They'd spent the bulk of their third day hatching the eggs and playing with their new
monster pals.
It was now past ten. A little late to go out exploring again.
"Uh… what do you think? Should we…?"
"Let's call it a day."
"That's what I was thinking, yeah."
Petting their new partners, they started making plans for the next day.
"Tomorrow we should explore farther downstream and climb the opposite side of the
canyon."
"Yeah… Wait, climb?!"
"Yup, same way we came down—Oh."
Maple had not considered this possibility.
How would she escape the canyon depths?
"A-a-a-am I in trouble?"
"... Good question."
Maple looked to Sally for answers, but Sally didn't have any.
"So, uh, let's explore downstream while looking for a way up. I bet there's something."
Given the seemingly insurmountable nature of the problem, it was likely their
exploration might last a lot longer than anticipated.
"We'd better head out early, then."
"I'd like to get away from this place before the fourth day ends, yeah."
They decided to start moving at four AM. Until then, they'd take turns sleeping.
"Morning."
"Mornin'!"
With that vital conversation out of the way, they started exploring.
This was the fourth day of the event—meaning they had officially reached the latter
half.
More players would have medals now.
Fights for ownership were likely happening everywhere.
And the girls were certainly targets.
They had to be ready to fight at any time.
"See anything?"
"Not yet."
Sally had been scanning their surroundings but had yet to find a dungeon entrance or
the glimmer of a magic circle.
They continued farther downstream for two and a half hours.
There were several fights along the way, and both Syrup and Oboro went up another
level. This earned them some interesting skills.
Rest was a skill that put them to sleep inside their rings, allowing them to recover HP
in safety.
Awaken was the opposite and called them out from inside the rings.
Currently, both were in their rings, napping.
Mostly because the mist was getting thicker, and the girls were anxious that they might
lose track of them.
After another half hour of walking…
They reached the end of the river.
The closer they got, the more suspicious they'd become; actually reaching the end
turned those suspicions to convictions.
"This has to be the source of the mist."
"For sure."
The mist had gotten so thick, Maple was having trouble seeing Sally—even though
they were standing right next to each other.
They stepped closer to the water's edge…
Then a sudden gust of wind blew away the mist, revealing what lay beneath.
Like the river's source, it was a spring—with a pot at the center.
Mist was pouring endlessly from the pot. It looked like the pot was pulling water from
the spring and converting it to mist.
"Should we… look closer?"
"... I think we have to."
But the second they stepped into the spring…
…the wind died, and thick mist shrouded everything once more.
"Sally, you still there?"
But no answer came.
Maple raised her alert level.
"Agh! Tch… ah!"
Sally's voice. Metal clashing against metal. Sally sounded rattled, which made Maple
anxious.
She headed toward the sounds, only to find a pitch-black pit in front of her.
She peered inside but couldn't make out a thing.
This was definitely where Sally's voice was coming from.
"That settles it! I'm going in!"
She shut her eyes and jumped into the pit.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw Sally—spraying red sparks everywhere.
And…
A knight in silver armor, with a gleaming white greatsword.
"Sally!" Maple gasped.
This was the first time she'd ever seen Sally take damage.
Sally saw Maple and jumped back, moving closer to her.
"A-are you okay?!"
"Yeah, mostly…"
Sally was soon wreathed in Heal's glow.
The painful red sparks vanished.
"Stay behind me! I'll stop anything it throws at us!" Maple cried.
She drew New Moon. A purple magic circle emerged from the blade.
The knight raised its sword.
"Hydra!"
A three-headed dragon rushed the knight's position.
The knight swung its sword, going for the Hydra's heads.
But it managed to intercept only one of them.
The other two hit the knight head-on.
The knight groaned and fell to its knees.
Using its sword to support itself, it tried to stand up…
But failed.
Its melting armor began to glow.
The knight lost hope, and the sword slipped from its grasp.
Motes of light drifted skyward, shining even brighter than the knight's armor.
"Much easier than the bird boss!"
She'd been pretty surprised it could cut off a Hydra head, but it had clearly been
lacking in defense and health.
At the same time, that only proved even further how insane that bird had been.
"That's that!"
"Heh-heh-heh, check if it dropped a medal."
As always, any drops would be inside a lake of poison.
Which meant it was Maple's job to collect them.
"I hope there's at least one!" she said, taking a step forward.
"Defense Break!"
A sudden cry.
Pain spread across her back.
Maple turned to look and saw blue daggers slashing at her over and over again.
As she reeled, her health was being sapped away by an armor-piercing skill built
around rapidly landing hits. Between the speed of the attacks and Maple's own lack of
skill with her shield, she never stood a chance of blocking them all.
"Huh? Huh?"
"Ah-ha! Ah-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
Sally let out a sinister laugh.
"Wh-why?!"
Maple realized her HP bar was actually going down.
She might be in real trouble here.
"Paralyze Shout!"
This attack caused a powerful status ailment.
That was when Maple figured it out.
What stood before her looked like Sally…
…but definitely wasn't her.
She was absolutely sure because it was impossible to directly damage a party member.
"Ah-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha!"
"It didn't work?!"
Further evidence this wasn't Sally: She had far too much paralysis resistance.
But she was a match for Sally's speed—no, she was even faster.
"She's been buffed?!"
The doppelga nger let out another sinister cackle before vanishing—then a new burst
of red sparks flew from Maple's side.
"Ugh… I can't even keep track of her!"
Her Hydra and great shield did no good if she couldn't even land a blow.
At least this foe's DPS wasn't very high.
But Maple would have to think of something before all her HP was whittled away.
While Maple was fighting a fake Sally…
…Sally was facing off against a fake Maple.
"Yikes… her defense is as broken as the real thing!"
Sally could slash at her in passing, but this had no discernible effect on her health.
Defense this high was a nightmare.
"She was always top of my list of people I never wanted to fight, but…"
"Ah-ha-ha-ha! Hydra!"
This Maple-shaped thing was using Hydra, too. Sally dodged.
Hydra wasn't exactly fast—it was easy enough to avoid.
But that didn't make the battle any easier to win.
"This… is gonna be exhausting."
Maple and Sally had good reasons to trust each other…
But with the tables turned, they were in deep trouble.
The knight had just been an appetizer.
This was the real fight. They had to find a way to overcome the powers of the one they
trusted most.
"Hydra!"
The poison dragon emerged from New Moon.
But it wasn't aimed at the fake Sally.
Maple's blade was pointed at the ground. The dragon splattered against it, spraying
poison all around her.
If the real Sally took a single step inside, she'd die instantly.
And if this one intended to cross the poison lake to reach Maple, she'd be forced to
leave herself exposed.
Sally had leaped back to avoid the Hydra attack. She came running back in…
Maple watched her closely.
She could tell…
The fake was definitely avoiding all the poison.
"So you don't have Poison Nullification!"
Fake Sally used Leap to close the distance, but this gave Maple time to slam her shield
home.
She timed it right—but hit nothing.
"Mirage?!"
"Defense Break!"
The fake's true body slashed Maple's exposed side, then used Leap to kick off her body,
vaulting back outside the ring of poison.
"Venom Cutter!"
Fake Sally easily dodged this attack—but something about the way she dodged struck
Maple as odd.
"Oh… so you aren't an exact copy."
Fake Sally was faster than real Sally.
They were both good at dodging.
But for the fake, that came purely down to speed.
The real Sally could dodge by a hairbreadth and unleash a counter right after—her
fake couldn't.
The real Sally could evade every attack while moving in closer.
The fake Sally was simply using her superior speed to dodge and had no way to turn
those defensive maneuvers into offense.
"But if I still can't actually hit her… Meditation!"
Even as Maple grumbled, the ground around her started buckling.
Pillars of earth rose up, blocking her line of sight…
…and giving the fake Sally some valuable footholds.
"Ugh, she's also better at magic?"
"Defense Break!"
Maple swung her shield toward the voice.
She didn't care if it was just Mirage.
She still had plenty of HP.
Once again, her target turned out to be an illusion. More cuts crisscrossed Maple's
back.
She kept swinging, but her shield hit only air.
"Clearly I'm in this for the long haul."
A magic circle appeared on New Moon.
Fake Sally saw it and started backing away.
At that distance, nothing Maple did would hit.
"Fine! You want an endurance test, you got one," Maple muttered. "Venom Capsule!"
A two-yard-wide purple sphere appeared. Maple sank into the center of it.
"Meditation!"
She began healing all the damage she'd taken.
And the fake Sally's weapons… were daggers.
If she tried to slice through the sphere to get at Maple inside, she'd wind up coated in
poisonous goo.
Plus, it sat at the center of a poison lake to begin with.
Maple was surrounded by a danger zone.
A hellscape where one false move would leave you poisoned.
Fake Sally might have Poison Resist, but she definitely didn't have Poison Nullification.
She couldn't negate all the poison damage Hydra did.
"Cyclone Cutter!"
What she did have was Wind Magic that outranked what the real Sally could call upon.
A whirlwind surrounded Maple, whittling away at her poisonous walls.
But Hydra was a much higher-tier skill than Wind Magic.
The surface of the sphere rippled, and some of it was torn away—but nothing reached
Maple herself.
"Venom Capsule!"
The sphere expanded. Now it was four yards wide.
And so were her poison walls.
Fake Sally was built for swift strikes that continuously stacked small amounts of
damage—there was no way she'd ever get past these defenses.
"I'm just gonna wait here until Little Miss Fake runs out of MP."
Without MP, the fake wouldn't be able to hit nearly as often.
That would be an even bigger problem than getting through the poison walls.
Venom Capsule cost 20 MP per use.
And there was nothing Maple could convert to MP with Devour.
In other words, Maple herself was out of MP.
Since Hydra was in a Skill Slot, she got five activations at 0 MP cost every day—but
she'd already used those. Her only option was to wait for her automatic MP recovery
to kick in.
Fake Sally sent spells relentlessly against the poisonous walls.
This went on for a while.
"Venom Capsule!"
The growth of Maple's merciless wall forced the fake to retreat.
The capsule was now six yards in diameter.
Maple had only one goal in mind.
"If I can't hit her with my attacks… I just have to fill the entire room with this poison
capsule! That's my only way to win!"
The epitome of an endurance test.
Maple's path to victory required she back the fake into a corner.
The fake's speed would no longer matter if she had nowhere to run.
Meanwhile, Sally was at a loss.
Nothing could get past Maple's defenses.
And her offensive capabilities could spell death for Sally with even the slightest misstep.
"My only saving grace is that she's way dumber than the real Maple."
Fake Maple just kept spamming Hydra.
And unlike the real Maple, she used her great shield even for minor attacks.
That meant the fake Maple had long since run out of Devour.
But that Hydra spam was also a problem.
Fake Maple had a skill the real one didn't.
Activating that spell meant all the poison Hydra left behind gathered at Maple's side
and immediately formed another Hydra.
This effectively allowed her to chain cast Hydra with very little cooldown.
Sally had assumed her best path to victory was to make Maple run out of stock on all
her limited skills, so the fact that she had an endless supply of Hydra had been a
shocking realization.
"Better than her using Paralyze Shout, at least."
Dodging another three-headed dragon, Sally racked her brain, trying to think of a
viable plan.
"Ugh… come on… there must be a way…"
Avoiding Hydra was easy enough, so she had time to think.
Sally had tried using Defense Break, but Maple's skills—likely Meditation—had healed
her right up.
"You just had to keep that skill…"
Another Hydra was coming her way.
Sally bounded aside, idly wondering what the real Maple was up to.
"Is she fighting a fake me? Has she already won?"
She was convinced Maple would find a path to victory.
Just as Sally herself had no effective means of fighting a fake Maple, a fake Sally would
definitely stand no chance against the real Maple.
Maple's abilities had saved Sally any number of times, so she spoke from experience.
"Fine… trial and error it is. You never know! I might find a way outta this!"
Her mind made up, Sally ran through her skill list, forming a number of plans.
It was clear she couldn't win in her current state.
But what if that changed?
What if she acquired a new skill?
Since Sally wasn't doing any damage to the fake Maple, her foe's attack patterns
remained consistent.
She just kept spamming Hydra. That made it easy.
Fake Maple wouldn't change.
Sally had the potential to change.
She figured her best bet was to go all in on that possibility.
"I don't wanna lose to a fake! And I know just what skill to start with."
A glowing effect appeared around her, and she threw herself at the fake Maple.
This would also prove to be an endurance test.
Four hours had passed since their battles began. It was now noon on the fourth day of
the event.
Maple's plan had succeeded, and Venom Capsule had finally grown so big, it reached
the ceiling.
The room itself was fairly large, but only a quarter of that space was still free of venom.
"Venom Capsule!"
Maple bumped the size up again.
"Whew… almost there!"
Fake Sally was still completely unharmed.
But that didn't matter.
Once the capsule filled the room, no amount of recovery would save her.
Maple's biggest problem had been landing an attack…
But that wasn't a problem any longer.
Fake Sally had no means of escaping her fate.
Another hour later…
"Venom Capsule!"
And the long battle ended at last.
Fake Sally was swallowed up, sprayed damage effects like there was no tomorrow—
and vanished.
Maple kept her capsule up a minute after, just in case she had to guard against Mirage,
but there was nowhere left for the fake to hide.
A medal had also dropped to the floor when she vanished—proof of Maple's victory.
Maple dismissed the capsule.
A rain of poison fell all around her.
"Whew… that was exhausting."
Overcome with a very different kind of fatigue than the bird boss had provided, Maple
sank to the ground.
"At least I was inside! I dunno if I could have won outdoors."
Her strategy would not have worked in a zone without finite boundaries.
"Better pick up that medal and take the magic circle outta here. Wonder how Sally's
doing? Is she fighting a fake me?"
Maple picked up the medal.
"Will she win? I'm sure she can dodge any attacks, but…"
Growing concerned, she hurried over to the exit circle.
When the light faded, there was a spiral staircase before her.
Light was pouring down from above.
Maple figured it led somewhere important.
"Sally… wouldn't have gone ahead."
Maple decided to wait.
If either of them died, they'd promised to message each other the bad news.
But Maple never saw any such message, so she was sure Sally hadn't been sent back
to their starting location.
Either Sally was still fighting and would catch up with her, or they were permanently
split up.
And the latter possibility meant Sally wasn't fighting a fake.
It was possible she'd been left behind in the mist, and only Maple had been forced into
combat.
But Maple's instincts told her Sally was in a fight of her own.
"If Sally's still fighting… I know! Syrup! Awaken!"
Syrup emerged from her ring.
"Let's cheer Sally on while we wait!"
Syrup and Maple did just that, waiting another hour.
Then a blinding light filled the room.
Just in case, Maple readied her shield, peering over the brim.
"Whew… I actually won…"
The light faded, and Sally emerged.
"…You're… the real one, right?" Maple asked.
Sally looked up, saw Maple, and braced herself, too.
"…We'll need to prove it."
"Fine with me."
Sally's evident suspicion told Maple she'd been fighting a fake, too.
In which case, proof was necessary.
"Are you the Maple I saw bawling her eyes out after getting a shot in sixth grade?!"
"Wh… wh-wh-wh-why did you have to remember that?! Forget it right now!"
This was the last test of identity Maple had expected.
But it was definitely something only Sally would know.
She could see the logic but was so overcome with shame, she ended up involuntarily
hiding behind her shield.
Sally already knew this was the real Maple but had felt like teasing her a little.
Exhaustion has that effect on some people.
"Heh-heh-heh… I guess you're real! I knew from the start, of course."
"Wait, I need proof from you, too," Maple said with an intense expression.
"Er…" Sally looked worried.
Maple fixed her with a piercing gaze.
"Are you the same Sally who went in a haunted house in junior high, and halfway
through you got so scared that you couldn't walk and a staff member had to carry you
crying out the emergency exit?"
"D-don't remind me!"
"The same Sally who got so obsessed with a game that you started keeping a notebook
filled with made-up ultimate moves?"
"Wait, stop! I'm sorry! I regret everything!"
"Just paying you back."
"…Sigh… I walked right into that one…"
But at least they were together again.
"What were you up to? I was fighting a fake Maple."
"I fought a fake Sally. I won… maybe an hour ago?"
Sally had also received a single medal. She handed it to Maple.
Their total medal count was now ten.
"How'd you beat the fake Maple?"
Sally opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again.
"If—just an if—a future event is a tournament? I don't want you mopping the floor
with me. So I think I'll keep this one secret."
"Works for me! Hmm. Then maybe I'll keep quiet on how I beat the fake Sally! I don't
wanna lose, either!"
Sally kept the means secret, but she did show Maple her stat screen.
"Feel free to guess from my skill list!"
"I'll have to take notes!"
Maple examined Sally's stats carefully.
Sally
Lv21 HP 32/32 MP 25/25 +35
[STR 30 +20 ] [VIT 0]
[AGI 85 +68 ] [DEX 25 +20 ]
[INT 25 +20 ]
Equipment
Head [Surface Scarf: Mirage] Body [Oceanic Coat: Oceanic]
R. Hand [Deep Sea Dagger] L. Hand [Seabed Dagger]
Legs [Oceanic Clothes] Feet [Black Boots]
Accessories [Bonding Bridge]
[None]
[None]
Skills
Slash, Double Slash, Gale Slash, Defense Break
Down Attack, Power Attack, Switch Attack
Fire Ball, Water Ball, Wind Cutter, Cyclone Cutter
Sand Cutter, Dark Ball
Water Wall, Wind Wall, Refresh, Heal
Affliction III
Strength Boost (S), Combo Boost (S), Martial Arts V
MP Boost (S), MP Cost Down (S), MP Recovery Speed Boost (S), Poison Resist (S)
Gathering Speed Boost (S)
Dagger Mastery II, Magic Mastery II
Fire Magic I, Water Magic II, Wind Magic III
Earth Magic I, Dark Magic I, Light Magic II
Combo Blade I, Presence Block II, Presence Detect II, Sneaky Steps I, Leap III
Fishing, Swimming X, Diving X, Cooking I, Jack of All Trades, Superspeed
"That's a lot of changes."
"Which'll come in handy for the rest of the event."
"I take my eyes off you for a minute and you come back all buffed up!"
"But from this point on, we'll be fighting together."
Sally grinned happily.
Maple smiled back.
"Then let's head up these stairs!"
"Yup. I want more medals!"
The girls climbed the spiral staircase toward the light above.
They emerged at the top of the far canyon wall.
Their long battles had left both girls tired, but they were also running low on time and
couldn't afford to kick back.
It was already afternoon on the fourth day.
And medals were first come, first served.
"We've gotta explore another forest?" Maple said, looking ahead. It was hard to tell just
how deep these woods were. There might be a dungeon within.
"Let's get our heads back in the game! C'mon!"
"All right!"
They stepped into the trees, searching for new dungeons.