superior jobs, your level, that was normally maxed out at 500, could be increased as much as you liked.
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There was no balance whatsoever to this. But of course, as your level rose, so did the amount of experience needed for each new level. That was why even without a cap, there apparently weren’t many people with ridiculously high levels.
...Which is to say, there are a few players with ridiculously high levels, I thought. Given how there were also those Superior Embryos that came up last night, I feel like the development team is deliberately setting up different levels of strength.
Also, it appeared that there were even cases where tians had Superior jobs.
This is somewhat of a digression, but the terms “low-rank job” and “high-rank job” used their translated versions in each player’s language. The term “Superior job,” however, was unified across all countries and cultural regions.
Given how this overlaps with Superior Embryos, I wonder if the development team is trying to give some deeper meaning to the term “Superior,” I thought.
By the way, when using just the word “Superior,” this apparently referred to a Superior Embryo and its Master.
...Like I thought, it’s confusing.
“What’ll happen if I choose a job that doesn’t mesh well with my Embryo?” I asked.
“If you’re at a save point, you can reset your job whenever you like,” replied my brother. “And even if you reset your job, your Embryo’s growth won’t change.”
So that was why there were apparently some players that would repeatedly reset their jobs in order to try various ones. You could repeat this process until you found a job that suited you. After finding it, your Embryo would have developed due to the time spent up until then, so you’d then be able to level up even easier than before.
“Speaking of jobs... what are the jobs of the ranking players you talked about yesterday?” I asked.
“If they came up in yesterday’s conversation, then they all have Superior jobs,” said my brother.
“I thought as much,” I said. Titles like “King” and “High Priest” certainly seemed like ones only one person could acquire. “Do you know what kind of requirements they had?”
“Oh... The requirements for King of Destruction were: surpassing 100 million total damage dealt, defeating a certain number of high-rank boss monsters solo, and also completing a special quest,” said my brother. “The rest probably had something similar.”
100 million damage... I could use the same skill I used against the Demi-Drag, Vengeance is Mine, 10,000 times and it still wouldn’t be enough, I thought. The jobs for ranking players are as impressive as I’d expect.
“By the way, the stat modifiers stack for all the jobs you have equipped, but you won’t be able to use some skills if the grouping of your main job changes,” said my brother. “So that means you won’t be able to use Gunner skills while you’re a Cook.”
“Oh, really?” I asked. “Being something like a Cook and Soldier seems like it’d work out, though.” Like in that one movie.
“Well, you can also change your main job at save points, and you can still use skills if they’re within the same grouping,” said my brother.
It’s probably best to keep that in mind when choosing which jobs to equip.
“Okay, then what jobs can I equip now?” I asked.
“Ta-daa! The Suitable Job Diagnostics Catalog,” he said in a voice as if he were going to take out some sort of secret tool. What he did pull out, though, was a thick book. “If you read this catalog, you can find the job that best fits you out of all the ones you can equip right now.”
“That’s useful,” I said.
“Since the format is a questionnaire, I don’t know if it’ll really be the best fit, but this’ll work just fine when you’re not sure what to do,” he said. “Because at any rate, there are over a hundred low-rank jobs that you can equip in this town from the beginning.”
“That’s way too many!” I cried.
“Well, you’ll probably be using this going forward, so I’ll give this to you.” He handed me the book.
“Thanks,” I said. At any rate, let’s give it a try.
And so, after five or so minutes the results came in...
“A Paladin?” I thought aloud. It’s certainly a staple in games, but I’m not so sure it fits me.
“Ahh,” said my brother, “Paladins get a boost to their HP, STR, and END. Also, they can learn damage-reducing skills and healing magic.”
I see, I thought. In that case, it’s perfect. As long as I’m using Nemesis, then it’ll probably be a great match.
“That’s strange, though,” he continued. “Paladin isn’t a job you can get from the start. I mean, it’s a high-rank job.”
“A high-rank job?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “You can’t get it unless you meet certain conditions.”
“What kind of conditions?” I asked.
“First, you need to defeat a boss of a certain strength... a Demi-Dragon class monster, while also doing more than half the damage to it.”
“I did that,” I said. I cleared that in the battle with the Demi-Drag.
“Next, you need to donate 200,000 lir to the church.”
“I can do that,” I said. Right now I have around 400,000 lir.
“And last, you need the recommendation of a key person related to the knights,” he finished.
“A recommendation... that I don’t have,” I said. I just started playing Dendro, so I don’t think I’ll be able to get a recommendation.
“Wait, wait. Didn’t something along those lines happen just yesterday?” Nemesis, who had been quietly listening the whole time, suddenly cut in.
“I see,” said my brother. “So that was the real reward from yesterday’s quest. Well, of course they wouldn’t display such a tactless message as, ‘Your relationship with so-and-so has deepened.’”
“Huh?” I asked. Somehow, the two of them seem to have gotten something I didn’t.
“Master... have you forgotten just who it was you helped yesterday?” asked Nemesis.
“...Ah.”
We then made our way over to Liliana’s house. Liliana was the Vice Commander of the Knights of the Royal Guard, and likely because of what had happened yesterday, she was at home with Milianne.
We received a warm welcome and thanks for the day before. After we chatted with the two, I mentioned to Liliana that I wanted to become a Paladin. She readily agreed and wrote a recommendation letter for me right away.
I took care of the donation at the church as well, and within the day, I had become a Paladin.
And with this, I was finally prepared to go grind levels.
◇
“All right, then this is where I’ll take my leave,” Bro Bear struck up his hand and said.
“What? You’re not going to help us grind levels, Brother Bear?” asked Nemesis.
“I had planned from the start to go separate ways after the welcome party was over,” he said.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“If you do power leveling, then a gap will develop between your status and actual playing skill,” he said. “A player’s skills and ingenuity are beary important in Dendro, so you need to set out on your own to develop these as well.”
“I’m here too, though, so it’ll be the two of us,” said Nemesis.
Power leveling was a method of easily grinding levels by getting help from a stronger player. An example of this would be letting the stronger player take all the hits from a strong monster, during which you would chip away at its health, defeat it, and then instantly gain levels.
Yeah, I guess if I did that, my level would go up, but my skills wouldn’t improve.
“Also, Dendro has the Embryo system,” said my brother. “If you constantly ask fur others to help you, your Embryo won’t develop in a good way.”
“Is that how it works?” I asked.
“It’s possible,” answered Nemesis.
Since Nemesis was born this way as a result of my play style since starting, I guess it is
possible.
“And so, I’ll say adios to you here-,” said my brother. “But if you get into any serious trouble, contact me.”
“Yeah, if I get into serious trouble,” I agreed.
“That’s all right, but for starters, try to do your best on your own,” he added.
“Got it,” I said. “And, um, thanks for all your help since yesterday.”
“Don’t worry about it. I bearlieve it’s only fair to help you out a bit. Oh, and also...” Bro Bear brought the head of his costume closer to me. “If anything happens with a ranking player, make sure you contact me right away.” His voice had taken on a more serious tone again.
“Bro?” I asked.
“Well, that thing from yesterday might’ve been just an anomaly. But crazy things shouldn’t happen that often, so just relax and enjoy Dendro.” Bro Bear said this and left, leaving just me and Nemesis behind.
At the same time, a message was displayed saying, “The party has been disbanded.” My brother’s status, which had been showing the whole time, also disappeared.
“Well then, Master,” said Nemesis. “It’s finally time for you — no, for us — to stand on our own feet, but have you decided on where to go?”
“Bro told me about some low-level hunting grounds, so I think I’ll go check those out,” I said.
“I’m looking forward to grinding levels,” said Nemesis. “Heh heh heh! Tonight I starve for blood.”
“It’s still noon, you know?” I said.
◇
The first hunting ground we headed to was Easter Plains, right outside of Altea’s East Gate. It had a very clear view, and I could see monsters leaping about here and there, as well as the players fighting them.
That reminds me, this is the first time I’ve seen other players fight.
“All right, then let’s get started too, shall we?” I asked.
“Yeah,” said Nemesis, and she then changed into the same black greatsword as yesterday.
I swung the greatsword up and down as I held it in my right hand — or rather, it was wrapped around my whole arm.
“This really isn’t as heavy as it looks,” I commented.
