by Sakon Kaidou
“I see,” I said.
A high-level person would act as a tank and keep the boss busy while the one wanting to get the Paladin job — perhaps assisted by support magic — would slowly chip away at its HP until it died. Clearly, it wasn’t impossible. If luck was on their side, they could probably fulfill the Paladin job conditions before maxing out Knight.
“But wait,” I said. “Can’t Masters get such help, too?”
“It’s very hard for us to gain the trust of the knight order’s top people,” answered Marie. “They’re really picky about who they let in. Most who get accepted have really long lists of favorable deeds under their belts.”
Deeds during which they reached a total level that was too high to let them acquire the skill, eh? I thought. Man, I don’t even know what to make of all the luck that was involved in me getting Paladin and the Purifying Silverlight.
With its conditions being so strict, I could totally understand why it was so powerful.
“Playing normally makes it impossible to acquire the skill, but there’s a way that would allow you to get it pretty easily,” said Marie.
“Which is...?” I asked.
“Resetting every job besides Paladin.”
My brother had told me about job resetting back when I was choosing my first job. Just as it said in the name, it was a function that allowed people to reset the jobs they didn’t like or need.
Marie was right — it was a very easy way to get the skill. After becoming a Paladin, a person could reset all the other jobs to cause their total level to drop. Then they could spend some time killing low-rank undead in the Tomb Labyrinth to acquire the Purifying Silverlight. In fact, that might even be the reason why Paladins were allowed to enter there without the need for a Permit. However...
“Resetting the jobs means losing all their stats and skills, right?” I asked.
“Oh, yes,” nodded Marie. “It would even include Knight — a job from the same grouping.”
Daaamn, I thought, summarizing my reaction quite perfectly.
“I’ll put this info on the wiki, but I can only wonder if anyone will be willing to go through with it,” she said. “Considering how long they will have spent leveling those jobs, the risk involved is just too great.”
Though Silverlight was unmatched in usefulness when fighting undead, it was pretty meaningless in just about every other scenario. Also, though we knew that this info was true, the people on the wiki wouldn’t, and a scenario in which they dropped all their other jobs for nothing would probably leave them crying. When that risk was considered, it was obvious that there wouldn’t be all that many people who would go through with it.
On a related note, I later asked Liliana about how she’d gotten Silverlight, to which she replied, “I reset all my jobs besides Paladin, acquired Purifying Silverlight, and then raised my other jobs — such as Knight — from square one.”
When I considered the fact that tians weren’t exactly in a position to reset their jobs so willy-nilly, I was quite impressed by her resolution.
“I must say, though,” Marie spoke up again. “The path you’re walking is quite something, Ray. People who go through the things you do are few and far between. Yesterday was quite a day for you, wasn’t it?”
“Seriously. I thought I was gonna die,” I said. “The whole thing was worse on my nerves than the time I got the death penalty in Noz Forest.”
Though, unlike that time, I’d actually come out alive.
Speaking of which, I wonder what the Superior Killer was doing after escaping the King of Destruction? I thought.
“‘Thought I was gonna die,’ you say?” Marie repeated my words. “Well, you are a Maiden’s Master, after all.”
“From the way you’re saying that, I assume you know about our common characteristic,” I said. “Maidens’ Masters...”
“‘Maidens’ Masters don’t think of this place as a game,’ correct?”
Yeah, that, I thought.
“Weird, isn’t it?” I said. “In my head, I’m fully aware that this is a game, but...”
...my heart just doesn’t agree.
“I wouldn’t call it ‘weird,’” said Marie. “Many long-time players share that sentiment, after all.”
“Really?”
I would never have expected there to be enough for someone to use the word “many.”
“After all, though this place has countless things that don’t exist in reality, the five senses work in the exact same way,” Marie continued. “Not to mention all the tians living here.”
That was true. Aside from pain, the bodily sensations experienced here were the same as in reality. In fact, it was possible to turn pain on by going into the options window, so even that could become real.
There were also interactions with tians, something that no player could avoid. It was only natural for there to be people who had been in the world and watched its inhabitants for so long that they’d stopped thinking that it was just a game.
“At the same time, there are people who treat this place as a game all the way to the end,” said Marie.
“Well, of course there are,” I nodded.
It’s sold as a game, after all, I thought.
“Stances on tians, their civilizations, and even Infinite Dendrogram itself differ based on who you ask, but there are quite a lot of people who take its status as another reality, or as merely a game, for granted.”
“I see,” I said.
“The ones who see it as another reality are ‘worlders,’ while those who see it as just a game are ‘ludos.’ To the former, the latter are inhumane, while to the latter, the former are just cringy.”
So that’s how it is, I thought. As I was now, I could somewhat relate to both sides.
“What other kinds of people are there?” I asked.
“Well, there are tons of those who just aren’t certain about which side they’re on,” answered Marie. “Oh, and let’s not forget those who try Infinite Dendrogram and then quit it for one reason or another.”
“Like?” I asked.
“Well, many think that it’s just not worth the trouble. Dendro encourages players to interact with people, move their avatar as if it were their own body, and make some serious decisions, all of which can be pretty taxing. It makes them feel like, ‘This isn’t what a game is supposed to be.’”
That seemed like a perfectly reasonable stance. Regardless of whether it was a world or a game, taking part in Infinite Dendrogram was a radically different experience from playing with a controller while looking at a screen.
“There are also those who quit after being emotionally scarred by some painful event,” said Marie.
I was silent.
“Those two are the primary reasons why people who’ve been in Dendro for longer decide to quit, but some people stop right after starting. Specifically, right after their first battle. After all, fighting other living beings can be really scary and stressful. There are many of those early quitters among those who didn’t chose anime or CG as their visual setting.”
“Well, I can see their point,” I said. My first fight against the Demi-Dragon Worm had been a terrifying experience, and I already knew what it was like to die in this world. There was nothing strange about there being people who distanced themselves from Infinite Dendrogram after getting to know the fear of being eaten or murdered.
Some of those who’d stayed regardless might quit after experiencing something painful. And those who continued their existence here after going through such filters would all look at this world in their own way.
“I wonder if the Superior Killer is a worlder or a ludo,” I said. With him being the player killer responsible for my only death so far, I couldn’t help but be curious about his stance on this world.
“Who knows?” Marie shrugged. “If you don’t know, it’s best to think that he’s somewhere in between.”
“That’s true.”
I knew far too little about him. H
e’d killed all the newbies, including me, in Noz Forest. Then he’d gone on to help me out in the Gardranda fight when things had gotten dire.
I didn’t know what motivated him to act the way he did. In fact, due to the mist that had been covering him back then, I didn’t even know what he looked like. His personality, height, and even the age of his avatar were all a mystery to me.
I was silent.
“Hm?” Suddenly, I realized that Rook was staring at Marie for some reason. His gaze was reminiscent of the one my brother would adopt when solving a crossword puzzle.
Thinking about it, I wonder why the crossword was in Arabic, I thought.
“Oh, I just remembered,” Marie spoke up again. “I have something to give you two.”
Marie reached into her inventory, took out two tickets, and handed them over to me and Rook. On them, there were flashy letters saying “Clash of the Superiors,” along with some numbers and a precise date. The day was today, and the time was tonight.
“And these are...?” I asked.
“Well, you know how I asked you to leave the use of the remaining money from the Gardranda reward to me, right?” said Marie. “This is the result — box seat tickets to today’s event in the central arena.”
“Event?” I asked. “Is something happening?”
“...Oh? You’re unaware?”
“Yeah.” Way too many things had happened since I’d arrived at Gideon. Although I would’ve been lying if I’d said that I hadn’t seen any leaflets with the same title as on the tickets here and there.
“I see,” Marie nodded. “Just so you know, this is not something you’d regret seeing. After all — it’s a match between Superiors.”
“Superiors?” I asked.
“Yes. Though battles between Superiors aren’t a new thing, this is actually the first public match ever.”
“Who’s fighting?” I asked.
“Naturally, one of them is the king of the duel city — Super Gladiator Figaro — while his opponent is the one with the second place in Huang He’s duel rankings, Shi Jie Xian. Or as he’s better known: Xunyu, the Master Jiangshi.”
A match involving Figaro, eh? Now I’m intrigued, I thought. I’d yet to go to him and say hello due to all that had happened after I’d arrived at Gideon. I felt kinda obliged to thank him for taking care of the player killers that were blocking the way here.
“This is where most of the pooled reward money went to. Are you two okay with this?” asked Marie.
“Of course,” I said. “I’m sure it will be worth it.”
A clash between Superiors — the greatest of players — was surely something I wouldn’t regret seeing.
I was sure that just seeing it would have little effect on my overall strength. And it would help me gauge just how powerful we — Masters — could become.
“I am okay with this, as well,” Rook approved of Marie’s decision. “I’ve wanted to learn more about battles against people.”
“Good to know,” said Marie. “Make sure to be there when the time comes.”
“All right,” he said.
And so, we split up. We would be doing our own stuff until the event started, at which point we would meet up again.
I still had to go to the adventurers’ guild and report to them that the Gouz-Maise Gang had been eliminated.
Apparently, Rook had something he wanted to talk about with Marie. I tried asking what it was, but all I got was, “It’s a secret.” He then whispered something into Marie’s ear, making her face turn stiff as she muttered something along the lines of “How did you know?” Naturally, I was curious, but a secret was a secret, and I didn’t want to pry.
By the way, about 90% of the vast number of sandwiches bought by Marie had ended up in Nemesis’s stomach. The blatant increase in the amount she could eat in a single sitting made a chill go down my spine.
◇
“What do we do with this?” I wondered.
“What, indeed,” Nemesis agreed.
Nemesis and I were sitting at a table in the adventurers’ guild’s bar. Our faces were close as we discussed something, making it obvious that we were troubled. With all that had happened since yesterday, I was becoming quite familiar with trouble. However, one would think that a person would get a break every now and then.
“This is just way too much...”
“But we can’t just refuse it, can we...?”
The thing troubling us this time was the window I had opened.
It was my item screen, but the important thing about it wasn’t an item. It was the field displaying the money in my possession. The amount displayed there was a whopping 80,000,000 lir.
Needless to say, it was a real fortune. In fact, it was equivalent to 800,000,000 yen. As to why I’d come to receive such a great amount of money...
It had happened when I’d arrived at the adventurers’ guild to report the elimination of the Gouz-Maise Gang.
Unlike how it had gone in the knight offices, showing the special reward wasn’t enough. I’d also had to answer a few questions and explain how it all went, making the whole process seem strangely long and thorough. Though I’d found it to be more annoying than the basic marking and signing I’d had to do with the knights, I didn’t hesitate to give them the answers they’d wanted. Sure, I’d hid the fact that my comrade in this event, Hugo, had been a Master belonging to Dryfe, the enemy of Altar, but I’d said nothing but the truth.
As a result, I was recognized as the one who’d eliminated the Gouz-Maise Gang and received the reward. Before I’d gotten the money, I’d thought something along the lines of, I should find Hugo and split it. With me getting the special reward, his portion should be bigger and...
However, such thoughts were completely overshadowed by the 80,000,000 lir that’d been placed in front of me.
Excuse me? 80,000,000 lir? Not 800,000 or 8,000,000? Eighty times more than we got for Gardranda?
As confusion overwhelmed my brain, the person at reception began explaining why the reward was so great.
Originally, the reward the adventurers’ guild had set for the Gouz-Maise Gang’s two leaders had been 1,000,000 each, while its normal members had gone for 10,000 each, making the total about 3,000,000 lir.
However, each and every person that had gone to eliminate the gang had gotten killed. Due to that, it had become known as a highly fearsome group that couldn’t be underestimated.
There was also the fact that each and every failure to defeat them resulted in the death of the kidnapped children, so the risks had been too great for any party to attempt it again.
Naturally, there had been many people who were unsatisfied with that state of the situation. That included the families of the kidnapped children and even Count Gideon himself — the ruler of the city.
With Gideon being so prosperous, many of the kidnapped children’s families were wealthy. A number of them had paid the ransom, but only received their children’s corpses. Driven by grief and anger, many such people had wished for revenge and added money to the adventurers’ guild’s reward.
Due to the Gouz-Maise Gang’s many crimes in his domain, Count Gideon himself had grown to hate the group with a passion and had wished to eliminate them by using the local army. However, with them having their hideout at the eastern border, he wouldn’t have been able to go through with it because using the army might have been considered an act of war against Caldina.
Thoroughly upset with the state of the situation and hoping for a strong party to defeat the scoundrels, Count Gideon had used his own riches to increase the reward. Due to such reasons, the money had reached the great amount of 80,000,000 lir.
“It’s surprising that nobody did anything until now,” I said.
A fortune such as this would’ve attracted many people to this quest. Especially Masters, since there were few risks for us in getting involved in such perilous business.
“Any failures would reduce the chances of the children returning home,
so the guild decided not to show any wanted posters for the gang and instead chose to hand-pick the people that looked like they could certainly do it,” said the receptionist. “Specifically, the Superiors.”
Ah, so they kept it a secret to not make the situation worse, I thought.
I wasn’t completely sure if that decision had been a good one.
“The guild expected the great event happening in the central arena today to attract lots of powerful people from all across the land, so we were aiming to use it as a chance to find our person...”
...and have them do the quest, huh? I thought. From what I’d heard the Lich say, the gang had seen that coming and planned to leave yesterday.
“That is why we were quite confused to find out that the Gouz-Maise Gang was eliminated before we found someone to do it...” she added.
They’d been watching, waiting for an opportunity, and then Hugo and I had come out of nowhere, saying we’d already taken care of the problem. I could see why it was hard for them to believe.
In the end, the fact that I wasn’t lying was proved by my Grudge-soaked Greaves, Gouz-Maise. Anyway, that was how I’d ended up with a reward that was way too big for my pockets.
“I have to meet up with Hugo,” I said.
“Indeed,” nodded Nemesis.
Though he’d said in his letter that the money was mine for the taking, I couldn’t let myself accept these riches without consulting him. I also wanted to talk to him about the decisions I’d made back in the knight office. However, I had no means of contacting him and had neglected to put him on my friends list, so I didn’t even know if he was online.
“Whatever the case, I’ll decide where the money goes after I meet him,” I decided.
Sure, I have monetary issues, but still, I thought.
“They said that the reward for the horse undead was 1,000,000 lir,” said Nemesis. “Why not let yourself use that much, at least?”
“...You have a point.”
That was completely reasonable. 1,000,000 lir was the same amount we’d gotten for defeating Gardranda, and it was more than enough for shopping done by a newbie such as myself.
