Maple and Sally had agreed to meet up in NewWorld Online. They logged on, finding themselves on the tenth stratum, in an area that most reflected the machinery of the third stratum.

There were giant gears, churning mystery machines, and every player had equipment to get around. Flight was a key feature of this map.

“Boy, this takes me back!”

“It’s been a while since we cleared that place. We’ve been through a lot.”

“I know, right?”

They had made so many delightful memories, even their time in the third stratum had come to feel nostalgic. Maple had never before been able to have so much fun with a game.

“First thing’s first, let’s check out those machines!”

“Definitely. They’ll make exploring much easier.”

Their first priority: obtaining mobility.

That would aid with their real goal in this area. So they headed to a nearby shop.

Almost every player who visited the stratum stopped in here once; there were similar shops all over town. Maple and Sally decided to look for one away from the crowds so they could browse in peace.

They headed out of the town center, found a relatively empty shop, and started inspecting the machines that were available.

“They’ve got car-shaped machines that can carry multiple passengers, jet packs… Oh, here we go!”

Maple spotted a footwear-shaped machine. The boots left both hands free and allowed the wearer extreme agility—Sally was not the only player who’d gone with that type. They were arguably the most popular version.

“Are you going with these, too, Maple?”

“Uh…Mai and Yui tried to teach me how to use them back on the third stratum, but…”

Maple wasn’t exactly adept at using them. She’d explored that stratum on Syrup’s back or by blasting herself around with Machine God.

The boots might have been popular, but they came with a steep learning curve. Maple found them a bit too tricky to handle.

“Wanna give them another try? I can coach you.”

“……Sure! Why not?”

“That’s the spirit!”

They each bought some flying boots, and when they did, quest windows popped up.

“A quest?”

“‘Flight Apparatus Improvements’… There’s a number at the end, so I bet it’s a whole chain of quests.”

They scoped out the quest rewards: increased flight length and altitude, or elemental attachments for their weapons. These quests would literally improve their machines.

“Looks like we’ve gotta clear this quest chain to unlock the full specs. I suppose we could get by with their base flight length, but…”

Sally took a closer look at the current specs and concluded that they’d let her pull off the sharp turns and three-dimensional movements she excelled at. Although, she certainly found the prospect of being able to fly for longer and have buffs in the air tempting.

“We should try the quests!”

“I figured that’s what you’d settle on. It’s the most third-stratum-esque thing here. They might well lead us to that Demon Lord item.”

“Mm-hmm! I bet they do!”

The twins had hit up that area already, but they said nobody knew where this quest chain led yet.

There were a lot of quests, the chain forked frequently, and many players were busy in other areas—so they figured it would take a while before this information was available on guides.

Even within Maple Tree, if Maple and Sally focused on what the twins hadn’t done, they could hunt for the Demon Lord’s Mana more efficiently. Regardless, improving their machines would be their main goal. They picked a quest to do first and headed out of town.

Maple and Sally walked straight after leaving the town and soon reached the foot of a towering mountain. Their destination was a cave filled with precious ores halfway up the slope through a forest.

“First, gotta increase the output!”

“Let’s get this cleared quickly.”

Improving their flight speed would be beneficial for them both, so they settled on starting with this quest.

Maple and Sally stepped into the forest. It was in the third-stratum-style area, dotted with half-buried gears spinning away. These were clearly not abandoned heaps of junk.

Softly glowing lights dangled from the tree limbs above, in contrast to the natural splendor of the first-stratum area.

Which meant the monsters living there were different, too.

“Be on your guard, Maple.”

“Mm-hmm!”

Sally spotted enemies incoming—no sooner had she warned Maple than she sprang into action. When three humanoid machines saw the girls, two shot through the trees at high speed, their arms transforming into guns.

The last one activated the boosters on its feet, rocketing forward, a sword in its hands.

“Maple, you take the gunners!”

“Martyr’s Devotion! Deploy Artillery!”

She answered Sally’s cry by activating her skills. Her patented defense soaked the enemy’s blue energy bullets, rendering them powerless, and she aimed her own guns at the attackers.

“Commence Assault!”

A whole lot of lasers filled the forest. These enemies were nimble, but forests were hardly flight-friendly. Maple’s barrage gave them even less room to maneuver.

Soon enough, the red lasers made contact with the monsters, and as they were knocked back by the explosion, more shots landed. The energy bullets the monsters returned fire with reached Maple just fine, but her defense was far too high for that to matter.

While she kept the gunners busy, Sally was free to exchange blows with the sword machine.

“Sure is fast…”

This was the tenth stratum. Foes with high speed were able to keep up with her.

Maple was dominating only because her defense was downright freaky; players with ordinary builds could not easily overwhelm an enemy’s stats…

…in theory.

With a clang, Sally parried the enemy’s sword, and she slashed deep into its throat with her daggers.

If their stats were even, technique made all the difference. An unsurmountable gulf separated Sally from every monster and player. Nothing could ever shrink it—Sally was just that much better.

Each time, their blades clashed. This meant each time she got close, the enemy suffered another wound.

Its death was swiftly approaching.

“I’m not about to let you win.”

Her life was not for trash mobs to claim. Sally dodged another swing and the monster’s head went flying.

“Whew.”

She looked back and found Maple had just downed her foes—their final salvo bouncing off of her.

“Guess you’ve got it handled.”

“Yup! No problem.”

“Cool. Let’s keep it up. We’ll take care of any other foes the same way.”

“I got the ranged attacks covered!”

As always, a few standard enemies were not enough to stop these two in their tracks.

They mowed down everything that came their way, making steady progress up the forested mountain slope.

Halfway up the slope, they found a cave entrance yawning open.

“Is this the place?”

“Hopefully.”

They checked the quest objective on their maps to make sure they had the right cave, then stepped in, remaining wary of any potential ambush.

The cave was a treasure trove of materials to upgrade third-stratum machines. That meant it showed plenty of signs of human development: Lights were installed at regular intervals along the walls, and platforms covered the rougher patches of the floor.

This was essentially a mine providing vital materials to a town built around machinery.

“So traps are unlikely.”

They kept an eye out—better to be safe than sorry—but found nothing worth calling a trap. The monsters here were the same as in the forest, and Sally and Maple made it to the back of the cave without any real difficulty.

“Let’s finish this thing!”

This quest was meant for all players—it was designed so that a player could gather ore without needing to use any skills or items. Sally reached up and tugged a blue crystal, and it snapped right off in her hands.

“We’ll just grab what we need and go.”

“Right!”

They were only here to upgrade their machines. The sooner they wrapped up this quest, the better. After grabbing the ore they needed, they ditched the cave.

With the quest cleared, they soon had their flight apparatuses upgraded.

The ore they’d just gathered now lined their boot-type machines, which glowed from the energy within.

They could now fly even farther with upgraded speed.

Other upgrades were available out in the stratum, but first they headed to a deserted area to practice flying.

“Will this do?”

“I don’t see any monsters!”

No obstructions, no monsters to get in the way. If Maple fell, only the ground would suffer.

“You said you’d tried them out once before?”

“Yeah, with Mai and Yui. I ended up not practicing for long since Machine God let me fly everywhere.”

Maple was one of the few players who’d obtained multiple means of flight early on.

Her fighting style involved planting herself firmly on the ground and mowing down anything that got near, which meant she didn’t really need high mobility, so Sally wasn’t surprised that she’d been less drawn to the flight apparatuses than the rest of the player base.

Still, the enemies were far stronger now, the fields bigger and full of nastier tricks. With more demands being thrust upon her, Maple was feeling the increasing need for rapid acceleration and three-dimensional mobility. In which case, the flight apparatuses would do the trick.

“Let me show you how it’s done,” Sally said, hovering in the air in front of Maple. “You just sort of glide along, like so. Once you get used to it, you can do stuff like this.”

She turned upside down and performed a few quick starts and stops, darting around the air free as a bird.

Water Wielding. Web Spinner. Plus, Ice Pillar and One Step in the Grave to make footholds for herself—Sally was a master of aerial action.

“Aim for that kind of movement.”

“I—I dunno if I can…”

While Sally’s skills may have helped her, the foundation of the flight abilities lay in the machine’s capabilities.

If Maple could match Sally’s movements, she could eliminate the drawbacks of her low AGI and tackle the tenth stratum in style.

“I’ll coach you.”

“……Okay! I’ll give it a shot!”

Sally took Maple’s hand, and both lifted into the air.

“First, try flying slowly. Oh, keep Martyr’s Devotion up.”

If they hit the ground while holding hands, Maple’s cast-iron body would be fine, but Sally would shatter.

“I’ll keep you steady, so try sliding on your left. Just slowly put strength into it.”

“Gotcha.”

With Sally’s help, Maple avoided crashing. They glided through the air together, hand in hand.

“Good, good! Keep it up!”

“Teach me more!”

“Will do.”

They danced through the sky together. Since they’d chosen a space devoid of players or monsters, they could practice as much as they liked. By the time Sally had run her through the full lesson plan, Maple had become a decent flier.

As their practice session wound down, Sally watched Maple in the air and nodded to herself. It would still be tricky for her to pull off these moves in the heat of combat, but she was now good to get around the rest of the time.

“Well, Sally?”

“Nicely done. See, that didn’t take long at all.”

“You’re a great teacher!”

“No, you picked it up fast. It might look hard, but if you apply yourself, it’s not that bad.”

“Yeah…maybe not.”

In the third stratum, she’d thrown in the towel real fast, but this time she had Sally’s avid instruction and a good location to focus. That had helped Maple improve rapidly.

“Any more advanced techniques will come with time. Just watch me!”

“Will do!”

“What’s next?”

Since Maple had mastered flying faster than expected, they had plenty of time left over. Taking a few hours to explore couldn’t hurt.

“Wanna fly somewhere now that I know how?”

“All right! Just don’t get too excited and crash.”

“I’ll try my best!”

“It’s time to show off the results of our training and tackle our next quest!”

“Awesome!”

The quest’s details would have information on their next location. Accepting another, they took to the air on their upgraded boots.

“Good, you’re stable. Keep flying!”

“Okay!”

Sally led the way, and Maple followed close behind. She flew steadily now without needing to hold Sally’s hand. They wouldn’t have any issue wrapping up the quests to come.

Sally led them to the next quest’s location—a crevasse in a sheer cliff face. There was nowhere to land inside, and the fissure was a bit too narrow for them to ride a pet monster. It was clearly designed for flight apparatuses.

“It’s so dark!”

“Seems like they’ve done some work here, just like in the last cave.”

The crevasse didn’t have any light fixtures, so the farther in they went, the darker it got. A tricky area, to be sure.

“Maple, can you make some light?”

“Of course!”

Maple activated Martyr’s Devotion again. This skill didn’t just protect her party member; it also illuminated her surroundings.

Most of the time, it proved to be a demerit. It told people precisely where she was. In dark dungeons, however, it provided a useful light source that kept her hands free.

They also equipped Iz’s custom head-mounted lights, shining beams into the darkness ahead. Now they were ready to explore the gloom.

“Let’s fly slowly and carefully. You never know when we’ll hit a dead end.”

Maple nodded, and they set their flight apparatuses to work, gliding into the crevasse.

“Gotta be real cautious…”

“Yeah… Hold on, something’s coming.”

Sally’s ears picked up the sounds of an enemy approaching.

A swarm of bats flew out, crossing their headlamps’ beams.

Sally raised her weapons, and just as she did, a red beam shot past her.

“Nice.” Sally grinned, pleased by Maple’s quick response.

Maple used her guns to fire massive laser beams, swallowing the entire bat swarm and lighting up the crevasse.

When the light died down, they heard no more flapping wings or sonar screeches. It was all dark and quiet again. Once Sally was sure there wasn’t a second swarm of bats coming, she put her weapons down.

“Good work, Maple. Guess we don’t have to worry about that type!”

“I wonder what they were meant to do.”

“Who knows? Just keep that up!”

“You got it!”

If they could vaporize a foe before they attacked, Maple and Sally had no need to learn the enemy’s attack patterns.

Lasering the occasional swarm of bats, they flew onward into the crevasse’s depths.

“Are you getting used to exploring like this?”

“Um…I dunno. We’ve sure done a lot of spelunking.”

This was certainly a classic place to stick a lot of monsters, and in hindsight, they’d certainly explored their fair share of caves. While this wasn’t technically a cave, it did stretch out in a straight line in a dungeon-like manner.

“You’ve gotten good at watching your front. That was a real swift deploy.”

“Eh-heh-heh, have I?”

“Totally.”

Maple was getting more experience, and she was learning where enemies were likely to come from and which attacks would be effective against what type of enemy.

Naturally, her judgment wasn’t perfect—she only managed it in standard situations—but Maple no longer needed Sally’s guidance to find the right solutions during ordinary gameplay.

“I can tell how much you’ve improved. Heh-heh, you’ll need to power up big-time. I hear this Demon Lord’s a tough cookie.”

“The big boss! It won’t be as easy as those bats!”

“……Yeah, we’ve gotta find the skills we need to waste the ultimate foe somewhere on the tenth stratum.”

“Then we’d better enhance our teamwork, Sally!”

“Mm-hmm…right.”

What did Sally mean by “ultimate foe”? Was it the bosses along the way? The Demon Lord? Other guilds? Or…?

“I’ve gotta get stronger, too.”

“Oh? Sally, I think you’re plenty strong.”

“We’ve come this far—I wanna win. Leave no regrets.”

Maple and Sally had defeated everything they’d faced together. But their time in the game was drawing to a close. Neither wanted to go out on a loss.

At least, that’s what Maple thought Sally meant.

“We’ve gotta win! With everyone’s help!”

“Exactly.”

For now, they had to focus on the monsters at hand. They might be among the best players in the game, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have weaknesses.

Refocusing, they moved on, aiming to wrap up this quest.

Inside the crevasse, Martyr’s Devotion and their headlamps lit up the rocky walls. In time, the surfaces grew damp enough to reflect the light—and they could hear water dripping somewhere.

The environment had shifted, and it didn’t take them long to pick up on a light source that wasn’t their own.

A blue glow in the dark. Exactly like the ore they’d obtained on the previous collection quest.

“Through here. It slopes down, so lower your altitude slowly.”

“Mm-hmm!”

Adjusting their output to avoid hitting the walls, they flew toward the source of the glow.

Many rocky impediments blocked their way, but they smoothly slid around them. The glow grew stronger, and soon they found a glittering underground lake.

The lake was large and lurked in the dark of the crevasse, the water giving off an eye-catching blue glow.

Maple and Sally landed on the shore and peered into the water.

“It’s all lit up… Are those crystals lining the bottom?”

“No, the water itself is glowing.”

Sally scooped a handful of water, and it glowed in her palm, too.

A mystic lake, the ore in liquid form. This was the very rear of the crevasse, clearly their quest destination.

“This is the place.”

“No rush. It’s coming to us.”

“……?”

As they watched, the water in Sally’s palm made a splashing sound and changed shape. The water was merely rippling. The real transformation came from the lake itself.

The water began to slosh about, and a pillar of liquid defied gravity, rising toward the ceiling.

Soon, the pillar detached from the lake, forming a sphere that hovered in the air, glowing blue.

“Here we go. Brace yourself.”

“Mm-hmm!”

An HP bar appeared over the sphere. Sally and Maple had made it this far without any issues, but a boss was a far greater threat. Their concentration was clear on their faces.

“Waterway!”

Sally made a watery path in the air, and as she secured her foothold, the enemy sphere stretched out, snakelike, a maw yawning wide on the head, the lengthy body snapping like a whip.

It sent a powerful blow, putting the full mass of the water behind it. Quite speedy, but Sally easily dodged, dancing up her Waterway.

“Wind Cutter!”

For now, she was mostly assessing the enemy. Her wind spell sliced through the snake’s watery flanks.

“No damage… In which case! Maple, pull it!”

“Taunt!”

That one interaction was all the duo needed to get on the same page. Sally skidded past the enemy, swimming through her Waterway to the far side of the lake, aiming for the sphere at the base of the boss’s transformation.

“Double Slash!”

Maple drawing aggro had allowed Sally to get close; her flight apparatuses whirring, she hit the sphere with a quick combo that didn’t leave her too exposed.

The monster felt like a bowl of gelatin, but her daggers did carve a few dots off that HP bar.

“Physical attacks aren’t doing much.”

They were damaging the enemy less than expected, so Sally tried a spell instead. This time, her wind blades did some solid harm. Certainly more than her weapons had.

Fighting over a lake provided few footholds, so she had far less stability than on dry land. Full use of her flight apparatuses made it possible for her to fight, but if a close-range strike did little, then she was better off keeping her distance and using long-range attacks.

“Whoa! Guess it’s not letting me camp.”

The damage prompted the sphere to fire a torrent of water at Sally.

Sticking around was unwise. She darted off with such alacrity, one might forget she was in midair dodging the attack, and she returned to Maple’s side.

“Deploy Artillery! Yikes!”

Sally’s stunt enabled Maple to attack the sphere. She had more ranged DPS than Sally, so she made a number of guns and took aim. But a torrent of water hit her before she could fire anything, blinding her and destroying all the weapons she’d made.

Martyr’s Devotion did not apply to her artillery. Maple found it far harder to keep her weapons intact than she did party members.

While she was stuck weathering the water, someone yanked her sideways.

“Sally!”

“You okay, Maple?”

“Thanks!”

Sally used her webs to pull Maple into her arms. Dodging more torrents, they formed a plan.

“Might be hard for you to shoot at this one.”

“Yeah. It broke them fast.”

“In that case, uh…”

Their enemy was above the lake. Maple was good at ranged attacks, but without Machine God, most of her abilities could easily hit Sally, too.

“Still, if I have to whittle it down, we’ll be here awhile. This is all on you.”

“What do I do?”

Machine God wasn’t an option, and that left Maple without a clue.

“How about…?”

The plan Sally laid out sounded like something Maple could handle.

“Ready?”

“Yep! Anytime!”

Maple switched to her white gear, and Sally had her webs wound around her. Sally attached a lifeline just in case, then took Maple’s hands.

“Shoulder Throw!”

“Twisted Resurrection!”

Sally chucked Maple across the lake. They had no intention of finessing this boss. She was slamming their most potent attack right into the core of the beast.

“Quick Change! Annihilation Domain!”

The gear swap returned Maple’s defense to max, and the next skill unfurled four black wings on her back.

There was a sploosh and a roar. A cascade of dark red sparks mingled with the glistening of the lake water. So much light it hurt the eyes.

If the boss sphere wasn’t budging, then they would simply drop Maple right underneath. Turn the whole lake into Maple’s domain of annihilation. The boss’s HP was dropping steadily then.

In response, the sphere changed shapes, unleashing a ton of attacks on the water below, but none of them hurt Maple.

Still, the boss wasn’t going down easy. It reached for the surface of the lake and began healing itself.

Even with Annihilation Domain’s healing debuff, its HP was recovering.

The enemy’s powerful healing ability gave Maple an idea.

“……!”

The boss had submerged itself in the water to heal. In other words, it was in contact with the lake. So Maple used her skills. Ones that required no aiming. She knew they would hit the boss no matter what.

“Toxic Fission! Hydra!”

Poison gushed out of her, swallowing the blue lake, dyeing the entire body of water, and tainting the boss’s body.

Sally stood on the shore. Like Annihilation Domain, this poison could not be avoided, and it was steadily draining the boss’s HP.

“Only a matter of time now,” she said.

No need for her to get involved. Paying attention to the time to ensure Maple could still comfortably hold her breath, Sally kept her hand on the web leading to the submerged girl’s body.

A few minutes of poison-wrought pain inflicted by Maple’s domain…

And the boss’s HP hit zero, the water collapsing back into the lake. Sally gave her web a yank.

She wound it in, pulling Maple out of the water.

Annihilation Domain had run out, and Toxic Fission had dissolved back into the water, so Maple was now safe to be near.

“Good work. Looks like the plan worked.”

“Mm-hmm! I think that went well!”

“Those death throes near the end were crazy, and hovering over a lake is a nasty position for any boss. It might have been an experiment to see how good we are with our flight apparatuses.”

“Makes sense.”

Any player could obtain a flight apparatus. So at the very least, the bosses in the third-stratum area ought to be designed with their usage in mind.

“Your DPS outdid it this time, but let’s assume later bosses might force us to actually fly.”

“Guess I’d better practice more!”

“Yeah. I don’t think you could have dodged those attacks.”

This boss was early in the quest chain. Assuming later bosses would be even more aggressive, they’d need some proper flight training.

For now, they gathered the items they needed for the quest, their minds drifting to the future.

The boss had dropped some blue glowing liquid—the quest goal.

“All right, got it!”

“Another upgrade done. Our flight time is getting a boost, which should help with practice.”

“Totally!”

Like always, a magic circle appeared, ready to whisk them safely back to the entrance.

“Maple?”

They could go back anytime—but when Sally turned around, she found Maple gazing at the glowing lake, which was now free of poison.

“The first place we ever went was an underground lake,” Maple said.

“Yeah. That one wasn’t glowing, but it was where I found this gear.”

“Mm-hmm.”

The stats it provided were starting to lag behind, but Mirage was still an irreplaceable part of Sally’s repertoire.

This gear was functionally and emotionally important to her.

“I had to max Swimming and Diving. It took ages…”

“And you used them to the max on the eighth stratum!”

“Ah-ha-ha, I didn’t expect there to be a whole map built around those skills.”

Sally moved up next to Maple, gazing at the glowing water.

“It is pretty.”

“Mm-hmm!”

“It’s the tenth stratum, after all.”

“……?”

“Not just the area themes…the dungeons themselves are bringing back memories.”

“Now that you mention it…that’s true.”

Looking back, she realized it was the sum of all that came before. If that was the idea behind this map, Sally may be right.

“Let’s keep on trekking down memory lane. We have all kinds of things to revisit!”

“I like it!”

Putting off their exit, they spent a while on the shore of the lake, admiring the mystic glow with nothing to interrupt them.

They reminisced for a while, and when they’d had their fill, they headed back to town to upgrade their boots.

With flight speed and length upgraded, their flight apparatuses were clearly a whole grade better.

“May be just one grade better, but the boost to flight time is remarkable,” Sally said.

“The tenth stratum is huge. Every bit helps.”

Quests, free exploration—as they considered what to tackle next, they received a message.

“It’s Iz!”

“I got the same one. She wants our help if we have the time to spare. What do you think?”

“I think we gotta!”

“Okay, then. Let’s put a pin in this quest chain and head over.”

They fired off a reply and traveled to Iz’s location.

Maple and Sally flew toward the center of the town on their upgraded flight apparatuses.

The majority of this hub had still gone unvisited by them, so their aerial view allowed them a brief look at the sights they’d yet to see.

Massive gears spun, metal teeth locked together, and elevators rose along the outside of hulking towers. Flight apparatuses were ubiquitous, making the town quite vertical and every bit as fun to explore as the map outside.

Of course, the third-stratum area was not the only hub town—there were so many sights to take in.

Once they’d soaked in the view from above, they landed at the doors of their Guild Home, where Iz was waiting.

They stepped inside and found her sprawled, exhausted, on the big couch.

“Iz! We’re here!”

“You look wiped. What happened?”

“A lot.”

Iz filled them in on what they’d been up to while Maple and Sally were busy getting Demon Lord’s Mana I.

“Players worked out the gist of that quest chain not long after Mai, Yui, Kanade, and I came to this area.”

“Everyone wants a flight apparatus!”

The third-stratum area’s flight apparatuses were integral, and therefore well worth chasing alongside the main questline. Naturally, the machines attracted more players than most.

“The twins said the questline still isn’t fully documented.”

“That’s right. At least, that’s what we think.”

““……?””

According to Iz, the quest chain had a few quests of higher difficulty, but nothing players who’d made it this far couldn’t handle. Contrary to prior intel, that meant someone had already completed the bulk of the quests.

“Wow! That’s great.”

“If that questline still isn’t complete…does that mean nobody’s found the Demon Lord’s Mana?”

“Bingo. None of the quests offered that as a reward.”

“You’d think it would be in there somewhere. Odds are there’s an undiscovered quest, then.”

There were a lot of quests, and they directly related to the third-stratum area. It would be weird if this chain didn’t take players to the Demon Lord’s Mana.

That notion was what led Iz, and a lot of other players, to start scouring the town to solve the mystery.

“Um, have you had any luck?”

“Not on my front. But anything I could find would already have been found.”

Iz had done her best, but she had not accomplished much—which was normal, since everyone was looking for a needle in a haystack.

“But…”

““But?””

“Kanade is another story.”

Iz beamed, and Sally and Maple eagerly awaited her next words.

Kanade was Maple Tree’s puzzle expert. He had a photographic memory and a knack for decoding the game’s fictional languages; he excelled at picking up on things anyone else would pass right over.

“Kanade found a quest that wouldn’t appear when playing normally. That led him to another quest, then another… We’ve cleared several.”

And they were pretty sure it led to the Demon Lord’s Mana. The difficulty curve was steep, and soon they found themselves on a quest that couldn’t be cleared by a party of only Iz, Kanade, and the twins.

“So where are they?”

While Kanade focused on puzzles, Mai and Yui focused on offense. Yet none of them were in the Guild Home.

“They’re in the eighth-stratum area…exploring underwater. There’s a puzzle element down there, so I had them go on ahead.”

“That’s probably for the best. We aren’t much use if there’s an unknown language.”

“We’ll have to thank them later!”

“But I could use your help with this quest,” Iz said.

“Absolutely!”

“Let’s try to get this thing before anyone else figures it out.”

“Ideal. I’m counting on you!”

““We won’t let you down!””

Sally and Maple were Maple Tree’s top two players, able to handle nearly anything that came their way. They were more than happy to help out their fellow guildmates.

“Let’s get this started.”

“You got it!”

“I’ll give you a ride to the quest location. My flight apparatus seats several.”

“Oh, it does?”

This type had been unpopular on the actual third stratum because it was hard to wield weapons in them. They had their advantages when it came to simply getting around, though. Since Iz didn’t have a combat-oriented build, her choice made sense.

“Heh-heh, it’s a bit different from the original.”

““……?””

“You’ll see.”

With no real clue what Iz meant, Maple and Sally, plus Iz, headed off to finish this quest.

Outside the Guild Home, they found Iz’s flight apparatus waiting for them.

“Behold, my new flight apparatus!”

“Whoa!”

“Um…what is it?”

The object before them didn’t look like a flight apparatus. It more closely resembled Maple’s Machine God form. It was less a car, and more like a tank. It had loads of extra armor. Much of that was formed by parts obtained from quests Iz cleared, so this machine was heavily tricked-out. But it didn’t have only armor—it had lasers, cannons, elemental weapons, and boosters galore.

“Since the basic form is oversize, I can fit a whole lot more onto it. That does take its toll on its maneuverability, though.”

Storage was an advantage the boots didn’t offer. This machine let Iz fight a lot more than she usually could. At least, the terrifying-looking vehicle suggested as much.

“Looks super-strong. But you still couldn’t win?”

“Nope. I’ll be sure to back you guys up, though.”

“We’ll give it our A game!”

Their foe would clearly be a major threat. Iz briefed Sally and Maple on the monster in question as they clambered into her flight apparatus.

The interior mostly resembled a car, but the pilot’s seat was another matter—it was surrounded by levers and buttons, the air filled with radar screens. Who knew what those lights even signified?

“Yikes… That looks nuts…”

“I may have gone overboard with the alterations. Kinda got away from me. Nearly everything has its use, though, once I figured it all out.”

Iz pulled a lever, then hit a few buttons, and the engines roared to life. The vehicle took off.

“It’s pretty far…but it shouldn’t take us long.”

With that, Iz yanked the flight stick, and the machine shot off across the sky—far faster than either of the other girls’ machines.

Iz got them to their destination in mere minutes, and once Maple and Sally had disembarked, she hit a button and got out of the flight apparatus herself.

Then the vehicle began to shrink—soon, a much smaller version hovered in the air next to Iz.

“And now it’s combat ready.”

“Sweet. Well worth all the modifications.”

“Right?”

“Um, so now what?”

They were standing in an area strewn with giant springs, gears, and bits of machinery. A vast junkyard—but there were no signs of any monsters. At a glance, it was not obvious what their goal was.

“It does look promising…”

“But without any hints, we’re not sure where to begin.”

“You actually need to provide a specific amount of a specific energy. Kanade figured out the exact figures…and discovered that condition in the first place.”

Iz elaborated, handing Maple and Sally some items.

“Th-that’s a lot…”

“Y-yeah. I don’t even know if I can hold it all.”

“Might be better to use a basket. Once it goes in your inventory, it’ll be hard to find again…”

“Good idea!”

“Yeah, nobody’s gonna figure this out by accident.”

Every item they’d been given allowed for an elemental attack. Given the volume, players would need to cast spells willy-nilly just to stumble across the requirement by accident. With no monsters in the area, however, the discovery would be an unlikely accident.

“Let’s get the prep done. Don’t want to waste the lead Kanade gave us.”

“Agreed!”

Maple and Sally set right to work, then reported back to Iz and were on standby.

“Fey, Water Web.”

Iz’s pet monster used a skill that connected the springs and gears with slender strands of water. These were essentially fuses—they’d allow her to trigger all the items at once.

“Prep complete. Here goes!”

All it took was a little push, and all the items went off. Iz cracked a yellow crystal in her hands, and electricity shot down the webs, spreading out across the vicinity—and item effects followed.

There was a low rumble. Machine parts whirred to life, blue sparks spraying everywhere—and a magic circle of the same color appeared.

“Hop right on—it won’t last long.”

“Gotcha!”

“Here we go.”

On cue, the girls leaped onto the circle. Sparks strobed, and they were whisked away to another zone.

When the light died down and the machines stopped whirring, they found themselves in a new location.

“Holy cow… What the heck is this?”

“A fall from here…would be bad news.”

They found themselves in a space-like darkness. It was hard to tell just how big the area was; the only footholds were rocks and bits of buildings floating in the void. No floor, no ceiling.

One glance over the edge of the starting platform revealed only a bottomless pit.

“Yeah, fall a short distance, and an instant death effect kicks in. Careful—it’s quite difficult to tell how far is too far,” Iz said.

“Got it. I’ll be on guard.”

“You too, Maple. Your defense won’t help you here.”

“Right!”

“I’m sure you both remember this—you and the twins fought a boss that altered gravity before, right?”

“Yep.”

“Um…that’s the one that gave us the Demon Lord’s Mana, right?”

“This one does the same thing, so be ready for it.”

“Gotcha.”

“I’ll be careful!”

This time they had flight apparatuses, which provided them options, but suddenly finding themselves “falling” in the wrong direction could very well lead them to make operational blunders.

Happy to have a warning, Maple and Sally scanned their surroundings, looking for a path forward.

“We’ve reached this boss before, so I can lead the way. Can you guys handle any monsters? I’ll be providing stronger cover fire than usual.”

Iz put her flight apparatus back to full size, then hopped in the pilot’s seat. Several weapons whirred to life, and her voice came over the loudspeaker.

“This way!”

“After you, Miss Tour Guide. Also, is there anything you can tell us about gravity-shift patterns or the enemies along the way?”

“Yep. We’ve got the intel right here.”

Iz sent them a file, and Maple and Sally quickly read up on it.

Other members of Maple Tree had failed to clear this dungeon, so the enemies on the way and the boss itself were both rough. Not to mention, the environment was not exactly combat friendly.

“Gotta put our game faces on.”

“Roger that!”

Maple and Sally pounded the intel into their heads before they could encounter any monsters, then followed Iz’s flight apparatus into the void.

Since Iz warned them ahead of time, they didn’t need to worry about the dungeon’s gravity shifts.

On guard against undiscovered traps, the three of them made full use of their flight apparatuses, nimbly navigating the maze of platforms placed high and low.

“Not far now… There!”

Maple and Sally raised their weapons. Once more, monsters spawned exactly where they had last time. The darkness warped, and monsters tore their way out of three rifts in space.

Fishlike bodies, clear as glass—but beneath that transparent surface, buzzing machines made up their innards. The long-bodied machines could swim through the air, much like the girls. Every now and then, they’d dive into the darkness, as if vanishing into gaps between dimensions, moving to surround the girls.

Once they got close enough, they entered combat mode, diving more often and moving faster.

The fish scattered gears in their wake, like shed scales. These then accelerated, shooting toward the party like bullets.

Iz had warned Sally and Maple in advance that this attack did piercing damage, so Maple wasn’t using Martyr’s Devotion. She had her white shield equipped and raised.

A rare foe whose damage she couldn’t tank. She was forced to use her shields, but she wanted to save Devour for later.

The gear bullets flew in straight lines, and though the fish were closer, they were still at range. At this distance, Maple could readily defend herself.

However, the flying gears worked like the fish themselves, vanishing into the gaps between dimensions, scattering in all directions, and throwing off her timing.

This forced Sally and Maple to watch each other’s back, eliminating blind spots and deflecting the projectiles in the right order.

If they managed that, there’d be no casualties, but this was easier said than done.

“We’re good.”

“Taunt!”

Maple had her final line of defense right at her side, the ultimate impenetrable shield.

With all aggro pulled toward them both, the projectiles came faster than Maple herself could handle—but she needed only to guard against those coming at her from dead ahead.

Clang, clang—with perfect, precise slashes, Sally’s daggers knocked every bullet out of the air.

Iz had made sure she knew this attack was coming, and Sally was notorious for dodging new attacks on sight. If she already knew what a foe would do, no amount of complexity in the projectile’s approach could possibly best her.

“Deploy Right Arm!”

Trusting Sally to defend her, Maple began firing back. Yet these enemies were tanky in their own right, and the girls were maintaining distance to ensure they could deflect the gears. The fish were diving between dimensions just before Maple’s artillery hit, so none of her attacks were landing.

Yet Maple could keep her fire going indefinitely. That made it easier for her to bait the enemy’s evasive maneuvers.

“Nice. Lets me work!”

Making ranged attacks with low lag before a hit—that wasn’t something Iz could normally do. But with all the upgrades she had made to her flight apparatus, it was now a different story.

When a fish took form, she quickly locked on and yanked a big lever.

A giant cannon glowed red. The flames it belched surged, hitting a line of fish as they resurfaced.

The attack lit up the darkness all around, dealing fire damage every bit as powerful as a mage’s top spells.

“Wowza!”

“How much work did she put into that thing…?”

This was clearly more than just some basic range and DPS upgrades.

“Whoops, can’t get distracted!”

“You’ve got this, Sally!”

“I do. No careless mistakes here!”

This time, Sally was the key to their defense. Looking at her stats and skills, that might seem like madness, but in fact, her skills alone kept their lines intact.

“Seriously, I could never do the same.”

Watching Sally’s unearthly skills in action from the pilot’s seat, Iz kept following Maple’s lead, aiming for where the fish would next appear so they could shoot them all down.

“Iz!”

“Mm-hmm, on it!”

The fish dodged Maple’s lasers, shedding gears, attacking, and defending in a single motion. But Iz’s cannons hit them as they emerged from the dimensional gaps, and one after another, they went down.

They’d been firing this whole time. Well over a hundred glittering gears shot their way, and since every one of them was piercing, no player could afford to ignore this damage. The barrage was intense—a real threat to any player in the game.

“Mm-hmm, should be good.”

“Last one!”

That is, of course, if you didn’t have a beast on your team who could knock down every single enemy. In that case, a no-damage run was entirely possible.

Sally was a machine, more accurate and efficient than these mechanical fish could ever be. She broke the balance: The party and the fish should have traded damage in the fishes’ favor, but not with her around.

Each fish they took out meant less bullets. Even the fishes’ maximum output couldn’t get past her, which meant, of course, anything less than maximum didn’t have a chance in hell. Soon enough, the barrage was so thin, Maple could handle it with her shield alone.

Iz fired one last gale bullet, pulverizing the final fish’s head as it fell into the abyss. Their first battle ended in a flawless victory.

Once the enemies were safely scattered, Iz called out, “Nice work! That got us through this. You okay? I know you’ve got a pretty demanding role.”

“I’m good. I’ve handled this much several times before.”

Sally spoke as if her job wasn’t the least bit taxing. Her tone didn’t give the impression that she was lying or forcing the words out.

In other words, to Sally, this was just what she was supposed to be capable of.

Sally had been playing this game for a while. She’d always had a knack for it, but the more she played, the more polished her skills became.

It wasn’t odd that she could maintain that level of performance.

“Just don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Right, gotta save something for the boss!”

Iz had made it this far without Maple and Sally. The boss was the battle that really required their assistance. If Sally was running on fumes by the time they got there, this whole trip would be a waste of time.

Keeping an eye on Sally’s fatigue, the party moved steadily onward.

Despite Iz’s worries, Sally was true to her word and handled the critical defensive role without breaking a sweat. Soon enough, they found the door to the boss room looming over them.

The door stood atop a floating pile of rubble, with nothing but darkness beyond. They’d seen this before—it was clearly a sign of a boss fight within.

This dungeon had never had conventional walls or floors. It was reasonable for them to assume the boss fight would happen in a separate space. They had a moment to rest.

“Still, my jaw’s on the ground. I knew you were good, but…”

“She’s amazing! How many did you deflect?”

“I’ve been practicing on the daily. We were up against enemies that use quantity and range, which I’m used to now.”

Sally was referring, of course, to her bouts with Frederica, Velvet, and occasionally Wilbert.

She had been fighting that lineup for a while, so she’d grown very good at handling projectiles.

“Now then, let’s review what we know.”

“Good idea.”

It was always a good idea to go over the boss’s attack patterns before the fight began. Like the enemies they’d encountered along the way, this boss was a machine, but it took the form of a big white bird.

It was unlike Silver Wings, the boss they had fought in the second event. This boss wouldn’t swoop around and dive-bomb them—it would warp space-time to fire metallic feathers their way. Those feathers would vanish between dimensions and reappear in all directions. On top of that, they could stop and start in midair, making them even harder to deflect.

This boss was a big upgrade from the fish.

“I’m starting to see why the four of you didn’t cut it.”

Kanade had used up the bulk of his stocked grimoires in the last event, and it would take a while for him to regain all his strength. Magic barriers weren’t really something you could chain cast, so if the projectiles were syncopated, it was very difficult to keep Mai and Yui safe—especially since neither could take a single hit.

“But that doesn’t mean a great shielder would do any better. It’s a pretty nasty boss.”

In a dungeon where every random fish inflicted piercing damage, the boss was of course fully tricked-out, too.

That put Martyr’s Devotion off-limits, making it impossible for Maple to fight at her usual advantage.

“We’ve got your magnificent flight apparatus, Iz, so let’s make the most of it.”

“Naturally.”

Since piercing was in the cards, Iz in her tanky machine would be far more durable than Maple.

If the need arose, she could even soak an assault, but otherwise, their basic approach would remain the same: Either Maple or Iz would force the enemy to dodge, while the other would blast it on the opposite side.

Sally would be fully committed to defense.

Just like on their way in, Sally was the key to their success.

“Phew.”

Sally was well aware this battle would be fast and furious. She took a deep breath, heightening her focus.

“You good?”

“I’m great. And I’ve got a trick up my sleeve I’ve been practicing.”

“Good luck!”

“Mm-hmm, you too.”

When Sally sounded confident, there was no reason to doubt her. Yesterday and today and tomorrow, Maple had faith in Sally. If she said she was good, then all Maple needed to do was play her own part.

“Let’s get ourselves buffed first. Every stat boost counts.”

Iz set to work, burning incense, shattering crystals, and giving potions.

Once multiple auras surrounded each of them, they hustled through the door to the boss room, hoping to make the most of these buffs.

The interior wasn’t much different from the exterior; no walls or floors, just a vast void with some floating platforms.

These were arranged in three dimensions at a distance that required players to use flight apparatuses to move between them. Since the boss was avian, they’d have to time their movements wisely.

“First, try the plan!”

““Got it!””

A giant white bird slowly flew out of the darkness from the depths. Its beak gleamed. Glass eyes. Metal wings to attack with. It was quite the imposing figure.

There was no need to wait for it to complete its dramatic entrance, however. The girls got ready for the fight.

Picking a good platform was critical. They were using items, adding metal plates to the rim of the rubble heap. Better footing meant Sally was free to do her thing, and this was their chance to improve that.

“Taunt!”

As Maple drew aggro, Iz took off in her flying tank.

The boss had wide-range AOE attacks, and they’d just be tying their wrists by staying in range.

“Maple, you’re on offense.”

“Right!”

Maple turned one arm into a cannon, and the bird, fully emerged from the darkness, flapped its wings. There was a metallic grind, and it began to wheel around.

“Commence Assault!”

Maple fired a huge laser. Just before it hit, the boss was swallowed by darkness, and where it had just been, an array of gleaming metal feathers shot forth. These, too, vanished into the dark, reappearing from warped space all around Maple.

“Going for broke! Dragonfire Spear!”

Spears made of fire appeared in both of Sally’s hands. She had long Web Spinner threads wrapped around her hands, and on the end of those hung her beloved blue daggers.

Feathers came forth like a volley of arrows. Sally stood guard over Maple—if any of this hit, she would die instantly.

Yet Sally showed no fear. Her eyes caught every incoming attack, and she swung her spears with precision.

There was a clang—and her spear knocked a feather away. However, all the spears did was extend her reach a little.

More feathers were coming toward Maple in places where the spears couldn’t reach.

Clang, clang.

“Whoa!”

“Looks like that’ll work.”

Feathers fell out of the air with the sound.

Sally wielded daggers connected to long webs. She swung them around like whips, slapping feathers out of the air with uncanny precision.

Sally had acquired a makeshift quadruple wield. That far from her hands, the daggers wouldn’t do much damage, but on defensive duties, they worked like an auto-intercept system and quickly proved impenetrable.

This, of course, was nuts.

These daggers were just attached to webs, yet they moved so smoothly, it was like she had invisible arms, like they were connected to her own nervous system.

Did the daggers have minds of their own? Did a skill allow this? Either explanation would seem far more reasonable than the truth.

Like she had eyes in the back of her head, Sally spotted the incoming feathers in a flash, reacting to each and every one without making a single error in judgment. As good as any skill.

“I’m good. Trust me.”

“Mm-hmm!”

Sally was in defense mode, a state driven purely by her raw talent as a gamer. As long as there were projectiles to deflect in range of her webs, they’d fall from the sky. Not a person alive could imitate this stunt.

“Leviathan! Flash Spout!”

Two spurts of water swallowed more feathers. Throwing out skills where appropriate, she made her defense truly impregnable.

“Hydra!”

“Don’t forget about me!”

Maple was still blasting lasers, and when the boss showed itself again, Iz hit it from the other side.

Once again, Maple’s ranged options were a real asset.

Means not available to your average great shielder were steadily reducing the boss’s HP pool.

But this was a boss. It soon showed just why it ruled over the fish in the area.

It faced the three girls, colossal metal wings raised high above its head, the tips touching. It formed a circle with its wings, which then began to glow.

“Maple!”

“Cover! Pierce Guard!”

Sally and Maple quickly swapped positions, and Iz retreated upward.

Those wings formed a cannon. A giant white beam fired, swallowing the entire platform.

“We’re good!”

“That’s our Maple!”

The light died down. Maple was unharmed, and Sally was safe behind her.

Maple could not handle the feathers—but Sally could. Sally could not deflect a laser—but Maple could soak it head-on.

They covered for each other’s weaknesses, surviving the boss’s onslaught. Meanwhile, Iz, flying free up above, had four weapons charged.

“Locked on. FIRE!”

Each missile she fired split in the air, surrounding the boss and detonating. Fire akin to a dragon’s breath struck it directly—and from the sky above, a laser every bit as prodigious as the boss’s own. Finally, she hit it with gale-force winds that threatened to rip its wings off.

Naturally, this was not enough to down the boss, but the damage it did was significant. It was hard to believe a crafter had been responsible for it.

“Would be nice if I always had access to this… But I’m just getting started.”

Her fully tricked-out flying tank was doing real numbers. Iz waited for her next chance to strike, keeping one eye on the platforms in case she got shot down.

Between Iz and Maple, the boss had lost enough HP to shift to its next phase.

The twins’ DPS had gotten Iz’s original party this far…but no farther than this.

They had a plan for it, but it was a pretty crazy one.

Magic circles appeared on every platform. Several blinked out, and Sally and Maple were flung upward.

“Stay calm.”

“I’m good!”

They’d been warned this was coming and got their flight apparatuses on quickly. The practice Maple had put in paid off. She could feel the upward push but kept her balance, hovering.

Maple’s and Sally’s flight time was still limited, though. They’d need to get back to a rubble heap if they wanted stable footing.

“Maple, over here! Waterway!”

Towing Maple with her webs, Sally tried to swim along a water stream to a new platform.

But the boss was already on the attack. It scattered a new barrage of metal feathers, warping space so they appeared all around the girls.

“Sally!”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Even airborne, as long as her flying boots were on, Sally could maneuver every bit as smoothly as if she was on land. She could dart across the sky with far greater ease than Maple could manage, dancing around Maple as the current swept her along, her fire spear and daggers tracing arcs through the air.

“This just isn’t getting past me.”

“Commence Assault!”

Maple’s barrage took out the feathers coming from dead ahead, and she aimed at the boss beyond.

Matching her play, Iz’s cannons roared to life, whittling away more HP.

Iz’s tank could fly for far longer than either of the girls’ boots. That freed her from worrying about anything happening on the platforms and kept the damage output steady.

“Maple, move in closer.”

“Got it!”

“Following you.”

Once the volley of feathers was handled, they needed to adjust their position to match the boss’s flight.

Iz moved with them, keeping herself in range and her guns blasting away.

Things were going swimmingly, but since this approach depended on Sally’s superhuman performance, it was certainly in their best interests to wrap up this fight as soon as they could.

“Saturating Chaos!”

“Leviathan!”

“Aim… Fire!”

Without a proper mage, the three of them had to use what ranged attacks they had to slowly chip away at the boss.

Astonishingly enough, Sally was getting the hang of the feather volleys and was able to find gaps to use her skills, adding to the damage.

If the attack patterns stayed the same, they’d likely win, but none of them thought it would be that easy. When the bird’s HP bar hit the halfway point, it triggered a phase shift.

“……It’s up to something.”

“Iz!”

“Right. Heading your way.”

The boss was flapping its wings, rattling the metal and carrying itself high in the roofless sky. They were clearly being baited, and the girls huddled together, watching closely.

Maple still had the Aegis/Martyr’s Devotion/Pierce Guard combo available to her. She knew she could handle any big moves.

Way up above, the boss paused, and the shed metal feathers formed several rings in the air around it. Once they’d lined up, they all began to glow.

It looked a lot like the powerful beam that had been fired earlier. This time, however, there were more than one. A dozen barrels were now aimed at the three of them.

The platforms, still fitted with magic circles designed to throw off their balance, began to rise. They were now arranged so the players could fly from one to another, all the way up to the boss’s position.

This was clearly the final terrain of the fight. If the girls wanted to beat this boss, they’d have to find a way past this challenge.

“We’ve gotta take flight to get in range of it.”

“We’d better think fast—it’s gonna start shooting.”

“Wh-what do we do? Should we start flying up there?”

The rising platforms weren’t designed to get them to the boss. Instead, they seemed to be spaces where a player could regroup after being knocked down or off-balance. This was the third-stratum area, after all; it was all about flight apparatuses. Sally and Iz both figured they were meant to use them here.

“The faster we get up there, the better. Maple, slam Devour on it, and let’s finish this before anything goes wrong.”

“Yeah, I agree. Up we go! I’ll carry you.”

“I’ll do my part!” Iz said.

She moved her tank closer, put the big cannon away, and let the two of them hang on to the roof. That allowed for emergency evacuations, and unlike if they were inside the car, Sally could keep her unorthodox quadruple-wield going.

“Here goes! Time to show off my ace piloting skills!”

Iz yanked on the flight stick just as the glowing rings above began dropping pillars of light.

A brutal acceleration. All the boosters she’d been saving got her to top speed, and some hard cornering let her weave through the columns of light.

“Whoaaa!”

“I’ll tie you down!”

Sally quickly attached webs to ensure she and Maple wouldn’t be thrown off. Even she found that this reduced the accuracy of her parrying. Still, she swiftly took stock and realized that even when the boss fired feather volleys at them, it wasn’t keeping up; the warps in space were lagging behind them, and they never quite succeeded in surrounding the party.

“Okay, in that case…”

She ditched the fire spears, putting the daggers back in her hands. She had a lot more practice with them there than on the ends of her webs.

The only attack the boss could keep on them was the feathers from above—in which case, two daggers were plenty.

“I can go even faster!” Iz cried inside the tank. The machine groaned, and they shot toward the boss.

Clang, clang! This moving platform was her least stable foothold yet, but Sally was still batting away every feather that came at them.

“Energy barrier, deploy!”

A shield every bit as bright as the boss’s beams blocked an attack that would have hit the tank.

As the members of Maple Tree got closer to their opponent, its attacks became harder to evade, so Iz used a barrier available only once a day—and plunged through the thick of the boss’s barrage.

“Heh-heh, well worth the ride.”

None of this had been available on the third stratum. The enhanced features were all designed to match the enemies on the tenth stratum, and Iz was hell-bent on making full use of them.

“Maple, get ready!”

“Mm-hmm! Full Deploy! Martyr’s Devotion!”

They were close enough now. Maple put Sally in her arms and fixed her eyes on the boss.

This protected Sally from her blast and let them close the gap at top speed.

“Commence Assault! Pierce Guard!”

Maple blasted Iz’s tank forward, and the girls rocketed toward the boss. Neither Iz nor Sally could simply sit back and ignore the battle, but since Pierce Guard nulled all damage that bypassed her defense, Maple could force her way in.

“Quick Change!”

“Heal!”

“Aegis!”

Maple swapped to her white gear, and Sally topped off her HP. Once Maple had enough, she used Aegis to temporarily nullify all damage and get right up in the boss’s face.

They were now close enough to hear the gears whirring inside its body, and Maple and Sally swapped to their flight apparatuses for the final approach.

“Steady… I’m good!”

“Okay, nice. I’ve got your back.”

Unhurriedly, Maple opened her inventory and swapped her shield for Night’s Facsimile—the black shield to which she’d set Devour. While Aegis was still active, she began slamming the shield into the white bird’s long neck.

It dealt a massive blow, far greater than the slow, steady damage they’d been doing at range.

Sally was deflecting all the feathers, so there was no risk of it consuming anything untoward. All of Maple’s Devours were for the boss.

“Commence Assault! Ancient Weapon! Saturating Chaos! Hydra!”

With a series of clangs, two types of weaponry and two powerful skills joined the Devour feast. The ultimate close-quarters combo.

Maple’s barrage of skills cut halfway through the boss’s neck—and the hovering parts flew off, the pillars of light vanished, and the barrage of feathers died down.

The fight had concluded.

As each part of the boss’s body crumbled away, all that remained was a ring of gleaming metal feathers clumped together.

“Another W in the books.”

“One down!”

“Whew! Our plan worked!”

“Good thing, too. With you girls along, you’d almost think this fight was easy,” Iz said.

Maple and Sally had clear weaknesses, but unless something honed in on those weaknesses, they often won battles without taking damage.

That meant that one false move could spell defeat—but not this time. They’d taken no damage and scored a flawless victory.

“That was a real headache, though. It might be worth calling Kasumi and Chrome for later quests. Let’s leave Kanade to his puzzles in the eighth-stratum area.”

Iz had been the one progressing through the quest chain, so it was most efficient if she led the way.

Maple and Sally could join from this point, but they were just following along. Since they had limited time, it wasn’t the best use of their resources.

And with her flying tank, Iz could do a lot of fighting without needing anyone to defend her. That expanded their range of viable party formations and made combat far easier. Teamed with Chrome and Kasumi, she had all new ways to fight—and the enemies’ ferocity meant that was well worth exploring.

“Still haven’t received a Demon Lord’s Mana, though, which means the fights will only get worse.”

“True. I’ve got an idea where this is going, so it might be worth calling in favors and clearing this area as soon as we can.”

Maple Tree chose their divide-and-conquer approach to gain the most info on different parts of the map.

Once they knew enough, it seemed prudent to focus on clearing a specific sector.

“I’ll take this drop. I’ll need to do as many alterations as I can before I tackle the next quest.”

“Please do!”

“We can help,” said Sally.

“You already have. Let’s keep this up!”

They patted one another on the back, found an exit circle on a platform nearby, and took it back to the outside world.

Once they returned from that other dimension, they took a moment to recover.

“That’s enough questing for today.”

“We’re done?”

“Yes, it was quite a rough fight. And I used up a lot of my machine’s tricks.”

Without that energy barrier or her boosters, Iz’s options had decreased.

Maple was out of Devour, so she couldn’t fight the same way, either. And Sally must have been pretty worn-out.

They didn’t need to push themselves too far. There was always a possibility the next boss would be even tougher.

“I’d appreciate if you could keep helping me on this third-area stuff.”

“No problem!”

“Let’s keep upgrading our boots when we’re free, maybe.”

“Iz’s machine is so crazy!”

Even if Maple and Sally couldn’t get theirs that souped-up, seeing the machine in action made them want to see what they could manage.

It seemed a waste to leave these machines as just a means to fly around.

“Sounds like a plan.”

With their next goals set, they split up for the day.

A few days had passed since Maple and Sally helped Iz defeat the mechanical bird boss.

That had been a hidden quest Iz discovered after clearing multiple others, and the third-stratum area’s questline continued to branch every which way. What was certain, however, was that they were making progress.

As discussed, they’d called in Kasumi and Chrome to get farther through the chain.

With five players in the party, they could handle that much more. A proper great shielder was particularly transformative. They were far more stable, and when up against foes with piercing damage, Sally didn’t have to shoulder nearly as much of the burden.

They couldn’t make any progress when Iz wasn’t online, so whenever she was, that became their priority. They were now near the end of the hidden quests.

When Iz wasn’t around—like today—they split up, checking out other areas.

There were still lots of Demon Lord’s Mana out there. Given the tricks in the third-stratum area, Maple Tree would likely never pull off all their quests in time if they didn’t split up.

Today, Maple and Sally spent the day exploring the third-stratum area and upgrading their flight apparatuses. They’d just wrapped things up and come back to town.

Sadly, none of this had led to hidden skills, but they had upgraded their machines for greater mobility and control.

“I wonder what the other areas are like.”

“Kasumi’s been making steady work of the fourth-stratum area. The quests there work differently—they don’t lead into the next the way the quests here do.”

“Huh…interesting!”

“Chrome’s been working on the sixth area. I say we leave him to it. There’s lots there unlocked by number of monsters slain, I guess. Some bits might be a bit rough for him to solo, so Mai and Yui have been joining him,” Sally said.

“I might take a look!”

“Knock yourself out.”

The sixth area had a horror theme, and that was not Sally’s speed. A boss that could shoot a hundred bullets? Fine. A horror-themed area? No can do.

“And Kanade’s on the eighth-stratum zone?”

“Yep. Sounds like he’s solved a lot of it. That’s why the twins are free to help Chrome.”

“That’s our Kanade!”

“So if we’re choosing a different place to go… How about the fifth-stratum area?”

They hadn’t taken so much as a step into the fifth-stratum area, so it seemed like a good idea. As long as they had a single player capable of accepting the Demon Lord’s Mana quest, they could all take it on.

In the interest of efficiency, their next destination had to be somewhere unexplored.

“Also…the second, seventh, and ninth stratums don’t have clear areas. They started us in an area like the first stratum, and we found the Demon Lord’s Mana there, but…”

Those areas all had a variety of terrain, each showing off the splendor of nature. The later stratums revolved around taming monsters or the big war event, so the maps themselves weren’t as heavily themed.

For that reason, the tenth stratum didn’t have any clear theme represented. The map itself was huge, so perhaps they’d have to check out the connective areas.

There were plenty of areas they hadn’t explored yet. As Maple and Sally discussed their options, some familiar figures passed by and stopped to chat.

“Hey, how goes it?”

“Swinging by to check things out?”

It was Wilbert and Lily, the guild masters of Rapid Fire.

“It’s going great! You?”

“We’re surviving. We’re working on the third-stratum area now and…struggling.”

It sounded like they hadn’t yet picked up on the secrets Kanade had discovered but had tangential questions.

“For the last few weeks, Wilbert’s been getting reports of a massively over-specced flight apparatus. I suspect you two know the one,” Lily explained.

Iz’s tank, for certain. It was clearly nothing like what other players were piloting. Iz had obtained far more parts from quests, after all. That allowed her to make more upgrades.

“Safe to assume you’ve found a lead.”

“You have good eyes.”

“We won’t pry—but we did bring something to trade.”

Rapid Fire had been making good progress in the fifth and sixth areas. They were offering intel and combat assistance there.

“Naturally, if you’d prefer to figure everything out yourselves, that’s fine. We’ll back off.”

“Ah…”

“Hmm… Maple, what do you think?” Sally asked.

Sally had ideas of her own but wanted to let Maple decide. Some things were best left to the guild master, and she wanted Maple to remain regret-free.

“All righty, then! Let’s work together!”

“I thought you’d say so. Already prepped some data… We can share that.”

“Really? Thanks!”

Since the members of Maple Tree were scattered across the map, Lily had prepared these documents to share with them. A solid set of intel.

“Great, then let’s go somewhere we can talk. There’s a shop over there.”

“Works for me!”

Maple was big on working with other guilds. She’d been quick to form an alliance with the Order of the Holy Sword and often worked with members of Flame Empire.

She was never one to reject a good offer and enjoyed playing co-op. Lily and Wilbert knew that, which was why they’d come to negotiate. To Maple, this meant more fun, and it filled in the gaps in her knowledge and approach. There were no downsides.

They moved to a nearby café and sat down to talk.

“As you’d imagine, the fifth area is mostly in the clouds up above. There is a hub town on the surface below those clouds—you may already have accessed it. But you can’t actually fly to the clouds above.”

Neither the third stratum’s flight apparatuses, nor their tamed monsters, nor skill-generated machines would get you there.

Syrup and Machine God would likely meet with similar results.

“There are several magic circles that lead to the cloud tops. We can provide a map of those we’ve discovered.”

Multiple routes led to different sections of the clouds. Each circle was guarded by monsters of varying strength, and the better the monster, the better the place you were sent.

“The fifth area’s goal is a simple one. You just keep going up. Head for the peak while fighting monsters and overcoming tricks and traps.”

The fifth area had no main quest chain; it was just one massive cloud dungeon.

“The monsters guarding the circles…will provide no threat to Maple Tree. And once you defeat them, you can access the entrance anytime.”

“Aha…interesting.”

Lily told them more about the cloud tops; it sounded like the area wasn’t big on piercing damage, so Maple could handle it with ease.

“Now let us tell you about the third area!”

“Yeah, we’d love to hear more.”

Maple explained what she’d heard from Iz about the threads leading to the hidden quests, keeping one eye on Sally’s data.

“My, my. So that’s how it works…?”

“Yes, if we only knew that… The quests themselves feel hard, but they’re nothing we can’t handle.”

“Right. Good, thank you. That should let us tackle this zone.”

“Glad we could help!”

“If you change parties in the fifth area, you’ll start from the location of the player who’s made the least progress. Best to bear that in mind.”

“What do we do, Sally?”

“Hmm, we could bring everyone along, but there’s so many areas… I doubt we could make our schedules align.”

If they couldn’t get all eight together reliably, there’d be little point; Maple Tree tended to clear things in smaller parties. But there was little advantage to clearing this dungeon with the whole group.

“Why not give it a shot and see? We can help you get started,” Lily said.

“You mean it?”

“Of course. On one condition.”

Lily named it.

“If that’s all?”

“Yeah, I’m down!”

“Good. Let’s head there now, then. No time like the present.”

“We’ll head there through our Guild Home. Meet up here on the map—it’s not far from the town below the clouds.”

Rapid Fire said their good-byes and headed off.

“Nice to have help. Let’s see how far we get.”

“Yeah! Maybe we’ll clear the fifth area today! But will that really be thanks enough?”

“Probably. It was their idea.”

“I guess so. Let’s hustle!”

“Yeah, don’t want to keep them waiting.”

Maple and Sally left the café and flew across town in their boots. Once they reached the Guild Home, they moved to the home in the fifth-stratum area.

They headed to the location Wilbert had indicated and found the pair waiting. Lily and Wilbert waved when they saw the girls approaching.

“We’re here!”

“Then let’s get going. Through this cave. Nothing much happens on the way, and we already told you how to handle the boss.”

Lily and her sheer numbers took the lead, and they plunged into the hole in the mountainside.

It wasn’t much of a cave. A few yards in, they hit a dead end, with nothing there but a magic circle.

“That’s all there is to it. Let’s get this over with.”

All four stepped onto the circle. It whisked them away to a domed chamber where the walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of fluffy clouds.

The boss came plunging through the wall—a white horse five yards tall. Its mane and tail were also made of clouds, and its blue eyes gleamed like the sky peering through cloud cover.

“Get us ready, Maple.”

“On it!”

The boss spotted them and neighed, striking the floor with its hooves. More cloud horses appeared all around.

Were there enough to match Lily’s numbers, though? Certainly not.

“Twisted Resurrection!”

Nothing that nice.

“Dark Rebirth!”

Lily, meanwhile, was floating on her throne above Maple’s spreading darkness.

“Sand Swarm. Lifeless Horde. Toy Soldiers.”

Lily summoned a horde of minions. Individually, they were not much of a threat, but quantity made up for the lack of quality. However…they all sank into the darkness.

And in their place, warriors emerged, twisted black creatures several times larger than the original.

Lily and Maple’s ultimate combo. An infinite source for Maple to twist.

Black creatures flooded the room. The smaller horses were squished and swallowed, and the monstrosities flung themselves at the boss.

It kicked and flew and tried to run away, but they were taking over the room—and using the creatures in front of them as springboards to drag the boss under.

“Mm, that was fun. Ha-ha, I wanted to try this out at least once.”

“You were on the other team during that last event, Lily.”

“That I was. If only I could get this myself. Maple, where’d you find it?”

“I-I’m not telling!”

“A wise decision.”

If Lily learned this skill, she could get the combo going all on her own, and that was far too grave a threat. Maple knew that, and Lily knew she knew that. For now, Lily was thoroughly satisfied watching them destroy this white horse.

“Yes, very good, very good.”

She nodded as the boss burst into light, then she left the boss room with Wilbert, vowing to do this again should the opportunity present itself. This was why they’d been so willing to help. They knew full well this fight would not last long, and they’d get a kick out of handling it so easily.

“Whew, huge assist for us!”

“Once we finish the third area, this’ll be our next destination.”

“That sounds nice!”

“Kanade should be able to prep some summon skills, so it might well be worth going for this approach whenever we can.”

“It was super-strong!”

Unlimited grotesquerie production—Maple Tree could do the same, if perhaps at a bit slower production rate.

With an unexpected first step into a new area, and a reminder of the bonds they’d forged, the girls left for the fifth-stratum zone after they completed the third.

A few more days of helping Iz clear quests—each one of which led to more upgrades to Iz’s flying tank. It was now bristling with more weaponry than Maple’s Machine God form. Maple, Sally, and Iz were gazing upon a vehicle that bore no trace of the original form.

“That sure is something.”

“Yeah… If only we could take it to other areas.”

“You can’t?”

“Not like this.”

The unwarranted power of parts provided by secret third-area quests underwent harsh nerfs outside this territory.

“It runs on an energy source unique to the third-stratum zone…according to the flavor text. In practice, it gets weaker once I’m a set distance from town. It’s mostly for the machine zone, where I can have a lot more fun with it. It’s still pretty useful elsewhere, though.”

Weakened as it may be, it still provided ranged elemental attacks and movement boosts that Iz normally didn’t have access to. It was a valuable assist to a crafter, allowing her to handle field combat and gather materials she’d normally need help collecting.

With her flight apparatus, she was at last a match for the tougher monsters of the tenth stratum.

“Perhaps the third-stratum area is specifically built for crafters…”

“Yeah, I remember the original map also having a ton of neat new items and materials.”

“Anyway, today’s the day!”

They’d upgraded Iz’s tank beyond Machine God, which meant they were on the final leg of the third-stratum zone’s quests.

“We’ve finally found the quest that gives us Demon Lord’s Mana II.”

“And that number suggests there really isn’t a second-stratum area.”

“True… We’d be going out of order if there were.”

“Hey, we’re here!”

“Making good progress, I see.”

“Even faster than expected. That’s our leaders for you.”

“You’re almost done with the third area!”

“We’ll do what we can!”

The plan today was to clear the final quest of the third-stratum area. For that, they’d gathered the scattered guild members. With the whole guild, they were sure to emerge triumphant.

“How’s your area going?”

“The fourth area…?” Kasumi said. “Well, I’m having fun. And as a result, progress has been made.”

The fourth area was based on Kasumi’s favorite stratum. No other maps in the game featured heavily Japanese-influenced dungeons and fields, so she was making the most of these new additions.

“Mai and Yui came to help with the sixth-stratum area, so my progress has improved.”

““We’re helping!””

Since that area was all about the number of monsters slain, it was built for the twins. That left Kanade soloing the eighth-stratum area, but he’d encountered no issues so far.

“I’ve solved the bulk of the puzzles. If you’d like to know the answers, I can share. If not, I can provide hints and let you try yourselves,” Kanade offered.

There weren’t a lot of bosses out there that Kanade could tackle on his own. He’d been avoiding mobs as much as possible, exploring underwater, and achieved solid results that way.

“We’ll have to check that area out soon!”

“Heh-heh, I’ll be waiting.”

With all areas going smoothly, it looked like Maple Tree would be able to gather all the Demon Lord’s Mana while Maple could still play.

“I haven’t read up much, but we still don’t have intel on the third-stratum zone’s boss?”

“We do not. Kanade was the first to find the hidden quest, so we’re probably the first in. Even if we aren’t, nobody’s posted the details.”

“In which case…we should probably start with our default approach.”

They decided to do as they always did: Buff the twins, put them in front of the boss, and hammer away.

Not many enemies could withstand that. Anyone that could was likely impossible for any other attacker to damage whatsoever, and the developers couldn’t really design many bosses like that.

A strength achieved through broken stats. Back them up right, and they’d pulverize the boss with power beyond imagination.

“I’ve accepted the quest already. Let’s hop in my flight apparatus and swoop on over.”

“It would be nice to clear this in one go. Heh-heh-heh—Mai, Yui, our hopes are with you.”

““Roger that!””

“All aboard! We have eight seats open.”

With that, Iz hopped in the pilot’s seat and clicked some buttons.

The compact tank expanded lengthwise until it more resembled a limo.

“Wow! I didn’t know it could do that!” Chrome said, clearly interested. The vehicle sure could do a lot of things not possible on the actual third stratum.

“If you upgrade it enough, sure. No need to rely on pet monsters to carry everyone around. Comes in handy.”

She couldn’t use this shape in combat—it wasn’t exactly nimble—but it was great for travel.

Flight apparatuses let Haku and Syrup keep their size-boosting skills in reserve, which was another boon.

Everyone climbed aboard Iz’s flight apparatus, and it lifted off the ground, flying toward their destination.

“I headed over on my own to scout the location. I got taken out at the entrance, though, so don’t expect much.”

Flight apparatuses could be destroyed if they took too much damage in combat. Iz had done countless upgrades to hers, so if those all got destroyed, the repairs would be dizzyingly complex.

For that reason, she’d used none of the big guns from the fight with Maple and Sally, going in with the default weapons alone.

“The magic circle took me to some sort of factory or lab. Smooth gray walls and floor, long corridors.”

She’d walked along and found herself face-to-face with a humanoid robot about her height. It had liquid crystal in lieu of a face, with a cartoony expression displayed.

“When it saw me, its expression turned angry and it sounded an alarm, which brought a whole bunch of robots firing way too many lasers to dodge. Hence, my demise.”

It was true Iz didn’t have the highest defense, but even considering that, this place was clearly intense.

“But the attacks weren’t piercing this time. I tried different gear and defense values to make sure of it.”

“That helps!”

“One less thing to worry about.”

“Mm-hmm!”

Not many trash mobs had piercing attacks, but there was precedent for that in the third-stratum area. Iz had gone to the trouble of verifying their absence because she knew letting Maple use Martyr’s Devotion would make all the difference.

“I have no clue what’s waiting farther in, so be careful.”

“Got it!”

For a while she flew on. Eventually, her flying tank landed in the wilderness, on a gray floor half buried in the dirt.

“So this is where it takes us. I read about it in the library…”

“It reacts once you’ve taken the quest.”

Iz led the way, and the ground did react—a faint vibration, then big doors slid open, revealing a descending staircase.

“Shall we?”

“We can manage three abreast… Maple, me, and Kasumi’ll lead,” Chrome said.

“Fair.”

“First…Martyr’s Devotion!”

Best not to forget that. Their defenses were in order—and they had three capable front-liners in the lead, in case of accidents.

The walls had heat-free lights fixed at regular intervals, so visibility was good. For a while, they descended—eventually reaching the functional corridors Iz had described.

“It opens up here, huh?”

“You said there were loads of enemies. They need the space.”

The passage was wide enough for all the members of Maple Tree to line up across it. They wouldn’t even have to worry about errant swings once the fighting started.

But like Kasumi said, that was true for the enemy as well.

“Maple, look out for knockback. In a place this big…”

“True. Don’t wanna be sent flying!”

Ready to use Heavy Body and Heaven’s Throne, Maple headed in.

Given relative movement speeds and their need to stay in range of Martyr’s Devotion, the party followed her lead. They didn’t get all that far before they saw three robots ahead. They couldn’t make out the expressions on those liquid crystal displays, but the panels themselves glowed blue, standing out against the dark backdrop.

“If the panels turn red, it means they’ve spotted us.”

“So we’re not in their range yet.”

It was time for them to strike first. No need to let the robots sound the alarms and summon that whole army.

“What’s the plan? We could have the twins pitch iron spheres.”

The three robots weren’t huddled together, so the twins would need three or more spheres, or maybe Weapon Hurl.

Still, if they attacked, no matter the range—the alarms would sound.

Small targets, but the twins had practiced and would hit.

“I’ll keep you safe, so it might be easier if we just bust on through.”

“Yeah, good point.”

It was a safer option than careful planning. If they could crush everything without schemes, then they had no need for strategy.

“All we need is a simple way to destroy a bunch of enemies.”

Let the twins loose? Not bad, but why not automate? There were ways to make this even easier.

A fighting technique Maple had only just discovered.

“Ooh, that looks good.”

“Wagashi from the fourth-stratum area. They didn’t have this kind on the actual fourth stratum.”

“Whoa…I guess the eighth-stratum area has new kinds of fish, too.”

“The sixth-stratum area… Well, best not to go there.”

“Yeah, it’s not exactly the most tourist-friendly zone.”

Iz’s tank was in limo mode, and they were sharing souvenirs around the central table.

“Iz, are we still good?”

“Yup, no issues.”

“Onward!”

The machine trudged forth slowly. Darkness filled Iz’s sight line in the pilot’s seat.

Naturally, this wasn’t from an absence of light—it was the mountain of grotesqueries Dark Rebirth had spawned.

After playing with Lily, Maple had become obsessed with this power move.

Maple Tree could hear cracking sounds and see shards of dying enemies, so their assault was clearly going well. They settled back into their seats.

This was a new way to effectively clear dungeons, and soon every player…

Yeah, that wasn’t gonna happen.

Their procession continued with…well, elegance may not be apt. Martyr’s Devotion kept the grotesqueries safe, and they tore the robots asunder.

Every time the alarms died down, Maple Tree assumed they’d once again wiped out the enemy.

“Oh, we’re stuck.”

“Mm? Are we there, then?”

The monsters ahead had run out of places to go and were writhing creepily against the far wall.

“Let me get rid of them. Hey!”

At Maple’s call, they began backing away.

Behind the monsters, the party found the door to the boss room. The dark horde had taken them all the way through the dungeon.

“Okay, disembark!”

“Yeah…this isn’t the peak form for combat.”

Iz landed, unloaded her tank, and put it in a more compact form.

“Should we take the lead on the way in? Otherwise, we won’t even see the boss.”

That wasn’t a concern with trash mobs, but bosses tended to do things you needed a visual on.

“Will they be able to go through the door?”

“One at time, maybe. Let’s put as many through as we can. Summoning them again would be tricky.”

The guild would go in first, then Maple would call in her horde.

With that plan settled, they set about buffing the twins. They’d have two main pillars in this strategy: Mai and Yui’s ultimate one-shot and the monster-swarm approach. Either one had enough power to win this, so Maple opened the doors with confidence.

Just inside, Maple turned toward the near rows of monsters and called the horde in. But the boss spotted them fairly soon, and only five grotesqueries made it inside.

Fair enough. Maple refocused her attention on the boss in front of them.

It bore a strong resemblance to the regular robots. A liquid crystal display sat where its face should be and lit up red with an angry expression. Six arms extended from its porcelain-white torso, and instead of standing on legs, it was hovering—like a flight apparatus. Weaving slightly right and left.

There was a vooom, and the conveyor belts behind the boss began to move.

With a further hum, the red lights of the boss’s face swept across the walls, surrounding them.

That light canceled all the twins’ buffs, as well as Martyr’s Devotion, and vaporized Maple’s monsters.

A cancel on all active skills and ongoing effects. This boss was a pretty nasty customer.

“Dammit!”

“It’s a tough one. Keep your minds sharp!”

“Maple, you’re on Mai! Chrome, you take Yui!”

With Martyr’s Devotion gone, they’d have to protect the twins the standard way. Maple Tree had two great shielders. The boss had made a smart move, but they weren’t crumbling that easily.

“Glow of Deliverance!”

Assuming the boss wouldn’t spam that cancel, Maple used a skill that reduced damage and healed party members over time.

That improved everyone’s durability, especially Chrome’s.

As they prepared, however, so did the enemy. Those conveyor belts brought the boss weapons that were as white as its body. It used its six arms to pick up two, then took aim at the party.

One weapon was a porous white cube. The other a Gatling gun.

The Gatling gun began firing, and the cube shot mini missiles, each trailing smoke in its path.

Maple Tree’s defenders acted fast.

““Taunt! Cover!””

Maple and Chrome pulled aggro and defended. Devour would activate—but they had plenty of DPS with them, so they had no need to worry about that.

“We’re good! Go, Sally!”

“Kasumi, set me up!”

The speedy pair darted forward, skimming the boss’s attacks.

The boss grabbed two more weapons from the conveyor belts.

One was a glittering blue thread that reached the floor. The other was a giant bell.

“I’m going first. If it seems safe, jump in after me.”

“Got it.”

“Mind’s Eye!”

Unlike the first two weapons, these were harder to predict. Sally could not afford to make a mistake, so Kasumi went in first, scoping out the moves from inside the boss’s range.

The bell rang, and the hand holding the string moved quickly.

Mind’s Eye let Sally see a red glow where attacks would hit. And that showed her a crazy amount of stuff in the air, as well as some large circles on the ground.

“Tenth Blade: Diamond!”

The range and speed of the oncoming attack made evasion difficult, so Kasumi stacked her own damage reduction on top of Maple’s.

The blue string cracked like a whip, hitting Kasumi hard. The bell made random sections of the floor briefly glow and detonate, adding to the damage she took.

“Kasumi!”

“I’m okay!”

She’d lost some HP, but not so much that she couldn’t handle it. And now that she’d seen the attack once, she could handle it better next time.

“Ancient Weapon!”

“Crimson Wave!”

“Locked on. Fire!”

Support fire from the rear—Maple, Kanade, and Iz’s tank all did major damage. The boss staggered, and Sally and Kasumi seized that chance, getting right up against its feet to attack.

“Quintuple Slash!”

“Armored Arms! Fourth Blade: Whirlwind!”

Their combos gouged deep into the boss’s body. They both had top-tier DPS, and nothing could ignore that. The bell rang and the whip cracked, but between Kasumi’s Mind’s Eye and this being their second time seeing these moves, Sally was able to use her natural sprightliness to avoid them both.

Taunt was keeping the bulk of its aggro on Maple and Chrome. All four of them were doing a lot of damage. The twins were under their protection, doing nothing and escaping the boss’s attention.

Only a player would realize where the true danger lay.

Maple and Chrome were slowly moving forward, soaking the blows.

The guild had fought together a lot; everyone knew what the others could do.

Maple and Chrome glanced at each other and knew what the other was thinking.

Mai leaped out from behind Maple. Eight hammers raised: the game’s most powerful attack, one that had spelled doom for countless monsters.

“Weapon Throw!”

Eight projectiles of death flew its way, but the boss fought valiantly. Its two empty hands grabbed a pair of shields from the conveyor belt, each of which sprouted a bunch of translucent blue hexagons that linked together to form a barrier.

A moment later, Mai’s hammers hit home, and with a boom—the barrier ruptured. But the shield proved powerful indeed, as the boss took no damage.

However…

Each of the twins was a harbinger of death. An avatar of destruction. And there were two of them.

“Weapon Throw!”

Maple Tree knew this was a tough foe, and for that very reason, Mai and Yui had varied the timing of their attacks.

Yui’s hammers flew by just as the barrier went down, and they slammed into the boss.

Normally, that would have taken the entire HP bar—and the attack sure took a lot of it. Still, the boss remained alive, telling them all there was a cap on how much damage it could take at once.

They had expected as much. No one was surprised, no one wavered—Maple Tree simply moved in for the kill.

“Get in!”

“All right!”

“Girls, in here!”

With Kanade on the roof, Iz’s tank skimmed the ground. As it slowed, the tanks and the twins hopped aboard—and Iz floored it toward the boss.

“Quick Change!”

“Heal!”

“Necro, Dead Weight!”

Maple was in her white armor. Kanade quickly topped off her HP. Chrome used a skill to stop the boss’s movement so it could not get away.

Mai and Yui were removing and reequipping their hammers with practiced ease, recovering everything they’d thrown.

They were ready. The boss dropped the broken shield, grabbed a cannon and a sword, and attempted to fight back.

“Aegis!”

As enemies grew stronger and their attacks more varied, the more often Maple Tree found themselves putting Aegis into their plans—it was a skill that guaranteed safety.

It nulled all attacks for a set period of time. That time wasn’t very long—but no attacks were exempt from the skill’s reach.

And nobody could match Maple Tree on burst damage.

Kasumi and Sally were already at the boss’s feet, and the others joined them. The twins leaped out of the flying tank, swinging their weapons.

““Double Impact!””

Every one of the boss’s attacks were nulled, while none of the guild’s were. The only way the boss could have won this would have been to cancel all skills again.

The boss shattered, leaving only sparks behind. With the quest cleared, Maple Tree received the item they’d sought.

“There is it! Demon Lord’s Mana II!”

“Our second one!”

“Good progress. At this pace, we’ll pull it off with time to spare.”

“Let’s hurry and pick up the rest. We’ll go all out in every fight—but this is the Demon Lord. We have no guarantee we’ll win on our first go.”

They had to spend the Demon Lord’s Mana to fight the super-boss. If they were forced to retreat, they’d have to gather all those key items again. It would be a shame to go up against the boss, taste defeat, and have to end things without ever facing it again. It would be best to progress these quests with some wriggle room.

“A Demon Lord…eh?”

“I bet it’s really strong!”

“I think we can win together!”

“Yeah…I have faith. First, let’s earn ourselves the right to fight it.”

“Exactly!”

They’d taken another big step. Gazing happily at the new Demon Lord’s Mana, they called an end to their conquest of the third-stratum area.

After successfully completing the third-stratum area, Maple Tree’s members scattered across the map once more.

They would likely only regroup for a battle they were certain would get them another Demon Lord’s Mana.

With one item off their checklist, Maple and Sally set their sights on the fifth-stratum zone.

No one in their guild had touched it yet, and Rapid Fire had just given them an in. Since the others were working elsewhere, exploring the cloud area was the most effective use of their time.

The fifth-stratum area tracked you by the party member who had progressed the least. That made it vital for all party members to play together, so Maple and Sally planned to take care of this one on their own the next time they were both online.

Sally had some free time today, so she was dueling her regular challengers.

“You’re in damn good form today!”

“Seriously? You could stand to let me hit you a bit more often.”

They weren’t just fighting Sally—Velvet and Frederica were also fighting each other. It wasn’t the most balanced matchup; Velvet had won seven out of ten, but each outcome had largely hinged on whether Velvet managed to get close, or if Frederica kept her at bay with her barrages.

There was only one constant here—when Sally fought, she always won.

They’d wrapped up the day’s bouts and were chatting and resting in the training room.

“Frederica, you aren’t using Mana Ocean?”

“Nooope.”

“Wait, good call. If you used that, I’d have been in deep shit.”

This was Frederica’s ace in the hole—she’d shown it only once, in the last event. This gave her Ultra Multi-Magic, which deployed countless magic circles, allowing her to launch even more projectiles than regular Multi-Magic, and that would not only improve her success rate against Velvet, but it might also even let her take down Sally. She must have a reason why she wasn’t tapping into that power. Both girls gave her a curious look.

“Velvet’s one thing, but if I let you see it, Sally, you’ll adapt to it. There’s still a chance we’ll get to fight for real, so I wanna keep it up my sleeve till then.”

The tenth stratum—clearly a big deal—would be the setting for a PvP event.

The exact format was still a mystery, but if there was any chance of them fighting, Frederica would be gunning for Sally.

“I’m not letting you sweep me!”

“And I won’t lose. Not now. No matter what.”

“Urgh… Well, that’s exactly why I’m not using Ultra Multi-Magic!”

Sally sounded so confident that it really turned the screws on Frederica, and she quailed a bit.

Her flinching made Velvet giggle as she reflected on the battles of the day.

For better or worse, Frederica had been her usual self. She had a solid grasp on the mage’s style, and without Mana Ocean, the fight wasn’t likely to be too unpredictable.

Sally, however, had changed. Even on their first duel, Frederica had been shocked by the girl’s raw gaming talent, but now her movements were so precise, her guard so perfect—it felt like she’d been holding back initially.

She dodged through rains of lightning, of course, and effortlessly handled sneak attacks through dazzling light with a whole new bag of tricks.

Bluntly speaking, she’d polished her moves to perfection. So much so, it made you wonder just who or what she planned to fight.

“……”

No, Velvet knew exactly whom Sally was up against. Velvet simply couldn’t imagine them standing a chance against the girl now.

Could it possibly be a close fight?

Sally had honed her skills tirelessly—her growth knew no bounds. Velvet met Sally’s eyes as she considered that.

“No point if I don’t go all out.”

“……Damn right.”

Her thoughts must have shown on her face. Velvet shook it off, trying hard to look like her usual self.

If Sally wasn’t going to pull her punches, then her opponent—Maple—would just have to reach her level. No matter how hard that would be, it was the only way Sally’s desire could be fulfilled.

“And I get why you’re unsure,” Velvet added.

“……Do you? Thanks.”

“…?” Frederica didn’t understand a thing.

Time was passing. Players had all sorts of reasons to look forward to this PvP event, and it would be upon them in no time.

421 Name: Anonymous Archer

Neat how every player’s tackling this stratum in their own order.

Key difference is how well you can tackle the trash mobs in each area.

422 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

Where’d you start?

423 Name: Anonymous Archer

Done with the first area, now on the eighth.

My guild decided to take on the biggest headache first…

424 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

I heard there were puzzles.

425 Name: Anonymous Archer

There are!

And they’re hard…

There aren’t that many FAQs, weirdly enough.

426 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

Maybe cause lots of people are going in order, like my guild? That’d put the eighth zone last.

427 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

I hear we’re making good progress.

428 Name: Anonymous Archer

Please help…

429 Name: Anonymous Mage

Y’all can handle just about anything, huh?

And you barely even have any members.

430 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

Everyone has their specializations.

When we get into it, we blow through anything.

431 Name: Anonymous Mage

Seems like you’re always into it.

432 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

We sure they only have one specialty each?

433 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

We do not.

If you’re stuck, just say the word—I can share info.

For what we’ve cleared, anyway.

434 Name: Anonymous Archer

That’d be more than enough.

I’d be hella grateful…

435 Name: Anonymous Mage

Gonna be a while before we can hunt for hidden skills.

Gotta focus on these quests.

436 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

And hope we stumble across something by accident.

437 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

If it were that easy, I’d have seven spears that shoot fire and ice.

438 Name: Anonymous Mage

I know, right?

No way to aim for hidden skills, though.

439 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

I really wanna find something.

The others’re gaining on me.

440 Name: Anonymous Archer

Not to mention, what you end up fighting might not even work for you…

I can get all the magic buffs in the world—it won’t help.

441 Name: Anonymous Mage

Where is the LUK stat?

442 Name: Anonymous Archer

There isn’t any.

Or there isn’t supposed to be.

443 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

I don’t think there is one…

444 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

Gotta get into feng shui!

Arrange furniture to improve your skill luck!

445 Name: Anonymous Mage

Gonna at least check the morning fortunes…

446 Name: Anonymous Archer

Start by improving your free-to-play luck?

Smart.

Maple and Sally aligned their schedules, and they reached the boss room that led to the cloud dungeon—the very place they’d wrecked with Rapid Fire previously.

After besting the dungeon once, they could breeze right on through on subsequent visits. Like Lily had promised, no boss waited for them.

“Whew, here we go!”

“Mm-hmm. I hear it just goes up and up, so let’s get goin’!”

“Up, up, and away!”

They made a beeline for the magic circle in the back. They were headed for the clouds, to the entrance of a massive dungeon where they would fight countless monsters on their way to the peak.

On the circle, they were wreathed in light, and when they could see again, they found themselves in a labyrinth of white puffs.

“Been a while since we walked on clouds.”

“They’re really only found on the fifth stratum.”

Like on that map, their feet sank into the fluff with each step. They began to move and inspect their surroundings, careful to avoid getting tripped up by the clouds at their feet.

They arrived in a large open space. The path ahead branched off in five directions.

“What are we thinking?”

“We’ve gotta go up, so…one that slopes upward?”

“Sounds logical to me.”

“All right!”

They peered down the passages and picked the path with the steepest incline.

Platforms formed by clouds marked an ascent, and they were basically scaling a vertical wall—but that’s precisely where the order of their questing paid off.

“Gotta fly here. You good on control?”

“Hunky-dory!”

Since they’d cleared the third-stratum zone first, verticality posed no obstacle.

They ignored the platforms, simply flying upward.

“Uh-oh! Sally, monsters!”

“Yep. Um…they don’t look like they have ranged attacks.”

They paused in the air, observing ahead several soldiers in white armor that blended into the clouds behind them.

The soldiers wielded spears and swords of the same color, and at a glance, they didn’t appear to have mages or archers. Upon closer inspection, Maple and Sally thought their gear was actually made from clouds.

The two of them would likely fight plenty of these monsters, so they made careful observations, and witnessed them vanish into the clouds and reappear elsewhere.

“They’re diving into the floors to ambush us.”

“We gotta be wary, even of empty clouds.”

“So we keep flying?”

“Safer than landing, that’s for sure. Strike first and see what happens?”

“Got it!”

Maple deployed her weapons with practiced ease, firing red lasers at the ground. They coasted along the floors, damaging the cloud soldiers.

However, these things either had lots of HP or high defense—Maple’s attack did less damage than expected and drew the attention of every soldier.

“Whoops!”

The soldiers used the clouds to make paths, sprinting toward the girls.

Clearly, the game designers had accounted for the flight apparatuses and were not about to let the players turn this into a one-sided fight.

“I’ll stop ’em. Cover me.”

“You betcha!”

Sally moved ahead, speeding up as she drew the attention of the soldiers. Maple kept making guns, racking up damage with her artillery fire.

Sally dodged every bullet, engaging the monsters without interfering with Maple’s attacks.

Three soldiers stood before her: one wielding a spear, another two with longswords. None of them were doing anything unorthodox, so she closed in, focusing more on evasion than attack.

“……!”

Her choice paid off—she dodged their attacks. The cloud weapons extended with the force of the cloud monsters’ swings, thrusting farther out than she expected and reaching all the way past Maple into the cloud wall behind her.

“Neat weapons.”

The extended portions of the blades then broke off, returning the weapons to their original length and letting the cloud monsters attack again without delay.

But they’d missed their first attack—and now Sally knew what they could do. That made all the difference.

They could extend the range but not adjust their trajectory; simplistic thrusts and slashes only a little faster than average just weren’t a threat to someone capable of dodging bullets from behind.

“Not too effective, but…Water Cowl! Oboro, Whet Wisp!”

With those skills and Chaser Blade, Sally landed three extra hits.

A dagger hit home, then water, then fire—turning one attack into four times the hits.

The strength of Maple’s bullets lay in their sheer volume, but her levels didn’t boost their damage at all.

That was why Maple—who had no points in anything but VIT—could make such good use of them. Yet each new stratum that came online featured monsters designed to match the players’ growing strengths. As their defense increased, consistent-damage weapons proved less effective. Her guns were no longer as dominant as they had once been.

Meanwhile, Sally could put points in STR every time she needed a boost.

She wasn’t just raising AGI. And since Sword Dance was buffing her damage even higher, Sally’s combos now boasted more than enough DPS to handle tenth-stratum monsters.

She was weaving between the soldiers, leaving damage sparks in her wake.

And if any seemed likely to survive that, Maple’s barrage finished them off.

Maple’s damage might be lacking now, but that didn’t mean any mob could just sit around and soak it. The soldiers flailed their cloud weapons, but before long, they shattered.

Sally and Maple waited a bit, but no extra enemies welled up from the clouds, so they came in for a landing.

“Nice support fire.”

“You crushed it as always, Sally!”

“We should be able to handle the trash mobs here. Didn’t expect them to be making platforms or stretching their weapons, though.”

“I know! I bet you could do a lot with a weapon like that.”

“Thanks to my new unique series, I can do a few similar tricks, but nothing on that scale. Still, it might be worth running the concept by Iz. She said there were new materials in the third-stratum area.”

“Let’s ask later!”

“Mm. You might want to get some new gear yourself. I mean, we gotta have you in the best possible equipment for the final battle!”

“New gear? Yeah, I’ll see what Iz thinks.”

Maple already had several powerful sets of gear, but she mostly fought in her unique series, thanks to the skill slots it offered. Arguably, her gear was already plenty great. Still, there were scenarios when she needed to swap her gear around.

“You can get yourself more HP or status-effect resistance.”

“I bet that Demon Lord does some crazy stuff.”

“My point exactly.”

Maple could handle poison and paralysis but still couldn’t do much against sleep or stun. There were skills that could boost resistance, but if she wanted those to be rock solid, she was better off taking Sally’s advice and covering them with gear.

At this point, they weren’t exactly lacking for gold or materials. If they wanted to end things with a victory, Maple figured she should do whatever it took.

They advanced smoothly through the clouds. Since they’d come here after obtaining flight apparatuses, they had no issues with the terrain. After a while, they reached an area where flying wasn’t necessary.

The ceilings were low, the ground was flat, and right ahead of them were narrow passageways just barely wide enough for the two. Paths branched off on either side—although, it was a little hard to tell with everything being stark white.

“A maze, huh?”

“Should we just take it one path at a time? Or keep one hand on the wall?”

“There’ll be enemies in here—don’t want to bump into them. Be careful at corners. If they’re hiding in the floor like those soldiers, you’ll get no warning.”

“Got it.”

Maple kept her shield up, and they stepped into the cloud maze.

“It’d be so much easier if we could fly…”

“These low ceilings’ll keep us from doing that, sadly.”

“Yeah.”

“Lots of people can fly now even without flight apparatuses, so I guess roofs are necessary.”

They’d have to treat this like a proper maze. They moved in, on guard against any potential ambushes.

They were turned back by a few dead ends, and the clouds made it hard to tell how far they’d actually come. Then Maple realized the ground underfoot was getting softer.

“……?”

“What?”

“The floor’s getting squishy… Eep?!”

“Maple!”

She’d taken another step and started sinking. Sally shot out her webs to grab her.

Maple wound up waist-deep in cloud, but Sally kept her from going any deeper.

“Settle down. Use your boots.”

“Mm… Whew, that scared me!”

Maple’s boots lifted her up out of the floor, and the girls gave the hole a closer inspection.

““Yikes…””

They shuddered in unison. Beneath the pitfall…was the surface. One false step, and it was a free fall all the way down.

“Uh…they said you couldn’t fly all the way up here, so I bet that’s not just falling damage. Probably an instant death effect on the way.”

“Eeek…”

“Better be ready to get your boots flying at any time. It does seem like there’s a warning.”

“Got it!”

“I’d really love to fly the rest of the way now that I know you can fall through the freaking floor…”

They’d upgraded the boots to lengthen their flight time, but their time was still limited.

It would be best to avoid a worst-case scenario where they had to fly but couldn’t.

“A shield ride, then?”

“Mm, yeah! Been a while!”

“Okay! I’ll get us ready.”

Maple changed her gear, handing a shield to two floating hands and having them hold it parallel to the ground.

Mai and Yui were now using these sinister hands all the time, so even Sally had gotten used to them.

“All aboard!”

“You have the helm.”

“Aye-aye!”

This was Maple’s favorite strategy for evading traps on the ground: Clamber aboard a floating shield and fly on through.

As they turned the corner, a spear soldier rose up from the floor and thrust with the first strike.

The cloud spear stretched out as fast as any bullet, hitting Maple smack in the brow.

Indomitable Guardian kicked in after the blow instantly reduced her HP to nothing. She froze after getting hit with the unexpected damage, and Sally yanked her back, denying the enemy a follow-up strike.

“……!”

“Maple, reverse! Ice Pillar!”

The corner helped them here; the ice blocked the enemy’s line of sight, and before it could attack again, they flew the shield back the way they’d come.

“Holy cow! They’re pretty strong.”

“Yeah, real high damage… Maybe this is a sign.”

“……?”

“Maybe your HP just isn’t high enough, Maple.”

“Oh yeah. I guess it’s never changed.”

Her unique series helped boost her defense through the roof, but her HP only got a minor boost from her accessories. If she needed more, she’d put the tiara from her angel gear in her empty helm slot or use Quick Change.

“Everyone was trying to take advantage of your low HP, so we never changed it, since I figured we could pull the rug out from under them later when we boost it. But there aren’t that many fights left.”

“Mm-hmm.”

If Maple’s HP proved higher than they expected, the enemy’s math would be ruined. That only really helped in PvP, and this next one would be their final PvP event.

If they changed her gear to upgrade her HP now, they’d be in the final battle by the time anyone noticed.

“Let’s have Iz make you something unobtrusive. At least get your HP high enough that we don’t accidentally waste Indomitable Guardian.”

“Should we head back, then?”

“Let’s. We can finish this dungeon once that skill’s off cooldown.”

“Roger dodger!”

It wasn’t a good idea to push yourself when you weren’t in peak condition. There was no shortage of powerful monsters that could give even top players a run for their money, so it was best they tip their hat and retreat for now.

It wasn’t often that a monster forced Maple and Sally to retreat, but since it had, they made a beeline for their trusty crafter, Iz.

“Iz!”

“Help!”

They burst through the door of Iz’s workshop, and Iz turned to face them.

“You were tackling the fifth-stratum area today, right? Did something go wrong?”

The two filled her in.

“HP-boosting gear, huh? You don’t want to allow the use of skills that cost HP; you just want everyday equipment.”

“That’s right.”

“I can do that, sure. It won’t have any distinctive skills like your unique series, but it should be a solid match even for the upgraded stats.”

“Can you get started?”

“Yep, the sooner the better, right? I’ll get right on it. Can I see your extra materials?”

The better the materials she had, the better the gear she’d make. Both girls opened their inventories, and Iz picked and chose from the multitudes their adventures had left them with.

“Nice, nice! I can tell how many powerful monsters you’ve taken out. With all this, I should have something ready in a few days.”

“You mean it?”

“That’s a big help.”

“Don’t ever hesitate to ask. I make a lot of items, but this guild doesn’t need gear that much…so I relish the opportunity!”

“Half of us found a unique series somewhere. Or they already had you make the best gear possible.”

“I’m glad they’re taking care of it, but sometimes I want to make something new.”

““Thank you so much!””

With Iz on the job, Maple’s HP problems would soon be over.

It would be best not to tackle the fifth zone until the gear was ready.

“Maybe we should play it safe the next few days and do some sightseeing. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other monsters that tough out there.”

“True. I can’t wait to see what Iz makes!”

Naturally, Maple had Indomitable Guardian, and she could always resort to Atrocity, but if she died before her gear was ready, that would just be silly.

There was no use in taking risks; they hung out around town while Iz did her crafting thing.

They could have done some level grinding while they waited, but they had good reasons to avoid combat, and there were towns they’d yet to look at—for that reason, they were currently in the town in the fourth zone.

“Wow…it really is different on the inside.”

“Like we’ve passed through a barrier.”

Right outside the Guild Home, they looked up to find a night sky pocked with stars.

The tenth stratum wasn’t everlasting night. Looking into the area from outside the fourth zone, they’d seen only rows of cherry trees in daylight—just like on the rest of the map.

Once they set foot in the fourth-stratum area, however, that all changed. The view outside proved deceptive. It was like stepping into another world—a Japanese night, where monsters roamed the streets.

“This is wild.”

“And pretty! You only see things like this here and on the actual fourth stratum.”

As they enjoyed the trip down memory lane, Kasumi joined them.

“I heard the news! You two actually had to back off?”

“We figured it was best to tackle things fully prepared.”

“True. You can’t use Pierce Guard every time. And the tenth stratum is a test of mettle, so piercing attacks won’t be the only threat. We’re seeing more debuffs and buff removals.”

“Are you still making good progress, Kasumi?”

“That I am. An area like this is my idea of fun.”

“It’s not just your standard quest chain, right?”

“No. There are quests, but it’s pretty rare for one to lead right into the next.”

“Huh… How do you progress, then?”

“You clear quests and reach specific areas… Fulfilling those conditions gets you points. Obtaining all those points is the ultimate goal.”

Even in already explored areas, a plethora of triggers could open new quests—how many points you had, the number and variety of places you’d visited, how many items and gold you had on you, etc.

That made exploring this area hard work.

But to Kasumi, that was all in good fun. She wanted to explore every inch of a place, to find NPCs whose dialogue changed as she did more. She found all of it worth it.

“I heard you two had the time to spare, so I figured I’d ask for your help. I happen to have a few quests that can be completed without leaving town.”

“Count us in!”

“And there’s a chance you’ll find more quests with us along, right? Iz said we have a lot of rare stuff.”

“I certainly hope so. There’s a limit to what I can discover solo.”

“We’ll do what we can!”

“I’d appreciate it,” Kasumi said.

Their completed quests could be shared if they formed a party. Since Maple and Sally wanted to avoid combat altogether, they’d been looking for something to do inside of town.

“This quest is straightforward but pretty unique. You’ll be doing some shopping. It might be easier if I show you.”

Kasumi checked her map, then went into a nearby shop.

“Hellooo…?”

“An antique shop?”

Maple and Sally followed her in and found shelves full of pottery and decorative weapons. The vibe was pretty different from your average NPC shop. Kasumi looked over the wares and picked up a lamp.

“Hmm…”

“You’re buying that?” Maple asked. She checked it out, and there was nothing in the “effects” field. The item was apparently called Pricey Pottery, which didn’t tell her much.

“Yeah.”

Kasumi moved over to the NPC owner, exchanged a few lines, and, as they watched, haggled the price down to something more reasonable.

“Take a look.”

The moment the item went in her inventory, the real name was revealed. It changed from Pricey Pottery, to Hozuki, the name of a flower.

“Oh-ho… So the idea is to find genuine articles?”

“So you are quick on the uptake, Sally. There’s a bunch of antique shops in town, and I need to buy the right number of legitimate masterpieces.”

“Th-that sounds hard…”

“I could do it all myself, but there are a lot. I was hoping it’d be a nice change of pace for you two.”

“It might be. Like Maple said, it’s not exactly a cakewalk, but…we have been fighting a lot on this map.”

Using their heads for a while would be something different. The only problem—neither had any idea how to tell the pieces apart.

“I’ve got some notes I made for my own benefit: distinctive signs something’s real, the categories we’re looking for, etc. Of course, they’re hardly perfect, but they should get you closer to the mark.”

“Aha. In that case…”

“Let’s give it a shot!”

“I can provide the gold, so don’t worry about that. It’s given out when you accept the quest and can only be used to complete it.”

“So we’ve gotta be thrifty, Sally!”

“If you get duped by a fake, the amount of gold decreases… Heh-heh, don’t get tricked!”

With that, Kasumi handed them the notes. If they ran out of funds, they’d have to cover the rest themselves…which certainly motivated them to avoid making mistakes. They pored over the notes.

“We’ve got th—… Golly.”

“There’s sooo much!”

They both gasped. There were a lot of pages of notes. Kasumi had this all committed to memory and had bought that lamp with that knowledge in mind—but the sheer number of things they’d have to account for made the girls dizzy.

“You bought all of these?”

“No, I had help from a library in another town. There was a book on appraisal. Kanade has long since proven how useful libraries can be.”

“W-we’ve gotta work for this one!”

“Yeah…it might be a change of pace, but we can’t exactly blunder through it.”

“I expect great things. The shops in question are all over town. The rickshaws will get you there faster.”

“Sounds good. We’ll read over the notes on the ride.”

“Mm! I still don’t know anything yet!”

Kasumi split off while Maple and Sally started their antique shop hop.

Outside the shop, Maple and Sally grabbed a nearby rickshaw and relaxed into the comforting rhythm of the wheels bobbing on the cobblestones. They could have flown, but they wanted to take the time to read Kasumi’s notes.

“Th-this is a lot… Can we actually do this?”

“Each page is a different type. Katana on one, vases on another… Maple, you start at the top. I’ll start from the bottom.”

“So we only have to read one half each!”

“Can you take the first?”

“Got it! You’re in charge of the back half!”

“Heh-heh, fine, leave it to me.”

There were plenty of pictures included, so they knew exactly what to look for.

As they pored over the notes, the rickshaw reached its destination. They settled the fare and waltzed into the shop.

“Wow…”

“Gosh, there’s so much.”

There was even more stuff for sale here than at the last place, and they weren’t sure a quest objective was among it all.

Even if they decided they couldn’t tell, and bought everything, that might not get them anywhere.

Which was precisely why they had to pore over these notes, compare and contrast, and figure things out.

“I’ll start with the weapons. That’s the section I remember best.”

“Ah-ha-ha, you would.”

“What’ll you look at, Maple?”

“Vases, I guess?”

Their best course of action would be to start where they were most confident and constantly check the notes.

“She said sometimes there are two or three in the same shop, so look at everything!”

“Gotcha!”

Keeping the notes open, they started inspecting the shelves.

Maple stood before a row of oversize vases, comparing each against the notes.

“Um…this one…no pattern. And this…the color’s a bit off.”

Since they did have references, they didn’t have to gamble—no grabbing things on a hunch.

After poring over all the vases, Maple concluded the shop didn’t have what she wanted, and she moved on to the tea sets.

“Mm…color, shape, size…”

Muttering the specs under her breath, eyes peeled to miss nothing, she checked the tea sets…and drew up short in front of one.

“Maybe. Mm. I think it is. Sally!”

“Oh, got one?”

“I guess?”

She hadn’t bought it yet, so there was still time to course correct. They both ran over the relevant notes again, making sure.

“I…think it’s right.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm.”

“Then I’ll buy it.”

“I have a likely candidate myself.”

“Oh? Lemme see.”

“Over here.”

Sally led Maple to a spear. They both triple-checked it and decided it was worth buying.

“I think it’ll be fine.”

“You too?”

“Mm!”

“Okay. Then let’s buy both. Think there’s a third?”

“Let’s look at everything!”

“We’re in no rush, and it’s our first stop.”

They inspected everything in the shop, ensuring they’d missed nothing, but concluded that only those two items matched the notes. They made to buy the teapot and the spear.

“Wait, how do you haggle?”

“It looked like Kasumi had dialogue options to pick from…but I’m not getting any. Maybe she only got them because of everything she’s done in this area.”

“I hope we have enough gold…”

“We should be fine as long as we don’t buy the wrong thing. I mean, it’s just a quest—they’re not gonna make it so you can’t clear it.”

They had no immediate answers. They’d just have to hope their eyes were true, and buy them at list price.

“The spear’s…Suisen, and mine’s Aoi!”

“More flower names—so we got both right?”

“Looks like it! Sweet!”

They were off to a good start, and Maple’s smile looked relieved. They’d made good use of the notes, and their eyes had not deceived them.

“Whew…that was kinda stressful.”

“You can say that again. But did it build confidence?”

“Let’s hit up the next place!”

“I’ll get a rickshaw.”

“Righty-oh!”

While they waited, they reviewed the notes again, trying to memorize as many pages as they could before they reached the next location.

Maple and Sally visited all the antique shops Kasumi had asked them to handle, and by the time they left the last one, their inventories were filled to the brim.

They’d clearly bought a solid number of antiques with unique names.

“Think that’ll help?”’

“I’d say so. The notes sure saved us.”

“Yeah! We didn’t buy a single fake!”

Kasumi’s notes had told them exactly what to look for in a legit antique. By carefully scrutinizing items against the notes, even if they missed a genuine article, they were far less likely to buy a fake. Since this had been a favor, they’d been very careful and double-checked each other’s choices before each purchase. That had given them a perfect shopping record.

“Let’s message Kasumi and meet up.”

“All right!”

They agreed to meet outside the Guild Home and flew there with their boots.

Once they were all at the Guild Home, Sally and Maple showed Kasumi their results.

“We didn’t buy a single wrong item!”

“Nice. You’ve got good eyes.”

“The notes were everything. But it was fun. I haven’t really spent that much time shopping.”

Sally had nabbed a unique series right off the bat and was never one to use consumables from shops.

Unless she was with Maple, she wasn’t prone to buying noncombat clothes or decorative items, so this had all been fairly novel to her.

“Now I can complete this quest. Right…that got me to the next point level. It’s basically…like the access permits from the fourth stratum.”

“So your points hit the next threshold?”

“Exactly. Unlike on the original floor, that doesn’t open up new areas, but it does increase the number of quests available.”

“Aha.”

“Quests that appear based on your progress, huh?”

“Yeah, and since I’ve hit that goal, I thought I’d do a circuit of town with the two of you still in my party. We might find more than just those new quests.”

Party size and items could trigger quests, too—there might well be stuff they could only find with the three of them together.

And if the quests could only be found solo, then Kasumi didn’t have to find them today.

“Sure thing. Depending on the quest, we might even be able to help.”

“Show us the way!”

“You got it. I know all the best shops.”

“Looking forward to it.”

It was best to do everything they could while the three of them were together. Sightseeing and quest collection were two sides of the same coin.

Outside the Guild Home, Kasumi led the way through the Japanese-style town.

“Were you shocked the first time it suddenly switched to night?”

“Yeah, it’s certainly eyebrow-raising. But also…nice. I mean the fourth stratum’s bewitching vibes just come across better at night.”

“The way we’re cut off from the rest of the map…it’s like the whole town’s a dungeon.”

“It almost is. Right, first let’s get some intel.”

Kasumi shot them a glance, then ducked into a shop. They followed, and found it full of yokai sitting around tables and chattering away.

“Let’s take a seat. There’s room at the back.”

Kasumi waved them to a table, and they settled in, examining the menu.

“Order and wait a bit. Information gathers at shops like these—and the green tea and dumplings are quite good.”

“Heh…then let’s order a whole set!”

“I’ll do the same. Best to trust the voice of experience.”

Maple and Sally weren’t sure how this information gathered, but they could handle ordering tasty treats from a menu.

After a while, Maple and Sally each received plates with five skewers, each pierced with three dumplings. The flavors ranged from your standard sweet soy sauce glaze to more surprising ones—all neatly arranged on a red tray.

As they ate, they began to look around. If they wanted info, they’d have to work for it.

““Ah!””

They’d noticed icons over several heads—indicating these NPCs had info available.

“You can start gathering info a while after ordering. Information is not especially hard to find, but this isn’t a method you’d discover if you’re always running around the fields.”

“True. You found it yourself, Kasumi?”

“No, someone figured it out while I was looking elsewhere. I tried it out when I needed info once. It really helped.”

“You can tell just by looking. Having to order makes it easy to miss.”

“Sightseers like Maple might just stumble across it. That’s nifty.”

“I see some new info. Lemme go listen.”

“Have fun!”

“Anything we can hear, Kasumi’s long since heard.”

They stayed in their seats while Kasumi made the rounds, talking to all manner of muscle-bound ogres.

“Got some juicy stuff. And I could use your help with one.”

“Combat?”

“Yeah, but I’ve heard the news—this can wait until Iz gets your gear done.”

“What’re the deets?”

“There’s a pocket dimension with powerful gravity pulls. Not one of those places where the gravity constantly changes—more you can’t jump or fly, and projectiles drop quick.”

“Ugh.”

“S-sounds rough…”

“It’s a bad match for my style and Sally’s. Which is why I could use your help, Maple.”

Kasumi and Sally both placed a lot of focus on agility, while Maple tended to stand stock-still.

Gravitational interference might prevent her from using ranged attacks, but Martyr’s Devotion would keep the other two safe and let them handle the offense.

“You got it!”

“Thanks. We’ll set a date for that later and spend today looking around town.”

“There may well be more quests out there!”

“Exactly.”

They’d already found some new quests, but this was only their first stop. If there was anything that sounded tougher than that high-gravity zone, they might want to prioritize it.

Properly scavenging the streets would give them a basis for comparison.

They polished off the tasty dumplings and sallied forth once more.

They’d found a quest at their first stop, but nothing afterward. They were more like tourists at this point.

“You like those, huh?”

“Eh-heh-heh.”

Maple had purchased an old-fashioned purple umbrella and black geta with red straps. These matched her unique series armor and fit the vibe of the town.

“Next stop: one of my more promising leads.”

This building had distinctive smokestacks and a bunch of old pickaxes and tools piled by the entrance. It was much smaller and quieter than the crowded shop where they’d started.

“An item shop? Or…”

“You’ll see.”

Kasumi opened the door, and the view within leaped out at them.

Maple and Sally jumped at the sound of hammering. The man hammering heated metal wore a Noh mask depicting an old man.

“A blacksmith?”

“Wow, it’s so different from Iz’s workshop.”

“Iz is multitalented.”

Iz grew her own plants for making potions and items, and she didn’t just make armor; she also made clothes, like the dresses the twins wore.

But this workshop was all smithing. Finished products adorned the walls—elaborately decorated weapons gleaming in the light of the kiln, a testament to this smith’s skill.

“Let’s see…”

““……?””

Kasumi seemed to be waiting for something, and that clued the girls in—there was only one NPC here, and he was likely a key figure in her quest.

After a minute, the smith finished up his work and glanced their way, mask still on.

“Curious stuff you got there.”

The girls glanced at one another and nodded.

Here we go.

“I got a favor that needs doing and wasn’t sure who to ask. But it seems you’ve got what it’ll take.”

With that, the quest available icon popped up.

“You don’t have to accept. I’m prepared to ask anyone capable of the job. But if you’re here, that means you have business with me. Well, you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”

Even without that offer, their minds were already made up. If a quest was available, they’d take it. That would get them closer to their goal of conquering the fourth-stratum area.

They took the quest and felt eyes upon them.

“If you’re in, I expect good things. Make haste.”

With that, he went back to his work.

“What’s the quest?”

“This looks like it’ll lead to combat.”

“Then we’ll help with it, too!”

“I could use it. Thanks.”

“We’ve gotta work together to find this Demon Lord!”

“True. Kasumi, your hard work is getting us through this area, so we may want to make it our priority.”

Either way, they’d have to get the gear Iz was whipping up for them first.

They left the blacksmith’s shop and did a full circuit of the town, picking up more quests.

Only the first two seemed likely to lead to major fights, and they agreed to tackle those first.

“Let me know when your gear’s done. Until then, I’ll chip away at the quests I can do on my own.”

“Got it.”

“Iz is making me gear, but I’ve still gotta be careful in a fight. I’ll do my best!”

“The way you handle yourself will make all the difference, Maple. Especially in that high-gravity fight—there’ll be places where I can’t cover you.”

Sally and Maple had just taken a nasty hit and been forced to retreat—Maple had learned the hard way how careful she’d have to be. She’d have to stay focused and learn to handle the monsters the dungeon threw at her.

Iz was working as fast as she could, and it was only a few days before Maple got a message saying her new gear was ready.

“Iz!”

Maple stepped into the Guild Home to find Iz waiting for her. On the table next to her was a ring and a pair of earrings made of gleaming silver. Maple’s new gear!

“I made them as small as I could so they wouldn’t stand out. I doubt anyone will realize you’ve got more HP unless you take damage.”

“Thanks so much!”

The earrings could be equipped to the head slot, and the ring was what it looked like—an accessory. Together, they’d give Maple the boost she needed.

And since Iz had managed to make them super tiny, they’d help out in PvP.

“Whoa, they’re amazing!”

They didn’t provide any special skills, but since they were all in on HP buffing, the increase in stats they gave was way higher than any unique series.

“I hope that makes your dungeon crawling easier.”

“It will! I’ll take full advantage of it!”

“Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Will do! We’re hitting the fourth-stratum zone with Kasumi, so any materials we find are yours!”

“Heh-heh-heh, looking forward to that, then.”

Maple put her new gear on right away and headed to the fourth area.

She came running down the street to find Sally and Kasumi already waiting for her.

“Sorry it took so long!”

“No worries. Kasumi was just telling me stories about her adventures here.”

“Did she finish your gear?”

“You can’t tell, right? Iz made it so no one will notice!”

With that, Maple showed off the silver earrings and ring.

“Whoa, yeah, your hair hides those perfectly.”

“Well, if you’ve got your gear on, let’s do this.”

With the all-new Maple in tow, the group headed to their first destination: the high-gravity area. Kasumi double-checked her map, then fired up her flight apparatus.

“I’ll be keeping Haku’s Supergiant in my back pocket.”

“Good idea. Might need it to wreak havoc once we get there.”

“So let’s fly!”

Outside of town it was suddenly sunny—and after a short flight, they landed near their destination.

“There’s nothing here?”

Before them was an endless open prairie. The breeze running over it felt amazing—in the distance, they could see monsters (modeled on herbivores) running about. But there were no signs of the powerful gravity effect they’d been warned about.

“I asked around in town before you got here, but the zones are split a bit different from the usual magic circles.”

“……?”

“It’s easier to demonstrate than to explain. Wait one moment.”

“Sure thing!”

Kasumi pulled a charm out of her inventory and held it up in the air. Purple flames belched out—and a red door appeared. The vibe of it was very “boss room.” Clearly through that door would be a very difficult location.

“The fourth-stratum area’s combat quests mostly involve these sealed spaces. Shall we? It should lead to that gravity zone.”

She checked that everyone was ready.

Maple and Sally drew their weapons and nodded.

“Okay. Opening up!”

As Kasumi pushed the door open, purple flames gushed out. They surrounded the girls, and before they knew it—it was night on the prairie.

“Wow… Ack!”

Maple heard a scraping sound behind her. The heavy red door slammed shut—and the path back to the main map was cut off.

“To get back, we’ve gotta beat the boss, or come back here…or I guess we could log out, or get wiped.”

“Then we’d better beat this thing and exit through the back!”

Conquest over retreat. No one here would argue with that principle.

“Agreed. But…I do feel heavy.”

“Gravity…was the flavor text. But if I judge by my debuff icons, it’s more a reduction in movement speed, along with a forced fall. Kanade and Hinata have used similar spells, so I’m guessing it works on that same principle.”

There were two types of mobility debuffs, but that meant there were some key differences between them and the pull of regular high gravity. This was a map designed to the boss’s advantage. It was best they figure out the specifics before the fighting began.

“Maple, give it a try. How functional are your Machine God guns?”

“Let’s find out! Give me some room… Okay. Deploy Artillery! Commence Assault!”

With a boom, a bullet shot out—and hit the ground a yard away, exploding.

It went less than a tenth the normal range. It wasn’t much farther than the reach of Kasumi’s katana.

“Ugh…let’s not try Hydra, then.”

“Fair…”

The sheer range on that move was what made its poison lakes problem-free.

If it splashed down right in front of them, untoward accidents were bound to happen.

“Lemme test a few. Waterway! Ice Pillar! Web Spinner!”

Waterway should have stretched across the sky, but it failed to retain its shape. The webs were yanked to the ground and vanished with a splat. The Ice Pillar itself was much like always, but when Sally tried to attach a web and scale it, the thread snapped, and she fell to the ground.

“No use. Guess we’ll be fighting with our feet on the ground.”

She’d hoped the webs might let her circumvent some things. But if all skills that would let her gain altitude were canceled, then it was a waste of time to search for back doors—it would be better to refocus on how best to fight on the surface. Once all three were done experimenting and ready to go, they turned their backs to the door and sallied forth.

“This stratum has flight apparatuses in it. So even flat areas have antiair measures, I guess.”

“There’s plenty of monsters that are doomed the second you control the skies above them, so it’s not exactly surprising.”

“I’m unsure what’s waiting for us, but I doubt it’ll be unbeatable. That’s what we prepped this gear for.”

“I’ve got defense locked!”

“Mm-hmm. We’re counting on you. And I’ll be right there with the heal if you need it.”

Heals didn’t count as projectiles; they worked directly on the target. That meant, fortunately, they worked just fine here. The girls would not be able to toss one another potions in an emergency, though. At best, they could lay down some of Iz’s healing mist.

The girls began looking for a trash mob to get some idea of the threat against them.

“I guess we head…that way?”

“Looks like.”

A purple cross hung in the sky, glittering like a morning star. With no other signs around, that felt like a clear indication of where they should go.

“I don’t see any other clues, so let’s give it a shot!”

“Either way, nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

“This place is huge… Should I call out Haku? It might help if we can up our movement speed.”

Their speed had a debuff, and that even affected Maple—despite her already having zero AGI. The only way she could move faster was by blowing herself up—and since this place kept her on the ground, she wasn’t making much progress. Haku would keep their hands free and was better than having Sally or Kasumi carry her.

“Let’s try it. Haku, Awaken.”

Good thing they hadn’t used Supergiant yet. Kasumi did so now, turning her pet snake into a means of transportation that was also good in a fight.

Not long after they set out, they found themselves surrounded by six glowing magic circles. With a crackle, sparks flew, and beasts wreathed in purple lightning emerged from each circle.

They were a size bigger than wolves, and growling—an imposing sight to be sure.

“Maple! Kasumi!”

These would be hard to fight on Haku’s back. Maple and Kasumi caught Sally’s drift and jumped down just as the beasts raced in.

“They’re fast!”

“Maple!”

“Martyr’s Devotion! Glow of Deliverance!”

“Heal! Ugh!”

Enemies ignored both the speed debuff and the forced fall, and they closed in fast with electrified tails thrashing. Maple sprouted six white wings and laid down a double defensive field.

Martyr’s Devotion lowered Maple’s HP, so Sally topped that up and then threw an item to the ground that generated a green mist—which provided a heal over time.

“Urgh…”

“Big moves.”

A beast had jumped, getting above them—and Sally and Kasumi narrowed their eyes at it.

Both were ready to land a counter on it, but the purple electric sparks flying from its fur were pretty nasty-looking—and they sprayed hard when it howled.

This was a trash mob—but there were six of them, and each was generating Velvet-level electricity.

Sally decided she wasn’t dodging them without a skill, so she abandoned the idea, watching Maple’s status like a hawk.

“I’m good! Not piercing!”

“That’s good news!”

“Then offense it is! Sally, one at a time!”

“Gotcha!”

Maple Tree’s ultimate walking fort was keeping both Sally and Kasumi safe without a qualm.

Once they were sure of that, what else was there to fear? This was their fight now.

“First Blade: Heat Haze!”

Movement speed? Who needed it? Kasumi had a skill that teleported her. Only she could put herself at point-blank range whenever she wanted—and her swing did major damage even as she spun to put herself behind it.

“Seventh Blade: Pulverize!”

A heavy strike knocked the beast off its feet and sent it flying. But since there was a forced fall on this zone—it fell right where Sally was waiting.

It tried to take her down with lightning—but Maple soaked it all, nulling the damage.

“Oboro, Whet Wisp! Water Cowl! Quintuple Slash!”

Fire, water, damage sparks—every bit as bright as the lightning.

A skill that usually did five hits did ten when dual wielding, and each of those hits had three follow-up hits. A forty-hit combo! Sally’s daggers hit far harder than they appeared, and disintegrated the beast.

“Go, go, Sally!”

“Mm, let’s end this.”

“One second. The next is coming.”

“Your lead!”

It was a fight so one-sided that it was like jeering, You should have specced for Maple. One foe at a time, they freed themselves from the mob.

The lightning died down, proving the last beast was dead. The girls sheathed their weapons.

“Wowza! But I guess these monsters can’t hurt us.”

“Not with you on defense, Maple.”

“As long as it stays up, we’ll take down anything that comes.”

“Please do!”

Kasumi’s teleport moves were fantastic when movement was slowed and AGI debuffed. Sally was just as fast on offense normally, but that was a strength she didn’t have.

“All aboard. Let’s push on till we find more mobs.”

Haku slithered in, and they all climbed on.

“I doubt it’ll be much longer before I’m ready to claim the fourth area’s Demon Lord’s Mana.”

“Smooth sailing?”

“I was running all over the place while you two were focusing elsewhere.”

“That helped keep us on track. Really glad we had you.”

“From what I heard, Chrome’s still going strong in the sixth area. Naturally, there’s no guarantee he won’t hit a snag, but he seemed pretty confident.”

Maple Tree’s goal was to take out the Demon Lord before Maple and Sally had to quit the game—so it was a race against time. But the tenth stratum had bits of every map on it, and they could hardly enjoy things if they raced through every second.

“Best to poke your nose around when you’ve got some downtime. This area’s pretty neat!”

“Yeah…once there’s an end in sight, we oughtta make one big circuit. Maple might well find some crazy skill right before the Demon Lord fight.”

“Will I?”

“I mean, you can already clone yourself.”

She had a skill set that let her fight just about anything, but she had no reason not to get more. Toxic Fission had been a lucky find, but there weren’t many skills that were odd in the main area’s questlines.

“I’m looking forward to seeing your final form, Maple.”

“I hope you find some neat things, too, Sally!”

“Same. I can borrow attack skills with Reality Twister, which frees me up a lot—so as is, I’m pretty happy.”

Still, Sally wouldn’t mind getting more skills.

The rarest ones were always in hidden areas—places you’d never normally stumble across. You couldn’t just follow the plot; you had to keep your eyes peeled and get lucky.

“Hng, more incoming!”

Howls echoed even as Sally spoke, and twice as many beasts surrounded them.

“So many… I mean, we’ll win, but…”

“We aren’t taking damage, so could we have Haku help? Wind around them?!”

“Sure. Since safety’s guaranteed, we might as well.”

“Okay. Maple, pull ’em.”

“Taunt!”

Twelve beasts with blinding lightning surged forward.

There were enough to pose a threat to any typical tank, but not to Maple.

“Haku!”

The snake wound round the beasts in packs of three, trapping them in its coils.

There was no escaping unless they felled Haku or Kasumi—but Maple made that impossible. This prison was inescapable.

“Cover your ears!” Maple said—and pulled out a stupid amount of bombs, scattering them at her feet. “Ignite!”

Nearly a hundred explosions went off in a confined space, buffeting friend and foe alike.

But under Maple’s protection, tamed monsters and party members escaped the flames’ wrath. No laws or principles applied to any foe who could not hurt Maple herself.

“All done?”

“Gather the drops. I’ve never seen monsters like this elsewhere.”

“All right, success!”

“Let’s keep that up. Even if we don’t waste bombs, having Haku trap them makes things way easier.”

“Mobility is their greatest strength—without that, the debuffs on us are meaningless. I hope the boss fight will work the same…”

“But it definitely won’t.”

“I figured.”

And these were likely not the only type of monster on the way in. The boss fight would be the toughest battle of all. It was best they keep a reserve of focus on hand for later and take it easy when the foes were weak. For now, they headed onward toward the cross-shaped light—which was much closer now.

There were other types of enemies. Birds that flew in on high and suddenly swooped down. Worms that not only burrowed beneath the ground, attacking from below, but also sent bolt attacks out from the holes they’d made.

But all of these were added to the fires burning before them.

“So strong…”

“Sucks to be an enemy who can’t fight that!”

Maple had scattered items, turning herself and her surroundings into a blazing inferno. At the heart of those flames, the girl herself was fine.

The burrowing worms could escape this blaze, so she’d been using their bolt holes to drop explosives and burn them out.

“Rad!”

“Nice. Haku, you’re doing great.”

“I’ve often gotta leave it in my ring in narrow dungeons—but in a place like this, it really dominated.”

“We’re a good match for the enemies here. They’re all about numbers and mobility, so none of them can really hit that hard.”

“And nothing had piercing attacks!”

Against the right foes, Maple just rendered them helpless.

“We’re pretty close now…and look what we’ve got.”

They were under the starlike light now and could see exactly what it was.

Tall rocks reached high to the skies—or perhaps reached down from them. They were the same color as the night sky and pocked with glowing lights like stars—from a distance, the girls could not distinguish between the two. But now it appeared to be some eldritch tower, wreathed in purple lightning that only added to the glow.

“Is that glow pure electricity?”

“Looks like it. Maple, be careful—it’s almost boss time.”

“I know!”

With one eye on the sky, they took a few steps closer, and purple lightning came slithering down the spiral-staircase-like rock.

That movement looked familiar. It didn’t take long for them to place it.

The lightning changed shape—a long body, covered in purple scales. A red tongue, flickering. It had transformed into an enormous snake!

“Like a mirror match.”

“But this one we can defeat.”

When she’d tamed Haku, Kasumi had fought a giant snake she couldn’t slay—this was a similar monster, but was likely meant to be taken down.

“It’s bigger than Haku, so we may not be able to coil round it. Maple, be careful how close you get.”

The boss raised its head; Sally and Kasumi raised their weapons. This was the main event, and Maple’s backup would be the key to everything.

“Offense is all you guys!” she said.

““On it!””

“Taunt!”

Martyr’s Devotion was centered on Maple, so Sally and Kasumi made sure to stay within range of it as they stepped forward.

But since the debuffs were still active, the boss got the first strike.

Static crackled, and the boss accelerated, its body charged once more, passing between the girls as it attacked. Maple soaked the lightning, which stunned her, and the snake closed in, attacking.

Its massive maw manifested right in front of Maple. At this distance, the stun would prevent her from fighting back—she’d dropped her short sword and shield, and it chomped down, binding her and sending jolts of electricity through her.

“I’m fine! You two be careful.”

Maple realized it was forcibly pulling her away from them.

If they didn’t stay within range, Martyr’s Devotion couldn’t help.

Carrying Maple with it, the snake traced a circle in the air above.

“It is made of lightning…”

“Mind’s Eye! Sally, something’s about to fall on us.”

“Got it.”

Kasumi’s skill let her predict the enemy’s attacks—and was filling her vision with red columns stretching down from above.

Sally’s predictive skills were preternatural, but Kasumi was literally seeing the solution.

For guaranteed evasion, she told Sally where to stand.

A massive torrent of lightning scorched the earth an instant later.

“Fortunately, Maple’s drawn the aggro, so we’ll just have to slash at it in passing.”

“We can’t risk it otherwise… Sounds like a plan.”

If they struck its head, it would definitely counter with lightning. But while it had Maple in its mouth, they’d be totally safe in that vicinity.

The affected gravity meant projectiles were of no use, so rather than try to save Maple, they took this situation as an opportunity to rack up some damage.

This boss was all about lightning AOEs and body slams. It would be hard for Kasumi and Sally to guard each other, so they stayed well apart (so as not to get hit at the same time) and waited for its next charge.

An increase in voltage warned them. There was a crackle, and it accelerated, almost teleporting toward Sally, jaw open wide.

“Read like a book.”

The biggest difference between Maple and Sally. Those evasion skills let her dodge the bites, and her daggers sliced the side of its mouth. Lightning gouged the ground, and sparks flew all around Sally—but she was inside Martyr’s Devotion.

“Urk!”

“Oh, it let go.”

Since it opened wide to attack Sally, Maple had come rolling free. Because Sally had dodged, the snake flew off without anyone trapped in its maw.

Maple was still stunned, and Kasumi joined them, weathering the next lightning storm.

“If anyone but Maple gets bit, they’re sunk.”

“Yup. Maple can’t keep up with us, and we can’t endure the damage.”

“I couldn’t harm the flanks—felt like I was striking lightning.”

“Thanks for checking. Guess we’re doing this the hard way. Maple does make that a lot easier.”

“……Gasp!”

“Morning, Maple. And thanks. Sorry to make demands when you just woke up, but we’ll need you baiting that bite.”

“……”

“Maple?”

She was nulling all the lightning. If there were any concerns, it would be best to address them before the boss charged again.

“I wonder…if I could learn some sort of stun resistance here?”

“Oh, good point.”

This was a tough boss, even by tenth-stratum standards. And it had stunned Maple.

Their final goal, the Demon Lord, would likely use all sorts of attacks, so this might be worth attempting. If she could get the skill, that would be one less weakness.

“Are you two down for it?” she asked.

While she was trapped, she’d be hauled all over the place, and they’d be cast out of the bounty of Martyr’s Devotion.

They’d be fully exposed to all this lightning, but only Maple stood to benefit.

“No problem. I can soak at least one of these strikes—as long as I’m ready to heal, we can make the time.”

Kasumi was an infighter and had plenty of ways to reduce damage for the trade-off that entailed.

With her on board, Maple looked at Sally.

“Of course. I can dodge it all.”

“Thanks!”

This was Maple Tree at its most Maple Tree—pushing a smiling Maple out in front of a charging boss and watching it haul her away to the upper atmosphere.

While Maple was being captured by the boss, Kasumi and Sally were playing a very different game—dodging lightning. Keeping Haku out of harm’s way was a bit too much, so Kasumi had put it right back in her ring, focusing on her own evasions.

“Some of these are aimed at us, and some of them are aimed where we’re likely to dodge.”

“I can tell! It’s pretty nasty.”

“Good luck! I’ve got healing ready.”

Kasumi wasn’t at all bad on her feet, but even though she knew the drill, without Mind’s Eye active, it was tough for her to dodge every attack. This was why most players put some points into HP and VIT.

But Sally actually was dodging everything, and Maple really could tank it all. The boss was effectively attacking all three, yet unable to overturn the balance of the fight.

“Think of it as good training! This will only get worse as the boss’s HP drops.”

“Right…fair!”

If Kasumi adjusted now, she’d have a way easier time with the advanced version.

They spent a long time with Maple getting captured and spit out, rolling across the ground. Kasumi was now as good at dodging this particular attack as Sally—and Maple was just waiting for the next incoming bite.

Then she suddenly let out a cry of joy.

“Whoo-hoo! I got it!”

“Oh, finally?”

“And I’ve gotten pretty good at dodging this.”

Maple had a glittering new skill—Stun Nullification. A few hours of combat was a good trade-off—Maple no longer needed expensive items or gear for this particular status effect.

“Okay, time for a counterattack. We know what this thing does—let’s show it what we do.”

“Yeah. Maple, you just keep getting captured. Here it comes.”

“Gotcha! Come at me!”

The boss flew in with the lightning, too fast for Maple to dodge—but she didn’t care. She held out her arms as if waiting to be eaten.

That jaw chomped down, and Sally and Kasumi slashed at it from both sides.

Their ancillary goal was accomplished, so no more letting it off the hook. That applied to Maple when it captured her, too. It could not stun her, it could not hurt her—she was no longer bound; she simply tanked its jaw at point-blank range. This was the worst position a boss could be in.

“Deploy Artillery! Commence Assault!”

Her weapons extended, and a lot of bullets sprayed forth. They only flew a single yard—but at this range, that didn’t matter.

The damage sparks were flying so hard you might mistake them for a dragon’s breath. The snake wasn’t an especially tanky boss, and it clearly couldn’t withstand this at all.

“Ancient Weapon!”

“Good golly.”

“No one beats her at that range.”

Blue and red lights and explosions were lighting up the sky like fireworks, mingling with damage sparks and counter lightning. The girls knew for a fact this boss couldn’t handle this level of violence in its current phase. Sally and Kasumi played it safe, focusing on evading, not wanting to be the ones who brought the team down—but they did keep an eye on the boss’s HP bar. A few captures later, Maple had the boss down to half health—and there was a low rumble.

“Kasumi, below!”

Maple caught the shift a moment later, when it spit her out in midair and she started falling.

A moment after Sally’s cry—thick purple lightning bolts burst through the ground, crackling at the girls.

“……!”

“Don’t worry about me!”

“Eighth Blade: Gale!”

Three girls, three reactions. They’d been waiting for this, so Maple chose to soak the hit with an eye on what would come after. Sally was sure she could dodge any large-scale attack. Kasumi was concerned that taking damage here would hurt their chances in the long run, so she opted for her best evasion skill.

The upshot: Each choice went exactly as planned. The bulky bolts struck only Maple as she fell.

There was a boom, and all Maple could see was purple light—and a spray of damage sparks that took a third of her HP.

“Owww!”

“Heal!”

Sally cast a spell right away, catching Maple when she landed and carrying her safely through the storm. That armor-piercing damage sure put a glint in their eyes, but Maple was nodding, pleased with the results.

“That new gear worked.”

“Mm! Glad we had that made!”

“Get ready for the back half.”

“Will do!”

It did have piercing damage, so Sally hoisted Maple onto her back and kept right on running.

Between the debuff and the added weight, she wasn’t exactly at full speed and should have been in no shape to fight.

But even with those shackles, Sally’s evasion still outclassed Kasumi’s, which was just astounding.

“Hat’s off…Sally! Hit it when it comes close.”

“All you, Maple!”

“You got it!”

Sally’s hands were full of Maple, so she tossed attack duties upward.

She was compensating for Maple’s lack of mobility, and Maple blocked everything that wasn’t piercing.

That was the bulk of the attacks—if they only had to dodge the new rolling lightning, that made things far easier for Sally and Kasumi.

Maple was under Sally’s control, not the snake boss’s—and that meant Martyr’s Devotion was in full effect.

Now they just had to make a beeline for victory.

“Devour?”

“Used it in the mouth.”

“Then up close, hit it with Ancient Weapon. Machine God would make it hard to maintain balance.”

“Gotcha!”

“Maple, pull aggro.”

“Taunt!”

A black cube hovered next to them. Sally carried Maple forward to get the boss within the cube’s scopes.

Since Maple had used Taunt, the lightning was coming down hard. Sally had made that call convinced—no, certain—she could handle it. And armed with that certainty, she’d chosen to shoulder Kasumi’s burden, too.

“Thanks. Ninth Blade: Yaksha.”

With the two of them freeing up Kasumi completely, she sacrificed HP and VIT for additional damage, and when the boss landed, she closed in with First Blade: Heat Haze.

The boss was headed right for Maple. This was just as before, but there was one fundamental difference. Sally now served as Maple’s legs—literally.

Sally dodged the boss’s charge by a hair’s breadth with her flawless footwork, and Maple locked onto the boss’s head with her weapons—just as Kasumi drew level with its other side.

“Go, girls!”

“Armored Arms! Purple Phantom Blade!”

“Ancient Weapon!”

Powerful attacks from both sides shot into the open mouth. An absurd number of sparks flew, and the boss’s HP shot down. Then there was a shattering sound as the boss vanished, leaving only purple lightning behind.

“We did it!”

“Flawless damage math.”

“I watched while you were chipping away, Maple. Knew just how much more it needed. But…would you mind waiting until I’m back to my usual self? I’d rather not parade around outside in this form.”

“No prob.”

“Okay! Let’s sit back and chill!”

“Appreciated.”

To get the damage they needed, Kasumi had no choice but to shrink herself—and until she grew again, the three girls sat back, recovering from the fatigue of the fight.

They had a successful clear under their belts and had proven the advantages of Maple’s new HP gear.

One could call that enough for the day, but they still had another quest left.

“Now for the blacksmith’s favor.”

“Yeah. It should be roughly the same difficulty level.”

It wouldn’t have those mobility debuffs, so there was little chance of this trio emerging defeated.

“That said…it’s getting kind of late. This next fight might also provide an opportunity to gain a useful skill. In which case, maybe we should tackle it when we have more time to spare.”

“Yeah, good point. That might not be the worst plan. It’s not like we’re up against the wall on time or anything.”

“So should we split up for the day?”

“I guess so.”

“Then call us again! We’ll back you up!”

“I’m counting on it.”

Maple had scored a big gain with Stun Nullification, so she didn’t need to grind levels at all, and she logged out first. Left behind, Sally and Kasumi kicked back.

“Do you have any plans, Kasumi?”

“None in particular. I was gonna log out in a little, too. You?”

“What would you think…about dueling?”

“I don’t mind. Not sure I’ll be a match for you.”

“Don’t put yourself down.”

“Heh-heh, fair enough. Then…to the training room?”

With that, Kasumi’s demeanor changed entirely. She was even more on edge than in the boss fight. Death hung in the air. She obviously viewed the girl she was about to fight as a greater threat than any boss.

Facing each other in the training room, each drew their weapons. They were in the same guild—they knew each other’s tricks by heart. They’d fought any number of times while prepping for the last PvP event, and they knew what strategies each fell back on, what approaches the other preferred.

“……”

Kasumi looked down her blade at Sally, who had readied both daggers. She had no openings. Literally none. She ran the simulations, but Sally just waited for her. As she always did.

Sally had issued the invite—but Kasumi was definitely the challenger.

“Armored Arms. Specter of Carnage. First Blade: Heat Haze.”

Kasumi vanished—and reappeared before Sally’s eyes, already swinging.

“Superspeed! Sword Mountain!”

When Sally started to dodge, she boosted her speed, and swords shot up from the ground beneath her. All Kasumi’s skills had their cooldowns drastically reduced. She could throw out a ton of powerful skills, up her stats, and repeatedly warp to Sally’s location.

“Ack…!”

Kasumi winced, well aware that not a single one of her blows had connected. And acutely conscious that she—more than anyone—had helped to polish Sally’s skills. Attacks Sally had once been forced to parry now were avoided completely. These days she was dodging them by a fraction of an inch.

When a skill was used, the weapon’s trajectory and speed were set in stone. Advanced players all made use of that information when they fought, but to this extent? It was downright uncanny.

Most people would guard, maybe backstep. What Sally was doing displayed an unnecessary level of precision and physical control. It gave Kasumi chills—her movements were just that flawless. And to what end?!

Sally ran through her move, Specter of Carnage ran out, and Kasumi threw in the towel.

That was how it always ended.

“I threw in some standard attacks…but unsurprisingly, I still didn’t land a blow.”

“Thanks. It’s helped me get better.”

“I’m glad to be of use. The speed with which my Blade skills activate only bothers me when I’m up against you.”

Skills were activated by voice commands. But it took a bit longer to say “First Blade: Heat Haze” than “Slash.” Most fights weren’t so down to the wire that it made any difference, but when the fight was against Sally, the longer the skill name, the more perfectly she handled it.

“I think even the Demon Lord may have trouble hitting you.”

“That is the question. Try me… No, I hope I do get hit.”

“You’re confident. But you may have to go easy.”

“Yeah…not happening.”

“That so?”

“Mm.”

“I came into this training with a lot of ideas on how to attack. Only problem is—it’s hard to tell if any were of any effect.”

“Yeah…sorry?”

“No, don’t be. If I think of anything else, I’ll come to you.”

“Thanks.”

A single duel. However, it provided a wealth of information. That was enough, and they parted for the day. Sally had gained tangible evidence of her continued improvement. She’d played a lot of games, but when she looked back—in none of them had she gotten this good.

If she’d heard the skill name before. If she had the room to dodge.

She knew she could dodge by the narrowest of margins.

“Whew…let’s get that even tighter.”

Sally stretched and—still not satisfied—began honing her own skills against the training room’s autoattack system.

The next day…

The three girls regrouped in the fourth-stratum area and took their flight apparatuses to the next quest location. They faced no real threat until they crossed the door between worlds, so the voyage was a breeze.

Once they’d reached their destination, they throttled the thrusters on their machines to land, made the door appear, and stepped through.

They’d been through this process once the day before, so they no longer had anything to fear. Within, they found themselves before a broad ravine.

“Down below…rapids?”

“Guess we follow the cliff down.”

They peered over the edge and heard water running between sheer cliff faces. They had no guarantee they’d survive a dip in that current. If this room was designed to kill you on a fall, that would apply to Maple, too, even with her defense.

“Are we thinking no flight apparatuses?”

“We have no obvious reason not to use them, but… This place is so obviously easier with them that it feels wrong to try.”

“Agreed. Even if it isn’t a full-on trap, I bet there’s something.”

The battle the day before had clearly been designed to thwart the flight apparatuses. It was unlikely that every area had countermeasures, but if flying would make an area trivial, that felt like an invitation to doom.

“Do we take the orthodox route?”

“We’d better. We waited a day, so it’s not like we’re short on time.”

“Then this way. Be careful you don’t fall.”

There was a path about a foot and a half wide along the cliff face. They couldn’t do much fighting on that. They had flight apparatuses, but given the above concerns, they were a last resort.

The girls headed down awhile and eventually found cracks in the wall…and a path that led inside.

The path was only just wide enough that the three of them could stand side by side, which meant they were afforded far more room to maneuver than they had on the cliff path.

“This has gotta be it.”

“Good, much easier to walk on.”

“Think there’s monsters?”

“Likely. Tank for us?”

“Always!”

“I’ll handle the light.”

The path was narrow, the ceilings low. Sally’s and Kasumi’s mobility was restrained.

They were better off putting Maple in the lead to prepare for the unexpected.

She kept her shield up and peeked around each corner, advancing with caution.

“Putting that fifth-area experience to use?”

“Surprise attacks are bad!”

“Now there’s a motto for every dungeon.”

The path gradually descended…and as it did, the walls began to glow a faint orange.

“I’ll check one out!”

“Mm, you do that.”

Maple could touch most things without facing fatal consequences, so she walked right up to one. It was a crystal—with a flickering light inside.

It was growing out of the wall, fixed in place. To Maple’s eyes, it seemed unlikely to just fall off.

She tapped it a few times, and the glow within emerged—a tiny flame.

“Yikes!”

Maple flinched, but it didn’t do damage, so she breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her hand.

“They make fire.”

“We were told to gather materials—is this them?”

“We need the boss drops. But these definitely seem like they’ll be good for crafting elemental items.”

“Let’s bring back all we can!”

“Good idea. Iz’ll love them.”

The little crystal before them was merely an indication of the kind of item they were here to get. To actually gather any, they’d have to find a mining point—looking for that, they moved farther in. Soon, they found an orange glow so bright it rendered their own lights useless.

“Wow!”

Far more crystals and far larger. They’d found a mining point—Maple took out her pickax and moved over to a crystal.

“……?”

But as she neared it, she saw something out of the corner of her eye that seemed off—and she glanced toward it.

Rattle, roll. With a faint sound, a palm-size crystal fell from the wall. It had an HP bar above it. Even as she realized this was a monster, it hit the ground and started spraying sparks.

“M-Martyr’s Devotion!”

Those sparks set off the other crystals, and all the crystals belched fire. It was like she was inside a fire dragon’s mouth—the whole path leading in went up in flames.

“……J-just in time!”

“Are you okay?!”

“Yeah! You?”

“We’re fine. Coming to you.”

With all those sparks, the girls had to shout to be heard. The flames were dying down a bit, so Sally and Kasumi pushed through them to Maple’s side.

“What a jump scare… What caused that?”

“Um, there was a monster that looked just like the little crystals, and it set them off.”

“And they all went up as one? I bet the boss does that, too.”

“Very possible. If it works the same, Maple will handle it, but…”

It was still a powerful AOE. If it enveloped the entire passage like this, Kasumi’s Mind’s Eye and Sally’s slipperiness would not help.

“Let’s just keep Martyr’s Devotion going. This time we saw the fire start, but next time it might just gush out behind us.”

“Got it! You two stay close!”

“Yeah, don’t want to burn up before we even reach the boss.”

“Let’s mine here first. Maple will keep us from getting incinerated.”

“I’m on it! First lemme just… Ack!”

Maple tapped her pickax, but there was a low, ominous sound—clearly, something had gone wrong.

Maple lacked the stats to safely mine something this dangerous—and these fireworks were even worse than the last batch.

All three of them were combat-oriented vanguard players and did not have the right stats for this at all. Mining meant detonation—but since Maple nulled all the damage, forcibly solving the issue, they managed to get a decent number of crystals.

“That went well!”

“Um. Well is…one word for it. Sure.”

“Not the intended procedure, but it was effective nonetheless.”

With their inventories full of crystals, they moved on. They weathered several more unexpected infernos but paid them no attention.

Their next encounter of note was with a crystal that emitted a blue glow.

“……Water?”

“Seems watery.”

“Water it is.”

It was unanimous, so they turned their minds to what water-producing crystals would do.

“Ideally just some standard-issue water blades…but a torrent with knockback or an attempted drowning would be less than fun.”

“We’ve got items that’ll let us breathe underwater. A whole pile left over from the eighth stratum.”

“For the knockback…I can do something. I don’t want to waste the throne, but we need to check if there’s knockback.”

With that, Sally attached herself to the floor with webs, and did the same for Maple.

“Kasumi, will you do the honors?”

“Very well.”

With nothing tying her down, Kasumi stepped into the chamber of blue crystals. Surprising no one, a crystal monster popped free—and a moment later the passage filled with water.

“So…no knockback.”

Through her webs, Sally did not detect any signs of Maple getting dragged around. The water simply filled the room but had no real current.

“What do you think, Maple?”

Arguably this was meant to drown them, but it seemed awfully weak sauce after those fires.

They weren’t taking any damage, but since Maple automatically soaked everything, Kasumi was asking if there was anything else going on here.

“……Oh! I get it!”

“What you got?”

“My HP and MP and VIT are halved! This lasts ten minutes!”

“A fifty-percent debuff to all stats? That’s brutal…unless you’re Maple.”

“Yeah, my VIT’s still over ten thousand! And the rest were always zero…”

“So no problems there. We won’t often see hits that get past that.”

“Right. But we wouldn’t fare as well. Thanks, Maple, we’ll be careful.”

“First fire, then water… There are other elements, but how many will we see?”

“We’ll have to find out. No clue how long this water’s gonna stick around.”

“True! My legs won’t get any slower, so I’m fine!”

“Mm, so you lead the way, Maple. Lemme get these webs off.”

“Okay!”

They’d cleared the water trap, and now they moved farther into the dungeon.

Deeper and deeper. There were forks in the road, as well as any number of elemental broadsides. But at last, the girls made it to the giant door outside the boss room.

“Should we review the types of traps?”

“Sure! Um…”

The fire was an obvious AOE. The water a debuff. On the way in, they’d also found green wind crystals and yellow earth crystals. The former produced a gale with knockback. The latter turned the ground into a swamp so players couldn’t move.

Other than the fire, they were powerful—but not actually lethal on their own.

The earth trap in particular was meaningless without monsters spawning nearby. The girls had taken those traps as a warning, figuring the real power would kick in during the boss fight.

There’d been no mid-boss, just a few trash mobs that posed no real threat; and the dungeon leading to the boss room had mostly been a tutorial on these elemental gimmicks. Those would clearly be a major part of the battle behind this door.

“Martyr’s Devotion: check. Glow of Deliverance: check. Gear: check. Just in case—water debuffs gone: check.”

“All green! Ready when you are!”

“Opening her up.”

Kasumi pushed the door open, then leaped through. Surprising all of them—there were no crystals in sight. Instead, a dust cloud in the back billowed as a massive figure reared up.

It was a golem made of crystals in each of the four elements. It didn’t exactly look nimble, and they’d fought a lot of golems, so Maple relaxed a little.

And then…

“Urp?!”

…it jumped. Shockingly light on its feet.

It didn’t quite make it all the way to them, but it closed a lot of the gap, and its feet hit the ground hard, kicking up so much dust that they could no longer see the full chamber.

“Maple, stay calm.”

“Mm-hmm! ……?”

Sally helped her recover her equilibrium, and she waited for the boss to charge out of the dust.

“……!”

And because she was watching, she noticed the green glowing lights on the ground. The wind traps.

“Heavy Body!”

No sooner had Maple activated her knockback-nullification skill than a powerful gale hit them. With all this dust, it was like a sandstorm. She managed to get her eyes open—and found the ground studded with green crystals, and the boss’s glowing fist bearing down on her.

This was an attack that would have shattered any ordinary formation. It was one heck of an opening salvo—but since Martyr’s Devotion meant that knockback gale hit only her, they were all still in place, and she blocked the fist with the great shield.

And she didn’t just block it. Devour went off, chewing up the boss’s fist. It was a brutal counter that swallowed a chunk of the boss’s HP.

“Full Deploy! Commence Assault! Ancient Weapon!”

And that still wasn’t all. Two types of weaponry roared to life, red and blue lasers piercing the boss’s body.

Both sides had put their best foot forward—but Maple’s approach won out.

And while it was focused on her, Kasumi and Sally darted in.

They were pretty sure that jump and dust cloud were meant to scatter crystals.

““Superspeed!””

The boss tried to jump back, but they weren’t letting it get away that easily. They didn’t need to worry about Maple—no mere punch could faze her.

“Specter of Carnage! Armored Arms! Fourth Blade: Whirlwind!”

“Oboro, Whet Wisp! Water Cowl! Quintuple Slash!”

Each slashed at a leg, producing a shower of damage sparks—and the legs crumbled, downing the boss.

A clear opportunity. All made to leap in—but the glow of the shattered pieces intensified. The boss was made from crystals that could all trigger an elemental attack.

By the time they realized it, all four elements assaulted them as one.

Burning fires. Dowsing water. Binding earth. And disruptive winds.

The boss had a powerful counter of its own. It toppled over to bait unwary players and take them all out at once.

“Tough luck. We’ve got Maple.”

“You should have brought a fifth element.”

Behind Kasumi and Sally was a six-winged angel taking on all the damage. The dungeon had taught her everything she needed to know—and none of it could hurt Maple.

“Ninth Blade: Yaksha. Fourth Blade: Whirlwind!”

“Quadruple Slash!”

“Ancient Weapon! Saturating Chaos!”

That topple might have been bait for a counter. But if the counter didn’t work, it was just down. All three girls hit it with powerful skills, shattering the boss—and setting off the next elemental trap. Every attack had a counter waiting—a nasty bit of boss design. But against this monstrous trio, none of those counters did a lick of good, and the boss just crumpled.

Maple and Sally had helped Kasumi complete her quest—by picking up the extra-large crystal the boss dropped and bringing it to the blacksmith. This left them with a bunch of smaller crystals that could be used for weak elemental attacks, but it seemed more useful to give them to Iz and let her explore new frontiers. That took care of the planned quest assistance.

“I may need help again depending on what else it throws at me…but for now, thanks a lot.”

“You’re welcome!”

“I’d say you’re helping us more than we helped you.”

All members of Maple Tree were doing a lot to ensure they could beat the Demon Lord before their deadline.

“Those quests were only that easy because I had you two with me. I mean that thank you.”

“You did great yourself, Kasumi!”

“Ha-ha-ha, I’ll do even better next time.”

“Looking forward to it.”

“Do so.”

With these quests done, Kasumi set out across the fourth area searching for more.

Maple and Sally watched her go, then looked at each other.

“What next? We could go back to the fifth-stratum area or hunt for secret areas…if you feel like it.”

“Um…good question. I guess the fifth area would be better. We did all that prep for it.”

“Cool. Clearing that area is our main task. If it works out, we can clear all the other areas at once.”

“That should get us to the Demon Lord in no time!”

“In which case, we’d better do our bit.”

“Yeah!”

“Then let’s move to the fifth—Hmm?”

“A message!”

They checked the sender, but the message wasn’t from a guildmate—it was from management.

“It’s about that last event.”

“Um…you can choose either PvP or PvE… Okay… Whoa! You get a gold medal just for participating?!”

“Wow. Going all out for the big turning point event, huh? Very generous. That suggests the next stratum will have a huge difficulty spike.”

Getting a gold medal made it way more likely you’d obtain the kind of skill you created a build around.

It was not overstating to say this event would change the power rankings of all the players involved.

“PvP allows pairs—up to two players in a party. At the start of battle, you’re put in a private instance, and all skills are reset to full count.”

“So like a duel, then.”

“Pretty close, yeah. And it’s not just that—if enough players are in the same area, it’ll start a time-limited battle royale.”

“Hmm. Are these ranked?”

“No, it’s just for fun. No forced eliminations, just that participation gold medal. Go all out for the fun of it. Players defeated will be briefly sent to a losers’ room, but if they want to fight more, then they can teleport out to wherever they want for another shot.”

“Interesting.”

They weren’t being forced to fight to determine rankings—it was just an opportunity for players to test themselves, check what they were lacking, and figure out what skill they could get for that gold medal.

Well, that was part of it—first and foremost, the idea was that fighting would be fun.

“PvE’s pretty straightforward. Monsters that are nigh impossible to defeat will show up on the field: Prove yourselves!”

“The party limit here is eight players.”

“For us, that’s business as usual. Several of these monsters may wind up somewhere on the next stratum…”

“I bet they do!”

“They’re supposed to be super hard, so it’s safe to assume they’re a step beyond any quest bosses. Piercing damage and buff cancels, AOEs all over the place…”

“Yeah, I mean, they’re supposed to be hard to beat.”

Sally suggested this was a means for the dev team to get a sense of what players could really handle. How many bosses would they take out? Were there some bosses nobody could handle? Since the reward was guaranteed, players had little to lose in failure, so they could throw themselves at a fight repeatedly. And that was why the devs had advertised the challenge. Parties that were up for it could enjoy tackling the unsurmountable.

“You’ve gotta pick one, though… Maple, what are you thinking?”

“Um…well, since they allow eight, PvE. Everyone can join it! If we do PvP, it would be just you and me, Sally.”

“……I’m sure everyone’s received the message, so we’ll have to discuss it later.”

“Sure! Let’s do that!”

“The event itself is a ways off, so let’s try to get this Demon Lord done first.”

“Mm-hmm! Before the event! First—the fifth zone!”

With that, they did what they’d always meant to do, and headed to the Guild Home to teleport over.

“………”

What she’d dreamed of was still so far away.

Sally put a hand to her mouth, which would not form the words she needed—and followed.

They were now in the clouds of the fifth-stratum area. They’d been forced to retreat once—and reworked Maple’s gear so she’d have more HP. Now she could soak a hit from those extending cloud spears and conquer the dungeon in relative safety.

The two of them were mowing down trash mobs and were already farther in than they’d been last time.

Escaping the narrow maze, they found themselves in an open area filled with buildings made of clouds. And the place was packed with players.

“I guess this is the first waypoint.”

“Lily said it was a very long dungeon.”

“We should be able to start here next time. Look, there’s a fast travel point from our Guild Home.”

“Then do we head upward to the next town?”

“Probably, yeah. It’s hard to be sure without going…but I bet we’ve got a long road ahead of us.”

“Then we’d best keep our game faces on!”

It looked like the next section of the cloud dungeon was on the far side of this town.

Maple and Sally headed through, scoping out the buildings as they went.

“They’ve got equipment and item shops.”

“Oh, should we look inside? They might have rare stuff!”

“Sure, let’s window-shop. If we go too far, we might not get a chance to come back.”

They went inside a shop selling weapons and armor and checked the merchandise.

“Cloud weapons…with skills!”

“Do they stretch?”

“Looks like it. But there aren’t any daggers… These are all way better than most shops.”

The cloud weapons would extend and then retract right back to their original length, so they had no downsides. Sally could make good use of them, but the shop only had longswords and spears, so she had to abandon the idea.

“They’ve got cloud armor and shields, too!”

“But their stats are only decent. The weapons are the real deal…”

“If they’re just selling what the monsters have, maybe there’ll be some daggers up above!”

“It is possible. Here’s hoping.”

“Mm! Let’s try the item shop next.”

“Okay. If it’s this good, it might be worth our while. I haven’t really been looking in shops on the tenth stratum, but maybe we should check out the other towns, too.”

They left the store and headed across the street to the item shop.

This store had all kinds of potions, expensive crystals that momentarily reduced damage—and some unusual items mixed in with the standard fare.

“Cloud-Banishing Gem…so expensive!”

“But when you use one, it eliminates all cloud monsters around!”

“We can take them down without using one. Uh…they do have piercing attacks…”

“Let’s take one just in case! Heh-heh-heh! I’m pretty loaded right now!”

“I guess it can’t hurt. The fact that they sell these suggests we might find ourselves surrounded at some point… I’ll get one, too. It’s best we both have one in case the other can’t make a move.”

“Mm! Let’s do that!”

Maple and Sally each purchased a Cloud-Banishing Gem, stowed them safely in their inventories, and headed back into the dungeon.

631 Name: Anonymous Archer

Lotta monster hordes spawning these days…

632 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

You can say that again.

633 Name: Anonymous Mage

I’ve seen it, too.

I know it’s not unprecedented or a bug, but…

634 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

It’s like a bug.

635 Name: Anonymous Archer

Go to the open areas at the edge of the map, and they’ll start spawning.

636 Name: Anonymous Mage

That’s gotta be Dark Rebirth…

637 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

Manufactured by our great shielder.

638 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

It’s her new thing.

Makes grinding a cinch.

639 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

The autoattack is what makes that so strong.

And with Martyr’s Devotion, they won’t die…

640 Name: Anonymous Mage

A localized fad (popular with one).

But I haven’t seen any the last few days.

641 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

They’re focused on clearing all the areas.

So not much grinding going on.

642 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

I mean…does she need levels?

643 Name: Anonymous Mage

No amount of extra defense will make a difference…

644 Name: Anonymous Archer

Exactly!

That’s my point.

645 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

Well, some quests require certain levels…

646 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

You getting the Demon Lord’s Mana?

647 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

Making progress.

I can share intel if need be.

We’ve finished up some and are well along on others.

I should be able to answer most things.

648 Name: Anonymous Archer

That helps!

You’re on sixth?

649 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

Yeah, so I can share more there.

Been through it personally.

650 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

I can share what I know, too.

My guild’s got way more people, so unless we get stuck on a weird trick, we should be making faster progress.

651 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder

Thaaanks.

652 Name: Anonymous Archer

It’s mutual.

653 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder

I wanna get this main quest done so I can skill hunt.

654 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

They revealed event deets.

Gotta patch yourself up before then.

655 Name: Anonymous Mage

[Wanted]

A spell that does ten-billion damage

656 Name: Anonymous Spear Master

Does not exist.

Or…shouldn’t.

They had a clear goal: the Demon Lord. Everyone was working toward that. But there was so much to do. The roads of the tenth stratum were long.

Back in the fifth-area dungeon once more, our girls were pushing though clouds.

“We can’t even take a swing here. Maple, watch your step.”

“Ugh, it’s like I’m in sheep form!”

If they reached for the white wall before them, they could feel out the parts in it and push themselves through. But if they let go of the clouds for a second, the clouds would snap back and squish them.

Like Sally said, this was not conducive to combat; if anything jumped out at them, they lacked the space to fight it.

Since this dungeon had priors on high-powered piercing damage, they’d rather not use Martyr’s Devotion—but here, they had to.

Trying to reduce damage further, Maple also had Glow of Deliverance going—she’d been in this six-winged angel form a lot, lately.

For the simple reason that there’d been a lot of nasty mobs that made it seem worth using both Martyr’s Devotion and Glow of Deliverance at the same time.

“So far, so good. But…mm?”

Maple had heard a rumbling in the distance. One they’d heard recently. No sooner had that thought crossed their minds than the snow-white clouds turned pitch-black, like they’d been dipped in ink.

Before they could even wonder what that meant—there was a craaack, and lightning struck them both.

“Yikes.”

“So much lightning here.”

“I know!”

Not the sort of conversation you’d expect to have in a thunderhead. It was more like they were kicking back indoors, watching the storm through bay windows.

Maple had resistance to paralysis and stun, and she could negate all the damage—so lightning was one of her better elements.

It also tended to be more about speed and coverage than armor piercing, with emphasis on inflicting status ailments. Which meant she had nothing to worry about!

The only real downside was the racket.

“Is this wall pushing back?”

“I-it might be… And is it me, or is it getting clingy?”

“Argh…”

Ahead of her, Maple was getting swallowed by the storm cloud. Eyes narrowed against the glare of the sparks, Sally examined the clouds clinging to her—and found a number of little eyes. Clearly, there were several cloud monsters in the mix.

“You’re out of Devour, right?”

“Yeah, so let’s just ignore them!”

“I can peel them off while we walk.”

“Then do that, please!”

Sally used her daggers to pry the cloud monsters away. That meant they died, but oh well.

The two of them had to keep moving.

“This stun null is proving huge. We made the right call there. Gonna have to thank Kasumi again. She put up with that looong snake fight…”

“Yeah, but it was really worth it!”

“The fifth-stratum area is pretty big on lightning attacks, so I imagine it’ll keep helping us out.”

“I’ll bet it does!”

Maple now had an absurd advantage against these foes. She always had the no-damage thing, which meant they could relax, make sure the monsters didn’t have a second phase at low damage, and get through the storm cloud in comfort.

“Gasp!”

“Aaah…finally, room to breathe again!”

Maple popped out of the clouds, rolling across the ground and coming to a stop at the base of the slope.

“Whew, it was so hard to walk in there!”

“I think it was easier for you than most people, Maple. Lessee…”

Sally slid down the slope and scanned their surroundings. They were in a circular clearing, with three roads leading out.

But each of the paths had a very obvious tell, so choosing the right one wouldn’t be blind luck—they were free to pick a foe that fit their builds.

“That one’s very windy.”

“And this one’s got hail.”

“And the last is raining cats and dogs. Preferences?”

Just peering down the paths made the distinction clear and likely spoke to what types of monsters they’d face.

“Um…I’m not big on ice.”

“It does seem likely to do piercing damage. Icicles, pointy projectiles…”

“Exactly!”

“Then gales or deluges.”

“……Let’s go with the rain! Less chance of knockback.”

“We just did a place where the wind had knockback, yeah. Okay, I’m on board.”

They picked the rainy path. With heavy clouds overhead, it was dimly lit, the raindrops pounding down like the girls were under a waterfall.

“We could use our umbrellas!”

“The ones we bought on the fifth stratum?”

“Do you still have yours?”

“Of course.”

“Sweet!”

Maple pulled out a fluffy umbrella made entirely of clouds. Sally’s was blue, like her gear. With those held high, they headed down the rainy path.

“It’s worse than rainy season!”

“This is more like a typhoon without the wind.”

Since the rain was ridiculous, and the ceiling, walls, and floor were all made from gray clouds, it was really hard to tell how far this path went.

“The raindrops aren’t doing anything! Maybe they’re just making it hard to see.”

Maple had stuck her hand out into the rain but received no debuffs. And obviously no damage. Odds were that the enemies would attack through the cover of the rainfall—but the path itself was straight, so Maple just kept her shield up, ready to guard against almost anything that came from dead ahead.

And that plan worked—she heard a splash as water struck her shield.

“Oh?”

“Is something ahead? Maple, try shooting.”

“Deploy Artillery. Commence Assault.”

Maple fired a red laser through the rain, raking the depths of the passage.

“……I don’t think I hit anything.”

“No such luck, huh?”

“Nope.”

“Your weapons have pretty good range, so…hmm. Either they’re sniping us, or they’re teleporting away?”

“Well, I can just keep my shield up.”

“Mm. That’s true. No need to overthink it.”

If these projectiles were willing to splash off a shield, then compared to the nasty customers they regularly fought, these were just adorable.

If the monsters showed themselves, they’d throw down then. For now, they just kept strolling.

Every now and then Maple would block an attack, but that was all. They were still in the early stretches of the cloud dungeon itself, so perhaps these foes weren’t meant to be a big threat. Maple and Sally assumed they were making good progress…but steadily grew less sure.

“Sally, is it me, or…um…?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to put into words, but something’s going on.”

It just felt vaguely off. Like they’d been treading the same ground. Maybe the poor visibility in the rain made everything feel the same—but both girls felt like they weren’t getting anywhere at all.

“We’ve been walking awhile, so it’s weird that the path’s still a straight line. Let’s keep an eye on our surroundings.”

“Yeah! If there’s a likely culprit…it’s when that water hits us.”

“Good catch. I bet that’ll give us a clue to what’s going on, at least.”

Start with the likely suspect. They picked up the pace, running through the rain, and stopped the moment something hit Maple’s shield.

“Is there anything around us?”

“Let’s take a look!”

Once they started looking, they found it pretty quickly. A faint crack in the wall, hidden by the deluge. Maple pushed it open and found a different path—but with rainfall just as heavy.

“I bet we were looping that whole time.”

“The rain made it hard to tell…”

“But now we know what it wants from us. Let’s keep an eye on the walls and floor. This time there was the water hint—but next time we might not be so lucky.”

“Mm, we don’t want to miss a thing!”

“These umbrellas were a good idea. They block a bit of rain and improve our visibility.”

“You’ve gotta have an umbrella in the rain!”

“Heh-heh, maybe you’re right.”

One mystery solved. They headed down the new road, and from that point on, they had no problems finding the right path.

Emboldened by the umbrellas, Maple gave Helping Hands some shields to hold, blocking still more rain and making it even easier for them to locate the hidden true route. After that first bout of confusion, they did not get lost again.

Currently, they were resting in a depression free of rainfall—clearly an invitation to take a break.

“Whew…no monsters, so this might be the easy option.”

“There are more projectiles, but they don’t do anything…”

“Not to me, anyway!”

Their current location might be shaped like a place to wait out the rain shower, but this storm showed no signs of passing.

Resting up, they chatted awhile, enjoying themselves.

“How do you like the tenth stratum?” Sally asked. “It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but…”

“It’s a nice trip down memory lane, I guess. Like, oh yeah, I remember that!”

Maple closed her eyes, basking in her memories…and one of those made her smile.

“And that’s kinda new.”

“……Even though it’s old?”

“Mm. Games don’t usually take you back. But that just proves how many memories I’ve made in this one!”

Maple had previously quit playing every game too fast to generate any nostalgia, so having happy times to look back on was all new for her.

“Nice.”

“Mm, I like it.”

“Tell me some. As many fond memories as you have. I want to share in them all.”

“Ew…okay? Eh-heh-heh, but you’re in them, Sally.”

Like now, they’d spent the bulk of their time playing together. So Sally had been there for most of Maple’s best memories.

“Even so, I want to hear you tell them.”

“Okay! Then first—”

Maple started babbling happily. Her stories weren’t necessarily in order, and most didn’t have a punch line. Every now and then, Sally would go, “Oh right,” but their conversation flowed on, as if nothing could be more delightful.

Once their break ended, they raised their umbrellas and headed back out into the rain. Half an hour later…

“Ah!”

“Oh, we’re through!”

They’d parted the clouds to find an open, rainless space. A few puddles glittered in the light.

“Maple.”

“Mm, boss room.”

“Feels like it. Not sure where it’s coming from.”

The room was a bit too large to be free of monsters. Maple had learned to expect a boss in places like this.

Martyr’s Devotion was activated, so they stepped cautiously into the room.

They felt the ground shake. A moment later…

Water shot up from the floor clouds, as if all the rain they’d absorbed was flowing backward. It sprayed high into the air—and began to take shape.

“A frog!”

“A frog it is.”

A see-through frog, five yards tall, made entirely of water. The moment the HP bar appeared over its head, its mouth opened wide and a transparent tongue shot out.

It did a horizontal swipe, which Sally effortlessly dodged, closing in as she did.

The attack had high momentum, but it came from far away, so Maple had time to get her shield in its path and block the tongue.

“Urk?!”

A crack sounded as the tongue hit her shield—and it wrapped around Maple, pulling tight. This wasn’t just a water attack—it was still a tongue.

She was yanked in so fast she passed Sally, and then she was swallowed by the water body, bobbing inside.

“Maple, can you attack from inside?”

“……!”

Maple moved her mouth, then shook her head.

“No skills, no inventory, right?” Sally asked, extrapolating.

Maple nodded.

“Hang in there! I’ll try some things.”

The frog hopped onto the wall, where it stuck, trying to snare Sally with its tongue, too. She moved fast, dodging, and swam up a Waterway to get closer.

“……!”

The boss quivered, and a bunch of water spikes shot out of the floor, aiming for Sally midstream.

Sally fired up her flight apparatus, then shot out of the Waterway and into the air, dodging the attack and getting herself right up against the boss.

“Subzero Domain!”

It was a powerful chill that froze not only the water projectiles—but the boss itself.

“I figured that would work on water! Quintuple Slash!”

She dropped a combo attack on the frozen boss.

This caused a big crack to form on it—then the ice shattered, letting Maple fall free.

Sally snared her with a web, flying them both out of the way.

“You okay?”

“Thanks, Sally! That was close… There was a digestion timer!”

“Yikes, that’s horrific.”

“But you beat it, right?”

“No…look there!”

Sally was well aware the boss’s HP hadn’t dropped at all.

The frog may have shattered, but it was absorbed back into the clouds, and now a bunch of little frogs were hopping about.

“Maple, AOE!”

“G-got it! Deploy Artillery! Commence Assault! Ancient Weapon! Saturating Chaos!”

She didn’t really try to aim—she just filled the room with gunfire. But even with those booms, they could still hear the ribbiting.

“Ah!”

“A hit! Its HP went down!”

Now Sally was sure she knew how to beat this thing. First, damage the big one, making it split up—then find the real one and hit that. The boss was re-forming into the bigger version, so Sally quickly filled in Maple.

“Maple, ride me. I’ll dodge it all.”

“I have faith in you!”

“Your faith shall be rewarded!”

The shield got in the way, so Maple put that away and got rid of her guns, climbing aboard Sally.

Sally sped up, precision dodging the tongue flails. It was Maple’s job to make the boss split again, but since Machine God would make it hard for her to balance, she couldn’t do that—or use any of her poison skills. Her summons might get Maple dragged into another tongue attack as long as she had Martyr’s Devotion up.

In which case, her best option was Ancient Weapon, which could shape-shift in the air. But to activate this skill, she had to build up an energy gauge by attacking or getting hit, which made things tricky.

Or it used to.

“Mwa-ha-ha!”

“She can make anything.”

“Thank you, Iz!”

Maple had taken out a belt with a drill on it. She attached it to herself like a sash.

The drill pointed inward.

“Switch on!”

The drill whirred to life, trying to open a hole not in the enemy—but in Maple.

Where once she’d blown herself up to boost the gauge, now she needed only to tap a button.

And it worked no matter how poor her footing.

A revolutionary concept.

“Ancient Weapon!”

There was a clang, and the cube turned into several long tubes. These began to rotate over Maple’s head. A Gatling gun. Blue bullets fired as it spun, filling the boss with holes—and it soon crumpled.

“Twisted Resurrection! Annihilation Domain!”

Maple’s wings turned black. No sooner had the tiny newborn water frogs appeared than they were scored by crimson sparks and disappeared again.

A far more efficient AOE than Machine God or Ancient Weapon—it instantly ended the split phase, and the big boss began to re-form.

“My energy bar is already full!”

“Then fire away!”

“Ancient Weapon!”

She unleashed a slaughter using all her best skills. This might be a boss, but it was just a boss—it didn’t hold a Demon Lord’s Mana and was no match for this level of ultraviolence.

After defeating the literal rain frog, the girls soon found themselves in the second cloud town.

“Another step done!”

“Mm. That was a pretty easy trip, and we took a break, so we’re still in good shape.”

They could keep going, but it was best to check out the shops here first. As they did, they heard other players chatting.

“Huh? Your frog was tiny?”

“Yeah, about my size—five foot seven—which is big enough…”

“Does it get bigger the longer you’re lost? Mine was the size of a house.”

“That’s too big! Damn…”

“It formed from the rain, so…you can’t get hung up on these things!”

It sounded like these players were in the same guild and were talking about the boss they’d just fought.

“What a neat trick.”

“I bet we had the max size. We were lost for a while, and we took our time chatting.”

“M-maybe. Should we hurry more next time?”

“I was a bit rattled when it ate you, but we still beat it easily, so I don’t see the need for speed.”

“A-are you sure?”

“Mm-hmm. You’re super-strong, so just stand firm, and we got this. If we try to rush into things, it might cost us on the next boss.”

“Hng…a psychological trap?”

“If you hear a slow pace made things harder, anyone would want to hurry.”

“So tricky! But okay! Rushing takes all the fun out of exploration anyway.”

“Exactly. And if the boss gets buffed a bit, I’ll figure something out.”

“I believe in you!”

“That’s what I honed these skills for. Trust me.”

“I do!”

“So are we hitting up this shop?”

“Yeah, I hope they have some neat gear.”

“Heh-heh, that would be nice.”

Odds were high the shops had things you could only buy there, so both girls hit the town with their hopes soaring.

Once they’d scoped out the gear and items, they went back outside and sat down on a bench made from clouds.

“The Rain Shelter Helm…”

“We could have used that earlier. Will it ever rain that much again?”

This helmet made it so rain wouldn’t hit you, so it had very limited uses.

“Well…if they’re selling it here, there must be a place we can use it eventually.”

“Then I’ll just have to remember to equip it when that happens!”

“Good idea.”

The fifth-stratum area’s bosses were clearly tricky, but not to the point where these two really struggled.

“We’ve got a long road ahead of us!”

“But unlike in other areas, the goal here is clear—just keep going up the clouds. Seems like there’s many related quests, too.”

This dungeon didn’t let players join in halfway up, so they’d have to handle all of it on their own.

“It shouldn’t be that long before we need the whole guild together in the fourth area, so let’s keep tabs on Kasumi’s progress.”

“They’re making headway in the sixth and eighth areas, too.”

“Chrome made it sound like he’s pretty far along, so his boss might turn up first… I guess I’ll have to try, at least…”

“I’ll let you hide inside my mouth again!”

“I might take you up on that…”

Atrocity allowed Maple to transport friends…technically. Using it as a vehicle wasn’t exactly within the intended-use case scenarios, but the skill prevented said friends from seeing anything, keeping those players safe and sound within Maple’s defenses. Ideal for, say, Sally in a horror zone.

“What now?”

“Um, if we don’t make it through, we’ll just have to start back here. And I bet the next town’s pretty far away.”

“Yeah. It’ll have lots of weird tricks and probably a boss, too.”

“Then let’s call it a day.”

“Mm. Going one floor at a time isn’t the worst plan. If we make good progress, we can always consider going for a second.”

“Sounds good!”

“Okay, then. Good-bye for now?”

“See you in the game!”

“We’ll meet in real life first!”

“Oh, right. Then see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there.”

They were done for the day, so they waved good-bye with a smile and logged out, returning to the real world.

Meanwhile, in the Guild Home in the eighth-stratum area—Chrome entered the building, fresh from his conquest of the sixth zone. With him were the twins, Mai and Yui.

“Oh, hi. How’s it going?” Kanade asked, looking up from a large map spread out on the table.

“Fine. Mai and Yui have been helping out, so not many things can beat us. We’re tearing through these quests.”

“How are you doing, Kanade?”

“It didn’t seem like we’d be much help here…”

“I’m doing fine. But it does seem like there’s some fights ahead, so I was thinking about calling in Maple and Sally. I imagine they’ll want to enjoy every area in this stratum. Well, maybe not the sixth.”

“This one was mostly puzzles, right?”

“Yeah. I wrote up the easy version for when I have to explain things to them—but basically, I had to decode some writings and explore underwater ruins in the correct order.”

“So it’s not something you can just stumble into.”

“No. Not even with Maple’s luck.”

“Wow.”

“That does sound hard!”

“And you have to decode more writings in those ruins, so I’ll be going with them. If they’re interested, anyway.”

“Are they busy with the fifth area?”

“They helped Kasumi a bit but have been working the cloud dungeon since.”

“Then until the final battle, we’re just doing stuff in the order we unlock it.”

“Yeah, getting pretty close now.”

“Heh-heh… There are still a lot of bosses to fight, so we’ve gotta pull through.”

That said, Kanade did not doubt Maple Tree’s success.

They were few in number, but they were all working hard to ensure Maple and Sally met their goal of defeating the Demon Lord.

Everyone was working on their area, but the first to reach the Demon Lord’s Mana fight was Kasumi—in the fourth-stratum zone.

She sent a message to Maple Tree’s members saying she had a quest that offered Demon Lord’s Mana III as a reward, and they got their schedules aligned.

On the big day, all eight members gathered in their Guild Home to make final preparations.

“The boss of the fourth area, huh? You beat me to it.”

“I was having way too much fun exploring that area. I may have cleared more quests a day than anyone else.”

“You were a perfect match for that area, Kasumi. I imagine there’s a lot of fourth-stratum stuff only you did, and that know-how paid off.”

“Are there FAQs for this boss already?”

“Yeah, since you can reach him by running the core questline, I couldn’t match the big guilds’ speed. So let’s put what they learned to good use.”

They didn’t want to drag Maple Tree’s name through the dirt. Losing was not an option—so everyone read the guide.

“Mai, Yui, you’ll be our main source of damage again. Do your worst.”

“Okay!”

“We’ve got this!”

“Cool. Everyone read the guide, and let’s make a detailed plan.”

With a party of eight, they had lots of options. Maple and Chrome on defense, Mai and Yui on DPS—and the remaining four had a wide variety of skills that let them grease those wheels. All of them had a role to play.

“Here goes. First, the boss’s attack patterns…”

To ensure this boss drew its last breath, they also came up with contingency plans for if their first didn’t go well—and soon, they were ready for the final boss of the fourth-stratum area.

Since only Kasumi could accept the quest, she led the way through the streets of the fourth area’s town.

They arrived at a tall tower in the center of town. Playing off the fourth-stratum vibes, the quest giver here was in charge of governing the place.

“I’ve taken any number of quests here, but I imagine you haven’t met him yet.”

They went up the stairs to the top, where Kasumi slid open the door.

“You’re here? Ready to accept our final request?”

A general covered in armor, with a magnificent katana at his side. Purple flames were burning through the eye holes in the helm. It was impossible to make out any of his expressions, but his voice was deep and imposing. Each word he spoke turned up the pressure, making the very air feel tense.

“Yeah, I’ll take that job.”

“It’s locked in a pocket dimension, but the fires are massive. They’ll soon spill out—time is of the essence.”

“……”

“You’ve done much for us, so I’ll entrust you with this task. See that you bring back good tidings.”

With that, the man offered Kasumi the quest. Hellfires of Calamity, it was called. They were to explore a pocket dimension holding a monster with the Demon Lord’s Mana and defeat the boss responsible.

Nothing complicated; the task at hand was clear. Go in and beat the boss, plain and simple.

“Now, the boss is a formidable foe. Even if you have prior knowledge.”

“So we gotta focus!”

“Yeah, do we want one last review of our approach?”

“I’m getting nervous…”

“Hang in there, Mai!”

“This goes for all of us—but your performance will make all the difference. Good luck!”

“Iz, you’re on transport duties. Avoid the rest of us who are using skills.”

“Let’s do this!”

They left the fourth-stratum town to obtain the Demon Lord’s Mana III.

With the quest in hand, they moved to the fields, manifested (and opened) the giant purple flame door, and stepped through to the world beyond.

A long stone-paved road led through the center of a burning Japanese town to a tower—the red flames wreathing it stood in sharp contrast to the everlasting night sky.

The boss waited beneath that in the final challenge arena.

“Martyr’s Devotion! Glow of Deliverance!”

Maple threw up two types of defensive fields the moment they stepped into the boss’s domain.

Many of the mobs along the way used fire—and that meant they hit a broad area. Without Martyr’s Devotion, the twins might die instantly.

“…Already on us!” Kasumi called.

Everyone looked up—and countless fire arrows were arcing across the night sky from the burning town beyond.

Maple put her shield down to avoid wasting Devour, then invalidated all the damage the arrows should have done, walking calmly through the sea of fire like it wasn’t even there.

The projectiles kept coming without a moment’s pause, and flames spread out from where they landed—ordinarily, this would have been a bracing challenge.

Maple could instantly null it, so her contribution was priceless.

“They aren’t stopping, so stay in range!”

““Will do!””

Mai and Yui would die the moment those flames touched them, so they stuck to Maple’s side like glue.

As Maple Tree moved down the stone-paved road, two archers appeared before them—some distance away.

They aimed flaming arrows longer than they were tall, unleashing powerful shots.

“It’s fine.”

“We got this!”

Sally and Chrome braced themselves. They knew in advance that these did piercing damage, so they couldn’t let Maple take the hits.

Sally used her daggers, and Chrome his great shield—blocking the incoming arrows.

““We’ll handle these!””

As their attention was drawn to the fore, a pack of samurai surrounded the party. Blades drenched in blood, bodies on fire—get too close, and those flames would counter your hits. And they had a lot of HP.

Pretty tough enemies—by the standards of normal players.

““Hyaaah!””

Mai and Yui had known these foes were coming, and they had their hammers ready.

Lumps of steel shattered armor, sending the samurai down to Yomi. But the twins couldn’t let these get too close—they had piercing attacks, too. This was the domain of the fourth area’s boss, and it was not about to coddle anyone. Even the trash mobs were far stronger than the norm.

“Let’s take it slow and steady.”

“Mm-hmm.”

A ceaseless volley of piercing arrows. Samurai closing in on all sides. Maple Tree had a unique defensive formation, but this could even get to them.

Chrome and Sally were handling the arrows from the front. Mai and Yui were taking down most of the samurai. Kasumi was standing ready on the off chance the front line failed—but she was also ready to warp with First Blade: Heat Haze if anything got past the line of hammering death.

Always conscious of healing and damage reduction, Iz and Kanade formed the final line of defense in back. Each had their part to play and could bail each other out if mistakes were made; this was a formation that could get Maple Tree to the boss without wasting vital resources.

It was Maple Tree’s best path to victory, based on the guides they’d read.

Ever vigilant, the party slowly advanced on that distant burning tower.

The closer they got to the boss, the heavier the rain of arrows became.

That wasn’t an issue for Maple Tree, but the equal increase in the number of samurai and the bigger arrows from the fore was.

“First Blade: Heat Haze!”

“Thank you!”

“We’re sorry!”

“We’re watching this side!”

“These barricades should buy us time!”

A few samurai got through, but Kasumi, Kanade, and Iz calmly handled things.

Block one attack, slow them down a few seconds—and the hammers of death would catch up to them. They didn’t need to try to slay a samurai themselves.

They’d known the quantity of enemies would increase, which helped them handle things with aplomb.

“Wow…,” Chrome said, blocking a piercing arrow with a precision shield move, one eye on the girl next to him.

Blocking arrows with a big shield was way easier than doing so with a dagger. Their original plan had been to put Maple in this position—she had the shield—but Sally’s confidence and Maple’s faith in her wound up moving Sally to the arrow defense role.

She was effortlessly, flawlessly knocking arrows away. Like it was easy. Arguably her defense was better than Maple’s.

Sally likely thought this was normal, so Chrome focused on his own task. He wasn’t about to screw up when what she did was so much harder.

“Hang in there!”

Maple had a potion in one hand in case she needed a quick heal. The fire arrows would destroy her Machine God guns, so she had Ancient Weapon out, and she walked straight ahead so she could keep an eye on everything going on.

Her primary task was to not die. If she did, the rain of fire arrows would regain their regular lethality—and they couldn’t afford that.

Well aware that she was making the biggest difference here, Maple maintained their defenses and kept the party safe.

“Ancient Weapon!”

They inched along until the distant archers were in range—then Maple unleashed the energy their countless arrows had been building up this whole time.

Unlike Maple Tree, the archers had no one to defend them. A long-range sniper rifle light bullet shot their way.

The archers staggered from the impact, and more bullets followed, easing the pressure from the fore and letting the party move faster. Maple had Ancient Weapon transform from a sniper rifle into a Gatling gun—so she could fire faster.

“Ancient Weapon!”

The archers’ arrows—and their flames—were designed to torment players, but she’d just turned them into an energy source. Maple didn’t give them a chance to notch an arrow. The barrage of blue bullets from the Gatling gun overhead tore them up along with the pavement.

The archers weren’t as spongy as the samurai, but their HP was plenty high—however, it wasn’t enough to let them withstand the endless barrage. One after another went down, clearing the path before Maple Tree.

“Okay, we’re here!”

“Looks like. The samurai vanished.”

The group had cleared their way to the center of town. There was a crossroads, with paths leading in the four cardinal directions. The samurai leaping from buildings on either side vanished, and the rain of arrows died down.

The tower where the boss resided was still a ways off—but there was a reason why they’d said, “We’re here.”

With a fwoosh, a burning building collapsed, and a wall of flames shot out, cutting off all four roads.

Once the arena had been established, horses whinnied and hooves clattered.

“You shall not pass!”

Through the burning wall of flame came a giant horse made of fire, upon which sat an armored warrior. The warrior swung a long spear, igniting the tip of it, and scowled at the party like it was trying to ignite them with its gaze.

This was the guard before the boss. They had to earn the right to go for the Demon Lord’s Mana by defeating this foe.

“Stick to the plan!” Sally cried.

She darted forward, hitting the armored warrior with a spell. Not trying to do damage—merely drawing its aggro.

Naturally, that spear did piercing damage—it was not an attack they wanted landing within range of Martyr’s Devotion.

She dodged three thrusts at speeds beyond humanity, making the warrior turn its back to them.

Sally could dodge bullets and lightning—spears were old hat.

Doing damage was not her role here. All she had to do was make space for Mai and Yui.

““Double Impact!””

The twins swung sixteen hammers, trying to smash the warrior and the horse it rode in on. But in that instant, the horse let out a loud whinny, encasing them both in a column of fire.

Mai and Yui felt the hammers catch only ground, and they knew the unexpected had happened.

And at the same time, the wall of flames behind them wavered—and the horse leaped through it, the warrior charging forward, its spear raised.

It was ready to trample them all underfoot… And Chrome was the first to react.

“Cover Move! Cover!”

Using skills to swiftly reposition himself, he deflected the thrust of the spear with his shield, preventing anyone from taking damage.

“Tornado!”

“Deploy Artillery! Commence Assault!”

Kanade’s spell and Maple’s lasers hit the warrior. They did damage, but their attacks were hardly fatal—the warrior and its horse raced off, leaving fiery footprints, and vanished through the wall to prepare another charge.

“So much for our original plan…”

““We’re sorry!””

“Don’t worry about it. There’s nothing you could have done.”

Just because guides were available didn’t mean they were complete. Few attempts had been made under similar conditions, so there were plenty of undocumented responses.

There were few attacks that did as much damage as the twins’. And with the real boss waiting, few players were inclined to go for major damage with a skill that had a long cooldown. Most likely nobody had gone for burst damage here.

For that reason, no one knew the warrior would teleport out of harm’s way to avoid a high-damage hit.

But it was also true that Maple Tree had made contingency plans. If the Mai/Yui instant death scheme didn’t work out, then they knew what else to try.

““Quick Change!””

The twins removed their gear, putting all their Helping Hands away, leaving nothing extra out at all.

“Tsukimi, Awaken!”

“Yukimi, Awaken!”

As Mai and Yui called out their pets and got ready, the warrior charged back in, wreathed in fire.

“I can do this, too!”

Iz took out a blue potion and threw it at the twins.

With a clunk, violet light surrounded them—doing something.

“Tsukimi!”

“Yukimi!”

““Power Share!””

“Cover!”

Once more, Chrome blocked the spear. Two bears with twins aboard shot past him, swinging hammers sideways.

There was a clang, and insane damage sparks flew from the warrior.

“We did it!”

“That went well!”

They’d done it in minimal gear, with an Iz potion that lowered STR—usually used on enemies—and Power Share to divert some of their extra power to the bears.

The triple debuff put the twins’ DPS below the enemy’s escape line and prevented the warrior from teleporting away. Even so, they were still doing every bit as much damage as Kasumi and Sally did at full strength.

The backdoor approach had let them land a powerful hit, and Kasumi and Sally were right on their heels.

Enemies reeling from damage were a primo target.

“Armored Arms! Fourth Blade: Whirlwind!”

“Quintuple Slash!”

“Commence Assault! Ancient Weapon!”

“Hydro Laser!”

Maple and Kanade were right on Mai’s and Yui’s heels.

Red and blue lasers knocked back the warrior’s upper body, then a powerful water spell hit the horse’s head and its rider’s torso. Still, it did not go down. It swung its spear, scattering foes—but everyone knew it had that move.

Mai and Yui had moved to a safe distance. Kasumi and Sally were hovering on their flight apparatuses. Chrome had stepped out to block the charge with his spear, using Taunt to draw aggro.

He didn’t pose much of a threat, but while the boss was targeting him, the actual damage dealers were free to act.

Mai and Yui had taken to the air to escape the spear, and Kasumi and Sally joined them, attacking from four directions at once.

““Double Impact!””

“Pinpoint Attack!”

“First Blade: Heat Haze!”

Attacks from above did major damage, and the fire horse staggered—dumping the warrior on the ground.

“Such…a shame…!”

The warrior did not rise again. It and the horse shattered into light and vanished.

With that, the wall of flames disappeared. Soon Maple Tree could see the paths leading away again.

“Whew. Let’s wait till the twins’ debuff wears off before we head in.”

“Yeah. There’ll be more samurai, so it’s best to be in peak condition.”

“Better put your gear back, too. We want you octo-wielding.”

“And there are more fire arrows! Thank god those don’t do fixed damage.”

“I’ve got items to remove the debuff, don’t worry. Here, use these.”

““Thank you!””

“All right! Ready? Let’s move!”

It hadn’t been their first plan of attack, but they’d taken out the mid-boss.

Still, everyone had seen the guide—they knew the real boss would not be that easy.

No one wanted to mess up when it really counted, but the unexpected was inevitable. They’d have to spot that and react in time. Since the absurd number of fire arrows were doing nothing, they used that to hammer out the details of their plan one more time.

Beyond the mid-boss, they were back to the triple threat of samurai assaults, archer snipers, and fire arrows raining down from above. All stronger than before.

The archers were now shooting two arrows at once (the technique a mystery), while there were more samurai and their STR and AGI was higher. The fire arrows did more damage, too.

But the members of Maple Tree were a match for it. They’d come in knowing this would happen, so of course they weren’t about to let it take them down.

Mai’s and Yui’s overwhelming offense and Maple’s overwhelming defense were the core of the plan; where other players would be forced to run on by, they could fight their way directly through.

The power of DPS was alive and well, even in the fourth area’s boss dungeon.

And at last, they arrived. The burning tower loomed over them, and before it a broad clearing paved with gravel. Clearly this was where they’d fight the boss. They could see a very tall warrior standing at the top of that landmark tower.

The boss was wreathed in flames—and it jumped down, landing before them.

For someone in full armor and a helmet, it was awfully light on its feet. On its palms burned two flames: one red, one blue. These extended to a specific length—not attacking Maple Tree—and became two katana made of fire. There was one of each color.

“Long have my flames awaited this day. To interfere means death!”

With a crunch, the warrior took a step forward—and the tower collapsed, belching flaming dust.

This signaled the start of combat.

The boss lunged through the dust, but this time—Chrome wasn’t in his path.

“Dragonfire Spear!”

In place of her daggers, Sally had a fiery spear in each hand—dual wielding weapons with added range.

This warrior was moving so fast it might well have Superspeed—they clashed within the dust cloud, and the flames on both their weapons burst.

Where the others could barely follow this warrior’s moves, Sally parried with aplomb—but neither did the warrior let her counters through.

Like the samurai on the way in, this boss’s attacks were, by default, armor piercing. Chrome lacked the speed to do more than hunker down and weather the onslaught; he was not the man for the job.

Maple Tree had three tanks. And this one had never once stopped honing her skills.

“……”

Her foe was fast—and powerful. But when she was this focused, no one could match her skills.

Even in the middle of a breathtaking exchange, Sally was waiting for it to use its big move.

This allegedly came at regular intervals—the boss would put the blades together and unleash an AOE attack, creating a zone of fire that did fixed damage in a straight line.

Since this was a big move, it also left the boss exposed. In fact, that was the only time players could do major damage to it.

Sally was watching the warrior like a hawk, and the moment she spotted it going into that big move, she yelled, “Mai!”

At that, the others used their flight apparatuses to move quickly.

They’d planned for this, so they all knew what Sally meant. The boss lunged diagonally forward, unleashing a wave of flames—and everyone dodged the attack perfectly.

And that lunge put the boss closer to them.

Knowing Mai was moving in for a strike, Sally kept the warrior focused on her, sliding around it, out of the way of its swing—and making it turn its back to Mai.

Mai and Yui had the shortest attack time, and thus were the least exposed. A single regular attack from them did way more damage than anyone else’s skills.

Thus, getting it to turn its back for a moment was more than enough time.

“Hyah!”

Like in the mid-boss fight, to avoid doing too much damage, Mai had had Iz debuff her, she’d taken off some gear, and she’d used Power Share to drop her DPS still further.

Since the warrior was humanoid, it was a pretty small target. It would be a tall order for both twins to attack at once. But this one big hit made a clear impact on the boss’s HP bar.

But that much damage also made it temporarily target Mai. Since Maple Tree had made their plans on the basis that even Chrome would struggle to handle these attacks—obviously, Mai couldn’t, either.

“Cover!”

“Leave this to us!”

Chrome and Kasumi darted out in front of the warrior. If each only blocked a single katana, Mai had time to get away—if only because the tenth stratum allowed the use of flight apparatuses.

“Taking it back!”

Sally caught up and, like Mai, struck it from behind. Chrome and Kasumi had stuck to defending, not striking back themselves, and the rest of the party were huddling under Maple’s protection, waiting patiently for the flow of battle to get back under their control. Soon enough, the boss’s aggro returned to Sally.

If they tried to rush things by having everyone attack, too much could go wrong—it was best to let Sally dominate this early phase.

“Come on, look at me.”

The dodges she’d done during their exchange had maxed out the Sword Dance STR buff, increasing the damage she was doing to it.

A fully weakened Mai and a fully strengthened Sally were a fairly even match on DPS—given the difference in hit quantity.

“Incoming, Chrome!”

“Multi-Cover!”

“Mass Spell Barrier!”

“Fey, Item Boost!”

In order for Sally to do real damage, they had to make the boss use that big move and expose itself.

Chrome stepped out in front, pulling the damage away from Martyr’s Devotion.

Kanade’s spell, Iz’s damage-reduction item, and Maple’s Glow of Deliverance were all reducing the damage more, allowing Chrome to soak the direct hit. He then quickly dodged the spreading flames, minimizing the fixed damage taken.

Iz then used a healing mist—buffed by her pet, Fey—to top his HP back up.

While Sally did her part.

“Water Cowl! Triple Slash!”

The combo slammed open, doing enough damage to pull the baton back from Kasumi and Chrome before the warrior’s combo wore them down.

A flaming katana took one last slash at Chrome, and the warrior swung round. Before Chrome stood a fiend with flaming spears. Both were far too skilled to let their opponent get a good strike in. The exchange resumed, more furious than ever, yet there was not a single damage spark to be seen.

They were two monsters locked in an exchange so dazzling it might well be called beautiful.

While Sally was handling it, the rest of them were safer than when they were dealing with that big move—an absurd situation, given their stats and numbers.

Certain Mai’s last move had put it below the right HP threshold, Sally deemed her game making over—and she rejoined the others.

The boss had leaped far back the second Mai’s hammer landed. It made a fireball and threw it at the ground—and the ensuing flames blanketed the area. Ordinarily, players would have been forced to use an invincibility skill or to retreat to the skies. But Maple had Martyr’s Devotion going, and all the others needed to do was stand in place.

Still, they had no reason to waste this momentary respite. Everyone in Maple Tree was fixing their gear, adjusting their formation, readying themselves for the next phase.

“The next bit is all yours.”

“Mm-hmm!”

Sally’s most critical role was the one-on-one in the first stage. Now that it had changed up its pattern, she shifted to greasing the wheels of the other guild members. In the boss’s second phase, its attacks came far slower—but the big moves were combos, and Maple Tree would have to use skills against them. That meant a solo fighter had much less to do.

When the flames finished scorching the ground, the warrior was hovering in the air, wreathed in fire. It raised its katana—and massive blades appeared in the air beside it: one red, one blue.

The big move it had been doing—the path of fire that did fixed damage—would now be repeated by these two blades, acting on their own. If multiple party members got hit, it would do a real number on Maple’s HP.

“Climb on!”

““Aye-aye!””

Iz put her flight apparatus back to full size—tank size. Mai and Yui climbed on top, each with a hammer in one hand and a second held by Helping Hands. Tsukimi and Yukimi climbed inside, and the tank blasted off.

With the twins’ grip strength, nothing could fling them off.

The bears did not have flight apparatuses. Unless they rode along, they’d be out of range of Power Share at the moment it was needed.

“I’ve been practicing my flying skills—let me show you how I spin this wheel!”

Iz had been futzing around with her tank even after clearing the third-stratum area, and for this one boss fight she’d removed some of the armor and virtually all the weapons. That let her put a lot more resources into speed boosts and custom maneuvering.

Unlike when she was flying solo, now there were other players who could dish out the damage. Iz’s job was to fly circles round the warrior, keeping close enough so Mai and Yui could attack it.

Mai had got the last hit in, so the warrior leaped at her, trailing flames in its wake. Mai looked nervous—but if it got too close, she had one job. She put her faith in Iz’s piloting and got ready to counter with Titan’s Lot.

In the pilot’s seat, Iz watched the warrior lunging toward them. Through the windshield, she saw the katana-shaped pillars of fire swinging—and spun the wheel.

“Here we go!”

Everyone had a machine that let them fly—but Iz had customized hers to hell and back, and it could do so much more.

She dodged the fire columns, never letting the warrior get too close but keeping it within range of the hammers held by Helping Hands.

“Blood Blade!”

“Ancient Weapon!”

“Hydro Laser!”

Three attacks from the ground baited the warrior’s parry—though blocked, they cleared the way for the real offensive.

“Tsukimi!”

“Yukimi!”

““Power Share!””

Helping Hands gave them added range, and Mai and Yui used it to whack the warrior outta the sky.

If only that ended things—but they’d known it wouldn’t. They’d done their homework.

The warrior slammed into the ground, kicking up a dust cloud—and as if the boss was seeking payback, a red magic circle appeared in the sky.

“Chrome!”

“Guardian! Spirit Light!”

Even as Sally called his name, Chrome was already activating skills.

Once more, he overwrote Martyr’s Devotion, taking the damage instead of Maple—then made himself invincible to null the boss’s attack.

A spear dropped from the sky—one that dwarfed Sally’s. It was more the size of the tower behind the warrior. Everyone dodged—and it hit the ground, blanketing the region in explosions, a vortex of fire from which there was no escaping.

But thanks to Chrome’s powerful skill combo, he kept everyone safe.

“You’re up next, Maple,” he said.

“On it!”

It was a very efficient exchange—one possible because they knew exactly what this boss did.

Chrome had let Maple save all her skills—and it was her turn to block one.

They’d known he’d nail the timing and were ready to attack when the boss started moving.

The damage they’d done so far was definitely impacting the boss’s HP.

“Mai, Yui, keep it up!” Iz said inside the machine.

““Will do!””

“I’ll keep you two safe!” Maple called from below. Even if the twins were hit, Maple would take the damage, and they wouldn’t die. She still had Indomitable Guardian—so they could recover from a single mistake.

Reminded of that rock-solid backup, Mai and Yui stayed calm, their weapons ready.

There was something they could do besides land powerful blows—something only they could do.

They watched the warrior’s dwindling HP and waited for their moment.

““……!””

The battle was dizzying, but Mai and Yui both squinted into the dazzling fires and saw the boss’s two swords vanish into nothing, along with their flames. In their place—it now had a single bigger katana.

A sign its ultimate move was about to follow. It was a moment the two of them could not afford to miss.

““Quick Change!””

Iz heard their chorus and slammed a button by the wheel, deploying the items she’d set there. A crystal that removed debuffs—and instantly removed the self-imposed limits upon the twins’ offense.

In full gear again, Mai and Yui were each wielding eight hammers.

The warrior drew that long katana, and massive flames erupted. The slash generated a shock wave—an AOE blanketing the fore, gouging the air itself and trying to eliminate all eight at once.

““Titan’s Lot!””

Meet violence with violence. An ultimate for an ultimate. Free of their shackles, Mai and Yui swung with pure power, thwacking the warrior’s slash with a boom and a burst of light—and sending it back.

“Noice! You two always pull through!”

“All right…um…next…!”

“It’s all yours!”

This was the last contribution the twins could make. Per the plan, the others would handle the rest—so they just called encouragement to the ground below, relieved it had gone so well.

At this stage of the proceedings, the boss was down to a third of its health.

The boss emerged from the reflected fires dual wielding again, and it stabbed its swords into the ground. Fires leaped up around it—applying a buff. And that was Maple’s signal to use her skill.

“Aegis!”

A glittering dome that negated all attacks. A moment later, the warrior nigh teleported forward, slashes filling the air. But even the most fatal of attacks did nothing with Aegis active—and all survived. They’d known this was coming, and that alone allowed Maple to get the invincibility skill up in time. Maple had crushed the boss’s attempt to turn the tables—but it wasn’t going down easy.

It was still moving very quickly—enough that afterimages streaked behind it. No spell in the game could hit it now.

“Kasumi, please!”

“Mind’s Eye! Specter of Carnage!”

The first skill had a clear advantage over Sally’s predictive talents. It told her exactly where the next attacks would land—before even the faintest of tells.

“First Blade: Heat Haze!”

The boss was constantly on the move, but Kasumi could now see ahead of time when it would pause to take a swing—and she alone had a move that let her warp into position, negating the delay in response. Specter of Carnage reduced all her cooldowns, letting her use Mind’s Eye repeatedly and jump in with First Blade: Heat Haze.

No one else could keep up with a battle this fast-paced.

This battle hinged on the precision with which each grasped the trajectory of the other’s swing—and that alone.

“First Blade: Heat Haze!”

Kasumi blocked the blow and left a deep wound on its neck. Only 10 percent HP remained. It took a knee, then forced itself up, leaping away to make one last attack.

The exchange had not lasted long—but it had taken their breath away. However, Specter of Carnage had a downside—it put all skills on cooldown. Kasumi sheathed her katana.

This was a sign she had done her part.

When it landed, the boss produced a large katana—one even bigger than what Mai and Yui had countered. The tragedy it would unleash was a lot like Mai’s Daybreak. It would even pass through invincibility skills like Aegis—pulverizing everything, burning them to ash.

And it had a barrier of whirling flames that blocked all attacks, giving the boss the time to prepare a move of this caliber.

“Kanade, Sally, please!”

“Mm, my time to shine.”

Kanade called out Sou and shifted it to his own shape—which allowed them to double up on the same spells.

“Hydro Laser! Tidal Wave!”

“Leviathan. Flash Spout.”

“Sou, Hydro Laser, Tidal Wave.”

These skills produced a prodigious amount of water. Sally used Water Wielding, and Kanade used water magic to hose the boss down.

The element was critical. Only water could effectively destroy the wall of fire protecting the warrior.

““Maple!””

The instant the barrier was gone, both yelled her name.

The path was open. Straight ahead, at top speed.

“Deploy Artillery! Commence Assault!”

Maple blew herself up, flying faster than her flight apparatus, right at the boss.

Held before her—Night’s Facsimile. Since the whole guild had done their part, she still had all Devours left and could slam them home. This was their final lap, the key to clinching victory.

“Haaah!”

Maple flew right up to the warrior and slammed her shield into it. As planned, before it could use that last move—she devoured the last of its HP, and Maple Tree’s carefully laid plans came to fruition.

Back in the fourth-stratum area, the quest was marked clear—and they successfully obtained Demon Lord’s Mana III.

“Whew…we pulled through! Good thing, too.”

“That was a real tough cookie.”

“Quite the warrior. If we hadn’t made elaborate preparations, it might have been hard.”

They’d used the right skills to stop certain moves, and that had been the key to winning the battle.

Each had played their roles to the tee, allowing them to keep their vital skills in their pockets. If there’d been even one less person, the hordes on the way in would have been a major threat.

“Hmm, so we’re officially in the back half now.”

“The eighth-stratum area can wait until you two are available. Just let me know when you are.”

“The sixth area… Maple, can you come on your own?”

“I can!”

“Mm, have fun.”

That place was not meant for Sally. No matter how many AOEs were on offer, nothing hit her Achilles’ heel like horror.

“That just leaves the fifth!”

“Um, how is it going?”

“Going swimmingly! Upward and onward!”

“The bosses we’ve seen weren’t nearly this nasty.”

They had only three areas left—the fifth, sixth, and eighth. None of them were exactly untouched—so like Kasumi said, they were well into the back half of the tenth stratum. The end was swiftly approaching.

“There’s still no word about the Demon Lord. I doubt we’ll be the first in, but given how few members we have, we’re on the fast track.”

“Yeah. We should be able to take a run at it while doing so is still novel.”

“I’d love to beat it on the first attempt. But I imagine it’ll be even tougher than this one.”

Fighting the Demon Lord meant losing the Demon Lord’s Mana. If they couldn’t win, they’d have to fight all six other bosses again and earn the right to challenge it once more.

They’d won today, but this boss wasn’t exactly an easy foe—it was best they avoid a rematch.

“If we all do our best, I’m sure we can do it! Just like we did today!”

“Yeah. All right, let’s go all out!”

“Mm, I’m looking forward to the attempt.”

“And there’s the event after that…”

“So much more to do!”

“Mm-hmm. A nice little last spurt.”

“I’m hanging in there until the bitter end.”

They all knew the finish line was fast approaching. Sally looked Maple right in the eye.

“Let’s make this a finale for the ages, Maple.”

“You betcha! We’re gonna beat this thing!”

“Let’s.”

They had pledged to defeat the Demon Lord. First, however, came the conquest of the tenth stratum, and they were now closer to that goal than ever before.