22 day until the anniversary - Kaizo is an ass

  Sheko was grateful for how well things had gone with the Ravens in the end. He wasn't sure how he felt about them embracing the name when he and Mai had spoken about them in presumed privacy. However, since it fit their proclivities, he backed off in the end.

  With the larger group, they went to train in the Crystal Cave once more. After two days of mindless grinding, nearly wiping out the cave's inhabitants, they decided to check if the raid boss had respawned. With Mai, Sheko, and Phantasm leading the charge, they made short work of the mini-bosses guarding the doors and confirmed that the raid boss had indeed returned. However, with so few members, Mai and Sheko agreed that attempting the raid was impossible. Even Phantasm—who was ecstatic to try again—agreed with their assessment, though Sheko wasn't sure if it was his real opinion or an attempt to get on his good side.

  In the end, Sheko and Mai agreed that they could try the fight if they managed to recruit at least one more team. However, when they returned to the Crystal Cave, they found out that the other players grinding in the caves had already left. The caves were mostly barren, except for one player who seemed to be focusing on mining for gems rather than fighting whatever stragglers were left.

  Feeling obliged to try at this point, they recruited the gem prospector and used Mai's telepathy cuffs to contact GesStar. Conveniently, their team was in town, taking a day off from assignments. They were reluctant at first, but with Tsuno's urging, they agreed to join the raid.

  In general, the team’s quality was supposedly higher—none of the participants were below level 100, and most had high-rank jobs. Sheko was nearly max level with the Greater Matador job and was close to fulfilling the requirements for the high-rank version of Knife Juggler. Mai had caught up to him, having maxed her Mutagenesist job, unlocked Greater Mutagenesist, and was already midway through it. However, as Phantasm lectured the other Ravens with completely unearned smugness, levels were a bad indicator of a player's true abilities.

  From his short conversations with Emilia and Nue, Sheko had learned that levels were quite indicative of skill in Tians. Unlike others, Tians had some sort of blockage—Emilia, for example, couldn't reach level 500, and other Tians couldn't max out jobs they had already unlocked. Masters, however, seemingly lacked such limitations.

  With time to prepare and the information Mai and Sheko had to offer, the first phase began so smoothly that Sheko grew suspicious. Had the fight changed since last time? His worry worsened every time he glanced at Kaizo, who stood far away from the battle, contributing nothing while his teammates did all the work. Instead, he simply talked to the creepy eye his kobold friend had conjured before the fight started.

  Even with what everyone assumed was their trump card abstaining, Mai—with her ludicrously buffed stats—managed to keep the Unicorn in place long enough for the rest of the party to shower it with attacks, steadily dropping its health. Most of their members were close-quarters melee fighters, so their resources were still mostly full—except for the gem prospector. He stopped attacking when he announced he had less than half of his enchanted gems left, choosing instead to join Kaizo in overseeing the fight. He summoned some kind of machine and began throwing in the gems he had mined earlier.

  After five minutes of what felt like light fighting for Sheko—though with the unfortunate loss of one of the Ravens due to the Unicorn’s conjured thunderstorm—they arrived at the preamble to the second stage. Credit where it was due: Phantasm noticed the shift and attempted to intercept the beam to prevent the boss from healing. However, the beam simply passed through him. While this wasn’t the worst outcome, it left him open for an immediate impaling by the Unicorn. Sheko winced in sympathy as he dodged an opportune kick from behind the boss, once again impressed by Phantasm's inherent durability.

  With their lack of reliable ranged fighters—except GesStar and possibly Kaizo, who was still a mystery—they split their focus. GesStar broke apart the crystal grove and stunned the Unicorn using his job's ultimate skill, Earthquake, while Sheko and Mai each took a dose of Spider-Walking Mutagen to run up the walls and break apart the glowing mural.

  The work dragged on, and the Unicorn unleashed another arena-wide AOE attack, catching them off guard. They had assumed it couldn’t attack while the healing light was active, but they were wrong. A surge of nostalgic hatred for the monster fired through Sheko as he blocked the stone rain—the only attack his shield could handle. Moments later, he and Mai were back at the mural, now assisted by GesStar, who had finished turning the crystal grove into a wasteland, painted green with tiny crystal shards.

  Like in the original raid, the mural finally shattered. Unlike the original raid, however, Sheko found himself free-falling among the shards rather than watching them descend upon him in horror. While in the air, he repeated the spear throw he had used against Phantasm in the arena, aiming for the Unicorn’s neck mid-transformation. The attack destroyed the spear for good but paralyzed the Alicorn for ten seconds.

  Everyone was preparing for the second phase when Kaizo finally made his move. He grasped his two-handed axe and galloped on air toward the Alicorn, closing the distance just as it recovered from paralysis. His first strike landed in the same spot as Sheko’s attack, causing the transformed Unicorn to buckle under the weight of the blow. Then, suddenly, it was engulfed in a fireball, the heat radiating high enough to singe Sheko.

  Kaizo shouted in glee and continued his assault, pushing the boss around and even crashing into other raid members. When someone dared question his reckless fighting, he shouted complaints back at them.

  Meanwhile, the Alicorn’s seven offspring broke free from their crystal eggs, catching several of the remaining Ravens and Kaizo's party members off guard. Two more party members were killed instantly. A third was crushed when the Alicorn slammed into him while fighting Kaizo.

  Sheko and Mai tried shouting at Kaizo to stop his rampage, but he didn’t listen. Trying to get GesStar’s help was useless—he simply shrugged and said, "It’s just how he is. He’s still launching more fire at it even though I told him it’s doing no additional damage."

  With no real solution at hand, Sheko, Mai, and the remaining Ravens threw away tactics and joined Kaizo in killing the boss. The Ravens fought valiantly, but by the time the last of them had fallen, Sheko realized that the boss had definitely grown stronger to accommodate their team's average level. Once the boss was on its last legs after firing it's deadly attack before transforming into it's pitiful third phase, Kaizo turned his back from the diminished beast dismissively ordering Sheko to finish the boss, Sheko almost threw away the raid to stab him in the back but restrained himself in the end.

  Kaizo and Phantasm were similar, but Kaizo was ultimately a very competent player. His team—including Tsuno and Achilles, who had just joined—had managed to avoid any collateral damage Kaizo inflicted on the raid. Sheko restrained himself only because he knew payback was coming to Kaizo in less than a month.

  Kaizo respected their agreement on the loot. Sheko and Mai took the Ravens’ share, and the gem prospector—who had survived until the end—shook their hands happily, thanking them for the opportunity.

  Kaizo’s team left, with Tsuno saying she had fun playing with Sheko again. But he simply seethed in the cave, dozens of new insults floating in his mind, waiting to be hurled at Kaizo. Even though Sheko had survived to the end of this raid, it was worse than his first.

  That first raid had been a heroic tale of teamwork and high jinks.

  This?

  This was a glory hog showing off, running over his allies—literally and metaphorically—as long as they weren’t important to him.

  21 days until the anniversary - Taking a Rest Chatting

  Kai spent an alarming portion of his day off talking with the Ravens, introducing Tam to them and doing his best to steer the conversation away when they began hatching revenge plans against Kaizo and his party. Try as he might, it had been Sheko's goal for some time, and he was easily prompted into sharing what he knew about the team’s strengths and presumed weaknesses.

  That, unfortunately, alerted the others to just how much Sheko knew—far too much for it to be second-hand knowledge from his sister. The suspicion deepened when he accidentally referenced missions the team had undertaken before Tsuno had even joined them.

  Sheko quickly lied about the reason for knowing so much.

  He spun a story about growing impatient waiting for Infinite Dendrogram to come back in stock and passing the time by watching Kaizo’s content before finally getting to play himself. But he couldn’t help slipping into a rant about how obnoxious Kaizo was in those streams, which made his story less convincing.

  Luckily for him, the Ravens weren’t a particularly skeptical bunch, and his real motives went undiscovered. Still, Sheko began privately adjusting his plans.

  The Ravens might get their revenge - in due time.

  20 days until the anniversary - what is a UBM?

  Sheko logged back in after taking a day to rest from the raid with Kaizo. It wasn’t just about needing to vent or stopping himself from doing something stupid—like charging at Kaizo headlong before he had any chance of winning. He already knew Kaizo was stronger than him, but watching him practically solo a boss that had taken their entire original raid's efforts drove the point home.

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  He needed to get stronger.

  But he also needed to pace himself—not burn out his enjoyment just to meet some arbitrary deadline he made up. Besides, with the Ravens dead, including Phantasm (who had just started changing his build), he and Mai were stuck around town. They didn’t want to risk their dropped items trying to find a proper challenge too far away.

  In a way, it was another day off.

  Sheko switched back to his Alchemist job—only level 3—and got to work. He helped replenish Mai’s supplies and began progress on a long-term project of his own. Thanks to his massively improved DEX from both Greater Matador and Knife Juggler, alchemy became much faster and easier. He leveled quickly, eventually unlocking his specialization.

  While Transmutation was interesting, he didn’t want to become a crafter —mind-numbing repetition wasn’t his thing. He didn’t understand how Mai could handle it, but then again, she had Raggedy around for company, even if she had gotten a lot more reserved lately. Poison-making held zero appeal for him, it was both repetitive like Transmutation and wouldn't even help his build. That left the third specialization, which piqued his interest immediately.

  If he hated repetitive crafting so much, why not hand the job to someone who couldn't get bored—like a golem or... a homunculus?

  Sheko chose the specialization with a grin. Mai shot him a glare, clearly waiting for an explanation. After he gave her one, she just went back to her work. When he asked why she wasn’t more excited, she told him to read the materials list for a crafting-capable homunculus.

  It was long—and included an incubation period.

  But Sheko was already too invested to give up. He quickly left to get the supplies, sparing no expense. He planned to make multiple advanced homunculi, buying his materials from the Upper City in hopes of avoiding any nasty surprises.

  He had just stepped out of the shop when the sirens started.

  Instinct took over like he was a trained animal. Sheko bolted toward the edge of the branch he was standing on and jumped, curling into a fetal position mid-air and activating Odysseus's third form to protect himself from the fall into the lower city.

  The siren still rang out—an omnipresent noise like birdsong in a forest, but instead of soothing, it was maddening.

  It wasn’t an effect of the game, or even the siren itself—it was Kai’s own psyche. He’d been considered irrational about his reaction to sirens for most of his life, but today… maybe the paranoia was justified.

  He spun in midair and saw something diving after him from the Upper City.

  Apparently, his luck was just that awful.

  The Legendary UBM—OctaGarment, Bangeki had leapt from the same branch and was now pursuing him.

  Sheko landed hard, striking the street and creating a small crater. Luckily, the area was already cleared due to the siren. He stood up unharmed, shielded by Odysseus, and bolted toward the lab to make sure Mai had evacuated.

  He didn’t make it.

  He snuck a glance back thinking for a moment that he shook off the squid-like monster before It crushed down from above, its dragon-skin section slamming Sheko into the road.

  The siren still screamed, but all Sheko could hear was the blood rushing in his ears as Bangeki’s silk-like tentacle appendages grabbed him and repeatedly slammed him into the ground.

  Odysseus’s shield kept him alive—barely—until suddenly, his coat tore itself off him and was absorbed into the folds of the UBM. Bangeki then seemed to lose interest in him, flinging Sheko like a ragdoll into a marble building.

  Odysseus's force field was tough—but not invincible.

  His coat was gone. His flesh-and-blood arm shattered along with the second floor of the building he hit.

  As the siren finally died down, Sheko—mind clearer, or maybe just more scrambled—joined the wave of Masters and heavily armed Tians attempting to take the UBM down.

  It was almost immune to everything they threw at it. Worse, it had apparently absorbed the abilities of Sheko’s coat and was now shooting enchanted crystal daggers at its attackers.

  Sheko reached the monstrous amalgam of magical garments just in time to realize he was unarmed, undeterred he punched the UBM with Odysseus then attempted to reap it apart by spinning it with his ability but it wasn’t doing anything to it—the creature simply contorted on itself then flexed outward completely unharmed.

  The UBM continued its retaliation as it made its escape through the city, killing Masters and even some Tians on its way.

  Eventually, it disappeared into the forest, with a few Masters tailing it in pursuit.

  For the next fifteen days, Sheko, Mai, and the Ravens joined what felt like every other master in the region in a relentless hunt for the UBM. The forest west of the city had been nearly razed to the ground by the wild pursuit of Bangeki. There was some hope that the destruction would die down after the first ten days—but that hope was dashed when it was discovered that Bangeki had evolved into an Ancient Legendary UBM.

  The news caused the arena rankers from out of town to flood back in droves, and the destruction only intensified. Entire areas were transformed—massive craters, new lakes, and deep pits littered the region like scars from the monster’s rampage. Typically, UBMs spawned in remote locations, hidden like ancient horrors waiting to be uncovered. But Bangeki had appeared in the very center of the city, and when it was finally cornered and slain, the reason for that anomaly came to light.

  Bangeki had been artificial.

  It was created by accident, the product of a project led by a pair of superior job Tians who had attempted to craft a magical robe—one capable of protecting its wearer better than even the finest plate armor forged from alchemically reinforced metals and enchanted by expert engravers. Judging by Bangeki’s absurd durability even before its evolution, their work had been a success. Unfortunately, the pair never got to celebrate. They were Bangeki’s first victims.

  Apparently, the duo had worked using stolen research from a master's guild all the way in Dryfe, which had experimented with grudge—a volatile substance said to be formed from hatred, fear, or unresolved malice—as an alternative energy source to MP. No one fully understood why grudge existed, only that it did—and the duo, in their arrogance, decided it would be clever to use the source of their materials as a source of grudge as well.

  Thus, Octa-Garment, Bangeki was born.

  A magical robe stitched together from the hate-soaked remains of eight Pure Dragon-rank monsters. It sounded like a twisted joke, something no one would seriously attempt. But evidently, this was not the first time someone had tried to create something like this—the original research came from Dryfe, after all, it was impossible for the Tian duo to achieve their "success" without a model to work from.

  15 days until the anniversary - exploits are welcome

  Either through sheer luck or a complete lack of ability to track down Bangeki, none of the Ravens died during the hunt. The same couldn’t be said for Sheko.

  After losing his coat and having little left to risk, Sheko threw himself at the monster in a desperate attempt to kill it—and failed, earning another death penalty.

  Mai didn’t fall to Bangeki directly, but the encounter left her with a broken arm and two twisted ankles. With no way to move and no time to wait for slow, expensive regeneration potions, she was forced to use the suicide function to respawn, trading the death penalty for full restoration. Restorative magic was a rare luxury, and in this case, death was simply more efficient.

  Both Sheko and Mai had once believed they were strong. Sure, Kaizo had completely overshadowed them during the boss fight, but they had written that off as a matter of mindset. Maybe if they had approached it differently, maybe if they’d been serious from the start, they could’ve done it too. That question lingered in the air, unresolved, until the boss would eventually respawn. But even then, the Ravens made it clear: they weren’t ready to try again.

  Phantasm was torn on the matter, but in the end, he supported his friends. If Sheko and Mai wanted to fight the boss again, it would be just the two of them.

  The more they thought about it, the more they agreed the Ravens might actually be right. They couldn’t afford another loss—not just in-game, but to their pride. If they failed, they weren’t sure they could recover from it.

  So they kept training.

  Mai traveled to Altar, hoping to earn a job that would be perfect for her build. Sheko remained in Legendaria to train the Ravens, finally opening up about his goal of defeating Kaizo—for killing him on his very first day in Infinite Dendrogram. It wasn’t just about bruised pride anymore—it was about giving them all a reason to push further, a new brutal training arc, just like the one he endured before fighting Phantasm.

  But this time, experience from fighting other players wasn’t the focus. It would help, sure—but it wouldn’t get them ahead.

  Experimentation, on the other hand, could.

  So Sheko turned their focus toward that: strange job combinations, weird edge-case mechanics, obscure exploits that could offer a real advantage. Something deeper than raw stats or shiny new skills. Something that couldn’t be countered just by being stronger.

  With Greater Matador already maxed out for over a week, Sheko finally unlocked its ultimate skill. He didn’t even know how—maybe it was just a matter of not taking a hit for long enough. Either way, it was another tool in his back pocket, and a damn good one.

  As expected, Phantasm benefited the most from their strange experiments. There was something absurd about the way MP and the job system interacted—especially when someone could instantly switch their active jobs on the fly. All because of non-combatant jobs.

  Those jobs weren’t just like production jobs—most production jobs could still fight. Non-combatant jobs, on the other hand, were completely unable to take combat actions, able to do little more than dodge attacks.

  Sheko already knew about Journalist. Its 50% experience gain skill was undeniably broken, and its upgraded form’s biggest benefit was simply allowing the player to actually fight.

  The job Phantasm got was Sacrifice—a name that already sounded ominous, its gimmick simple yet powerful: incredible MP growth. Higher than many high-rank caster jobs.

  Normally, Sacrifice was used exactly as its name implied—as fuel for ritual magic, or to be consumed for the benefit of others. But Phantasm could instantly switch the job on, gain the massive MP pool, and then switch it off. The MP stayed.

  With that, Phantasm could freely cast magic with his actual main job and ignore the enormous downside of Sacrifice entirely.

  It was broken.

  And it was beautiful.

  Meanwhile, the atmosphere around town had shifted. In the wake of the destruction caused by Bangeki’s hunt, things had gotten tense. Arrest warrants were issued for the worst offenders—those who had caused wanton destruction in their blind chase. High bounties were placed on the most dangerous masters.

  And that idea started gnawing at Sheko’s mind.

  Bounties handed down by a country weren’t just posturing. A master with a national bounty lost access to that nation’s respawn points. And if a master with no active respawn points died… they didn’t just respawn.

  They were exiled.

  Sent to the Goal—the only other server of Infinite Dendrogram. A fully functional, prison-like realm, populated only by wanted masters. There was no way out, no workaround. The only escape was to fully serve your sentence.

  What if he could get Kaizo on that list?

  What if Kaizo’s death meant something?

  But then again… had Kaizo deserved that kind of retribution?