Diablo in A world of infinite possibilities

In the fox's den

Journalist, Marie Adler

A month of Dendro time had passed since Franklin's annoying little game. We were currently at a diner annexed to Gideon's sixth arena, celebrating the success of a recent quest.

"Just so you guys know, I'll be tomorrow," Diablo revealed out of the blue.

In real life in Japan, tomorrow was March 31st. As far as I was aware, colleges and the like would normally start on April 1st, but I guessed it had been moved a day back due to it being a Saturday. I hadn't gone to any college or university, so I wasn't too knowledgeable about this.

 The manga I was drawing was set in a societal underworld dominated by inhuman assassins, so I hadn't really needed any higher education. ...Honestly, I was probably more knowledgeable about guns and poisons than anything relating to college life.

"I must say, I had no idea you were a college graduate," I said.

Realizing that he was maybe younger than me. I'd always assumed that we were as old as each other, or that he was a little bit older. I mean, that bear man was 27. Then again, it was entirely possible that he'd repeated years or entered college following a gap after high school, which could easily make him older than me. Digging too much into the real lives of other players was bad manners, but even if it was BM, I couldn't help but be curious. 

How old was he? What college did he go to? Maybe I should just ask him? I wondered.

"Will that take a lot of your time?" Rook spoke up before me.

Oh, yeah, that would be a problem. These past few days, Diablo (Epistemophagic Devil) and Rook — no longer Pimp, but a Lost Heart — had gone on many various kill quests, and I'd accompanied them to help get Rook leveled up. 

We'd even returned to the capital and raided the Tomb Labyrinth. Our party had consisted of us three and Kasumi's trio, and we'd been able to defeat the boss on the tenth floor. Just so you know, I'd done little to help them in the actual fighting. 

I'd changed my main job from Death Shadow to Journalist and only used the The Pen is Mightier than the Sword skill, increasing their EXP gain. After all, if I'd just powerleveled them while doing all the work, they wouldn't learn anything.

Diablo had defeated tons of monsters during the past month, and he was getting close to reaching 4150. In contrast, despite being a level 500+ with a Superior Job, I was still in the 1000 digits, meaning that he'd already surpassed me in this regard. 

Additionally, Diablo had had lots of mock battles against me and the duel rankers such as Figaro, which was like a slaughter for the duel rankers. It only went to show that there was much to learn by fighting those stronger than yourself. My feints never worked on him so I was at a disadvantage. Diablo would often dedicate entire Dendro days to quests and mock battles.

"I'll be online as much as before, I'll only be off for the one day," Diablo explained.

One real-life day was equal to three days here, and he was saying that he'd only be gone for one of them. 

...Despite that, Diablo had implied that he'd be online for 12 real-life hours each day. Which, if you asked me, made him into quite a no-lifer. 

Looks like the Dendro virus has really corrupted him over the last year, I thought. 

To think that he'd looked so decent back when I tried PK'd him a month ago. 

"The turns and twists following the PK are directly linked to the present, so I wouldn't say the incidents are unrelated," muttered Rook.