Infinite Dendrogram_Volume 1

by Sakon Kaidou

  The labyrinth’s hallways were quite wide — enough to let about ten people walk side by side. The ceiling, however, wasn’t too high. Just as my brother had said — it would get in the way of anything particularly big.

  I thought that simply breaking the ceiling would solve that problem, but my attacks couldn’t even put a scratch on it. This dungeon was clearly indestructible.

  “Despite having the eerie word ‘tomb’ in its name, it’s quite a clean dungeon,” Nemesis commented.

  “It’s probably being cleaned automatically,” I said. I could only assume that, instead of realism, the main force at work in this dungeon was the will of the developers.

  “I wasn’t sure if I could handle a tomb, but if all of it is like this, then there’s nothing to worry about,” Nemesis said. She was getting increasingly motivated. “I’ll split apart all the monsters this dungeon sends our way!”

  “Hate to rain on your parade, but the only monster type that spawns in this floor is undead,” I said.

  “...Eh?” She let out an expression of shock and confusion.

  I pointed further into the hallway. Speak of the devil.

  Clad in tattered clothing, there was a person — or, rather, a monster that looked like a person’s bones. The fact that it was a monster was proven by the name above it — Civilian Skeleton.

  Just as the name said, it was clearly the skeleton of a civilian, rather than that of a soldier or knight. It had no weapon, so it merely extended its empty hands and closed in on me while making a rattling sound.

  Due to Infinite Dendrogram having such realistic graphics, the skeleton was quite a scary sight. The hints of red and yellow on the bones — likely left behind by dried bodily fluids — made the sight a bit too vivid and slightly unpleasant.

  Things like this make me wish I had chosen anime or CG as my visual setting, I thought.

  Despite the gross presence, Nemesis wasn’t saying a word.

  “Nemesis?” I called out to her.

  More silence. She didn’t respond at all.

  I guess she’s trying not to think about anything, I thought. After all, I was about to use her to attack it.

  “Let’s do this,” I said and brandished my greatsword. I had my reservations about attacking a person’s bones, but since I had to, I charged at the monster.

  My attack made the skeleton’s arm and shoulder shatter into many pieces. I then swung towards its head with the flat of the greatsword.

  The skeleton’s skull got easily pulverized, turning the monster into shining dust that vanished.

  “Can’t you do it without making me touch it so much?” Nemesis complained.

  “Are you saying we have some means of fighting besides slashing and smashing?” I asked. I had no offensive magic, and Nemesis’s only skills were the defensive Counter Absorption and the counterattack Vengeance is Mine. Though I’d bought some consumable magic items, they were limited.

  Physical melee attacks are my only option with these enemies, I thought.

  “That is true, but... it’s hard on my mental health,” Nemesis complained.

  “Well, at least we’re fighting skeletons here, not anywhere else,” I said.

  By “here,” I was referring to the fact that we were in a created dungeon. The Civilian Skeletons here weren’t actual remains of people, but monsters made just for the sake of being monsters. Even though they were eerie, they weren’t haunted or anything.

  When you think about it, these monsters are strangely sanitary, I thought. They even come out dry and fresh.

  “Hmm... that makes it a bit easier to bear,” Nemesis agreed.

  “Good to know,” I said. “Ah, there’s another monst—”

  I cut my sentence short and could hear Nemesis gasp. The creature that had come from the corner of the hallway made us both lose our words.

  Just like the skeleton, it was an undead-type monster. However, unlike the bare, bony frame from before, this one was... fatter. That was because its bones were covered in rotten, maggot-infested flesh.

  However, the covering wasn’t complete, and you could see yellow and dark red liquids dripping out of the places where its flesh was missing. Since my five senses in the game were about as strong as they were in reality, I could even smell the indescribably bad stench it was emitting.

  Above its head, I could see its name — Wounded Zombie.

  And so, the sight of the otherworldly, revolting creature made the explorer cast a D6 for a sanity check and...

  “...Whoa! This thing is so grotesque it made my mind drift away into another game!” I exclaimed.

  This is a bit much, honestly, I thought. Though I guess it’s natural for an undead lair to have zombies right next to its skeletons.

  Unlike the skeleton from before — which had been silent except for the rattling — this zombie was closing in on us while groaning and splashing its fluids on the ground.

  “Looks like we have another fight on our hands,” I said.

  “Huh?! W-Wait! Are you seriously going to use me to cut that?!” Nemesis yelped.

  “...Like I said, that’s not a dead person,” I said. “It’s just a monster made for this dungeon.”

  “No no no no! I don’t care how it was born, I simply do not want to cut that!” she insisted.

  “Nemesis...” I began. It looks like she really doesn’t want to do this, so... “I’ll polish you when we get back, so just bite the bullet for now.”

  “Nooooooo!”

  I raised Nemesis as high as the pitch of her scream and charged towards the zombie.

  ◇

  Silent sniffling resounded through the hallways. Its source was none other than Nemesis. Still in my hand, she was weeping like some cursed weapon as I continued walking through the Tomb Labyrinth.

  Since we’d entered, we had defeated twelve zombies, thirty skeletons, and five monsters known as “Haunted Spirits.” That had gotten me two level-ups, making me level 7. My total HP was now above 1,000.

  “Th-The rotten flesh... the maggots...” Nemesis continued weeping. The battles with the zombies had taken a toll on her sanity.

  If there was a silver lining to this cloud of hers, it was the fact that the monster corpses completely disappeared, leaving nothing but the drops. Otherwise, both Nemesis and I would look terrible due to all the flesh and fluids covering us.

  “Ohh... I never expected you to be such a sadist...” Nemesis moaned.

  “Hey, I didn’t do it because I wanted to,” I responded. “It was necessary.”

  “...I feel like you performed a strangely high number of full swings, though,” she snapped suspiciously.

  “It’s just your imagination,” I said. Though doing them had made me look like the villain from some splatter flick, full swings with my greatsword had been extremely effective at shattering the fragile undead around here. It had made me feel like I was in a Western action game.

  Also, although unrelated, the groans of the zombies had all been drowned out by Nemesis’s screaming whenever she had their scattered flesh on her. I eventually got used to it, making it much like background music.

  “Damn, the last battle cost me half of my Gems,” I said. A Gem was an item type I had prepared for battles against spirits.

  As the name implied, spirits were ghost-like monsters that had the annoying property of being immune to physical attacks. Not only that, they also drained MP or SP instead of HP and had attacks that applied debuffs to their targets.

  I had no offensive magic, so I couldn’t do much against them. And though Vengeance is Mine could harm spirits, it could only counter based on the HP I’d lost — not MP or SP. I was woefully underequipped to battle them.

  However, I’d read the wiki info on the Tomb Labyrinth, and I’d known I’d run into spirits here. So I’d been aware that I’d need a countermeasure against them, and bought the Gems for this very purpose.

  When used, a White Lance Gem would release a shining spear of holy magic, making it re
ally effective against spirits.

  However, they could only be used once, and each cost a whole 1,000 lir. I’d bought a total of ten, but the encounters so far had already cost me half of them.

  But there’s a little problem... I thought.

  “I wonder how much we will get for the drops we’ve gathered so far,” Nemesis said.

  She’d finished the thought in my stead. For one, it was clear as day that I’d yet to gather even 10% of the money I’d spent on the Gems. To be able to continuously hunt in this dungeon, I wanted to make up for the lir I’d lost, but the returns here were far too small.

  Zombies and skeletons dropped items such as Tattered Clothing or Bone Pieces, and I wasn’t even sure if they could be exchanged for money. Spirits were even worse, since they didn’t drop anything at all.

  If, at the very least, the monsters here had been animal-type, I could have made some nice money selling their pelts or fangs. But as things actually were, my wallet was in serious trouble.

  “Let’s try going a bit further,” I said. “We didn’t even find the stairs to the next floor, after all.”

  Maybe we’ll find a treasure chest if we keep it up, I thought. Despite being in a dungeon, we’d yet to see a single one of those.

  “Understood,” Nemesis agreed. “...By the way, Master?”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Once we’re back, I will hold you to your word, and you will polish me,” she said.

  “Well yeah, sure,” I replied.

  I guess the fact that the fluids and pieces of flesh disappeared didn’t do much to better her mood.

  ◇

  A few minutes later, we came across a set of stairs of the same design as the ones we had used at the entrance.

  “Well, this seems like the end of this floor,” I said.

  “No boss to be seen here,” Nemesis added. “I was told that you encounter them every five floors.”

  The floors in the Tomb Labyrinth came in sets of five. The first five floors were the haunt of undead monsters, and the fifth had an undead boss.

  Defeating it would open the entrance to the sixth floor, which was infested by an entirely different monster type until floor ten, and from there, the pattern repeated seemingly endlessly.

  The walkthrough site described floors until 415, which was in the domain of dragons. The boss on that floor was too strong for anyone to defeat, so anything beyond was simply called uncharted territory.

  That term wasn’t appropriate, though, since it actually referred to the fact that no one among those managing the walkthrough site or contributing to the wiki had ever made it past that floor. It was entirely possible that someone knew what was beyond floor 415, but kept it secret to have a little advantage.

  Man, I have absolutely no business pondering places I can’t even get to, I thought. I’ll just leave for now. But man, what should I do about this dungeon’s high cost and low returns...?

  As I got lost in thought, Nemesis called out to me. “Master!”

  Her quiet voice was a signal for me to be cautious.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Someone is coming up the stairs,” she answered.

  I instantly shifted my attention to the staircase.

  I strained my ears and could faintly hear the echoes of someone’s footsteps as they went up the stairs.

  Monsters couldn’t go between floors, so it was clearly a player. Done with their business here, someone was taking their leave by using the stairs.

  Strangely enough, however, there was only one set of footsteps. If someone had come here to explore the dungeon instead of — like myself — grinding levels in the low-level floors, they would surely come with a party.

  As I considered that, the footsteps suddenly stopped.

  A moment later, from the darkness below, something extended towards me. It was almost too fast for me to perceive.

  There was some distance between me and its source, so I could sense it coming. However, right when I came to realize what it was, it was already right in front of me.

  The thing coming straight towards my face was an attack against me.

  “Counter Absorption!” Nemesis and I shouted, and something slammed against the newly-created barrier of light.

  That something... was a chain.

  Its end had the shape of a pyramid. Though blocked by the Counter Absorption barrier, it continued applying an immeasurable amount of pressure to it, making me fully aware that it could have pulverized my head in a single hit.

  “Th-This power...!” Nemesis’s voice made it obvious that it was hard to bear. She hadn’t reacted like that when defending against the Demi-Dragon Worm’s attacks, or the bullet monster’s.

  That means that this attack is far greater than those two! I thought in disbelief.

  “I... I can’t take it...!” Nemesis groaned. The barrier of light that had defended me against such powerful attacks began to crack, and...

  A sudden turn of events. Right before the barrier shattered, the chain returned to its source.

  We got a moment of reprieve.

  However, such an action from this opponent could only mean one thing.

  “They’re going to attack again! Prepare yourself!” Nemesis shouted.

  Just as she’d said, they were preparing for a second attack.

  I hastily jumped back, creating some distance between us.

  “...What do we do now?” I asked both Nemesis and myself.

  We had one more Counter Absorption use, but that was the extent of it. We couldn’t handle anything beyond the next attack.

  I got into a battle-ready posture and waited for the chain to come at us again.

  Some time passed, and I grew confused. The next attack showed no sign of happening.

  I couldn’t sense the chain coming, but I could hear the footsteps as the attacker resumed going up the stairs.

  “Master... which do you choose?”

  I instantly understood what Nemesis had in mind.

  There were only two options for me: to turn back and run away, or to face whoever was coming up.

  If the first attack was anything to go by, the power difference between us was so great that I couldn’t ever hope to win. I had a feeling that this person was stronger than the player killer we’d sworn to get revenge on.

  If it was possible, I didn’t want to fight them, but the possibility of having that chain attack me from behind crossed my mind, rendering me unable to move from my battle-ready posture.

  If I can’t move, running isn’t even an option, I thought.

  Hesitant as I was, I couldn’t expect either choice to bring me much success, so I could only go with a certain gamble.

  When he comes up, I’ll nullify his next attack, multiply all the damage he was supposed to give me, and launch a counterattack, I laid out the plan in my head. I have no idea if I’ll land the hit or if it’ll be enough to kill him, but it’s my only chance.

  Knowing my thoughts, Nemesis readied herself and aligned her attitude with mine.

  The footsteps became louder, and — sooner than later — the person was in sight.

  It was a young man who looked several years older than me. Though he had a nice face, he looked as though he was glaring at something. I would have even gone as far as to call him slit-eyed.

  His apparel was simply bizarre. Though the metal armor on his upper body was from the Riot set — the same as mine — for some reason or another, his lower body was covered in a hakama. Then there were his metal greaves, six familiar chains — three in each hand — rings on all of his fingers, and a feathered hat on his head.

  But the most extreme article of clothing he wore was the blue long coat hanging on his shoulders.

  None of his clothes were strange by design, but the coordination between them resulted in something truly bizarre.

  It seemed like a generic case of “I equipped only the highest quality items and ended up looking weird” that every gamer was fa
miliar with.

  The reason I assumed the gear was high quality was simply because it all looked masterfully made, even to my inexperienced eye.

  The man in strange clothing threw me a glance...

  “...So it was a person.”

  ...and spoke up with a sigh.

  A moment later...

  “I attacked you because I thought you were a monster! I’m so sorry! My bad!” He bowed before me and apologized.

  “...Huh?” I said.

  ◇

  Still in the room with the staircase, the strangely-dressed man and I began having a little chat.

  Nemesis had returned to her human form.

  The room we were in was protected by a barrier item — placed by the man — that kept monsters at bay, so we were safe.

  The first thing I found out upon speaking to him was that he wasn’t a PKer. Also, his mannerisms and the way he spoke gave me the impression that he was a... reasonably good person.

  As for why such a man would attack me...

  “So, you confused me with a monster, huh?” I repeated his excuse.

  “Yep... I’m really sorry,” he said.

  As he’d been making his way up here, he had felt someone examining the hints of his presence. The light shining behind me had made my silhouette look inhuman, so, just to be on the safe side, he had attacked me.

  ...I couldn’t really blame him. After all, in her black greatsword form, Nemesis would reach right up to my shoulder. My silhouette could easily look monstrous.

  “Monstr—?!” Nemesis yelled.

  My observation seemed to have been quite a shock to Nemesis, but I chose to ignore it.

  “So tell me, why are you going solo in such a shallow floor?” The strange man asked.

  “Oh, I’m just leveling,” I replied.

  “Leveling? Why here, of all places?” He seemed puzzled. “Your total level is... 7, huh? Shouldn’t someone your level be leveling outside? It’s both easier and more profitable. I know you’re a Paladin and didn’t have to buy a permit, but still.”