The day after Maple revealed to the guild her angel form and absolutely broken new
power…
Chrome and Iz were in the Guild Home, deep in conversation.
"Maple sure is getting stronger fast."
"Yeah. Never a boring moment."
"It's just… you know…"
"Mm?"
"I'm like a crappy knockoff version of her!"
"...... Hard to argue with."
It was a simple fact that both his offense and defense were way lower than Maple's.
His only real advantage was raw gaming ability.
"I've gotta find something to prove I'm worth keeping around…"
"Can't blame you for feeling that way."
As they spoke, the door opened, and Maple came in.
"Speak of the devil…"
"You were talking about me?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"I was hoping to get some good skills like you did."
Chrome didn't want her skills—he wanted some of his own. Maple beamed at the
idea.
He asked her what the secret to getting good skills was, but she answered honestly—
she'd found most of them by simply exploring. Not particularly helpful advice.
"Hmm… I'm a little busy today… Oh, I know! I can lend you Syrup. Anything helps,
right?"
Maple pulled up her menu, removed her ring, then took it out of her inventory and
gave it to Chrome.
"Uh… you're sure? This is important, right? What if I don't give it back?"
"Would you actually do something like that?"
"Never." He was very firm.
He had no intention of doing anything of the sort.
"Then it'll be fine!" Maple said, grinning.
Chrome spent a while lecturing her on the importance of not lending out valuables,
even to guild members.
But Maple clearly wanted to help Chrome, and eventually he gave in and accepted
the ring.
Out in the field, he was still mulling over what had happened at the Guild Home.
"I'd better warn Sally, too…"
Chrome was happy Maple trusted him, but he worried she was a little too trusting.
"…Gotta make sure nobody takes advantage of that."
Maple was having a good time playing, but… she lacked experience.
There were still a lot of ways to have "fun" she didn't know about.
She probably only had a faint idea how malicious some players could be.
And keeping players like that at bay was one of the few things Chrome could do that
Maple couldn't.
"Plus, I wanna make sure she can enjoy herself without worrying."
Chrome continued west as he crossed the field.
"Well, since I've borrowed it, I might as well use it. I owe her that much, at least."
Chrome summoned Syrup but let it walk alongside him without making it giant.
The skill that made it fly was Maple's, not his, so Giganticize served little use.
"Oh, more monsters."
Chrome drew his short sword and braced his great shield.
They were facing three boars.
And he had only one shield.
If multiple boars attacked at once, that would hurt.
"Gah! These blows would just bounce off Maple!"
He slashed at a charging boar, then quickly backed away.
Red sparks flew.
The boar gave chase, but he knocked it back with his shield.
"Thrust!"
Chrome activated a skill, and his blade shot forward.
The strike hit the staggering boar, robbing it of HP.
And all the while, Chrome's HP was slowly refilling.
Great shielders were notoriously short on offensive options, but it was no fluke that
Chrome had come in ninth in the first event.
He had one skill your average player didn't.
Battle Healing
Recover 1% HP every ten seconds during combat.
This skill, combined with his high defense, had been how he'd managed to claw his
way to ninth.
Compared with Maple, Chrome might have looked weak, but by the standards of the
average player, he was pretty damn tough.
The first event's top ten all had some sort of powerful skill.
Maple's were just especially ridiculous, so she'd drawn all the attention.
Making sure to let Syrup fight so it could share the XP, Chrome headed farther west.
He eventually reached the western wastelands.
"I haven't explored out this way yet, so that's today's goal."
After poking around for a while, he stumbled upon an old grave.
Any player worth their salt knew things like this were worth investigating.
Chrome was no exception.
But his eyes were locked on the grave itself, and he failed to notice the pit right in
front of it—and before he knew it, he was falling.
Down below, Chrome picked himself up.
There was a shaft leading deeper in.
"Hmm? Is this a hidden dungeon or…?"
He scanned his surroundings and saw that Syrup had followed him down.
"Wow… Does Maple's luck rub off?"
Chrome felt like all weirdness stemmed from Maple.
But there weren't any mystery Maple shenanigans at work here; this was all his own
doing.
Sally, Maple, Kasumi, Kanade, and Iz all had something unique to them.
So did Chrome.
Specifically, he had died a lot.
Having picked the game's "worst" option, he'd struggled with it at first. Before he'd
mastered the great shield, his low damage output had frequently left him
surrounded and unable to stave off death.
Learning the tricks of great shielding had taken him ages.
And all that time, he'd been racking up his death count.
The crucible in which he'd been forged.
Making up for lack of talent with time and hard work.
Battle Healing had been a random acquisition he had made at one point on his long
journey of death.
Death came hand in hand with skills and techniques.
And this dungeon was called the Grave of the Dead.
Neither Maple nor Sally could have entered.
Only players like Chrome could enter—players who had died and revived more than
one thousand times.
Chrome continued down the passage.
Syrup plodded along behind.
"Let's see what's waiting for us. Might kill me, but oh well."
Each death came with a penalty; you'd lose a portion of the XP you'd built up and
some of your skill proficiency. But Chrome had been overcoming that penalty all this
time and hadn't fretted over it in a long while.
He inspected the walls around him. They were crumbling, seemingly ready to
collapse at any moment.
They didn't look man-made.
"If this is below a grave, am I gonna be fighting something undead?"
A reasonable prediction.
And one that proved entirely accurate. Not long after he spoke, the shaft opened up
into a larger room, and a bunch of skeletons lumbered out.
They were equipped with rusty spears and swords, which was not terribly
intimidating.
Low-level monsters, trying to win with numbers.
Chrome had Syrup join the fight, dividing their attention, and successfully dispatched
the horde.
"Oh-ho. Syrup leveled up."
Chrome gave it a potion to restore the HP it had lost, then checked the pet's new
skill.
"It learned Cover? Hmm. Your skill tree has a lot of overlap with great shields, huh?"
Maple didn't often let Syrup join battles, so it was still fairly low-level.
Adventuring with Chrome gave it more chances to grow.
By the time he gave it back to Maple, it would likely have even more levels and skills.
"I guess leveling her pet's a decent way to thank her for the loaner."
Chrome decided to let Syrup take the lead in battles for more experience.
They headed deeper in. Syrup defeated the bulk of the enemies, quickly growing in
strength.
"Mm? More new skills?"
A few fights later, Chrome checked Syrup's stats and found two new additions.
Mother Nature
Raise the earth or grow vines and trees to attack or defend.
Spirit Cannon
Can only be used when Giganticized.
Frontal ranged attack.
"Okay, you're pretty much stronger than I am now. Man… I want a partner of my
own."
A few fights later, Chrome reached the deepest part of the dungeon.
Before him stood a giant door—clearly the entrance to the boss room.
"This place was on the long side, but there weren't exactly any tough enemies
hanging around… Maybe I can pull this off."
After concluding that the dungeon wasn't particularly difficult, he decided to give it a
go.
The boss room was huge—big enough to make Syrup giant and still have space to
spare.
A short while after they crossed the threshold, a skeleton rose at the other end of the
room.
Unlike the previous skeletons, this one was equipped with extremely fancy (albeit
still ancient) armor and a longsword. Two pale-blue lights glowed in the sockets of
its skull, like wisps.
"Whew… First time trying to solo a boss, but… I guess I'm not actually solo."
Chrome had Syrup use Giganticize, and then he got the battle rolling.
"Mother Nature!"
Thick vines spawned from the ground around Syrup, quickly grasping at the boss,
but they were all stopped by a glowing pale-blue barrier that covered the boss's
body.
"Guess we've gotta get past that first."
Leaving Syrup in the rear, Chrome stepped toward the boss—
—who stepped toward him.
"Shield Attack!"
The barrier stopped Chrome's blow as expected, but he just wanted to check if
cumulative damage could break the thing.
"Here we go…!"
Deflecting a longsword swing with his shield, Chrome hacked at the barrier with his
own blade.
But barrier breaking was hardly the purview of a tank, so he wasn't really making
much headway.
And if Chrome's own equipment took too much damage, it would break.
Given how hard the boss was hitting, drawing out this fight would be unwise.
Figuring he needed a new approach, Chrome dodged an attack and shouted, "Syrup!
Spirit Cannon!"
Syrup fired a bright-white laser beam.
He'd used it once before this final battle, so Chrome knew the timing and range and
was able to leap out of the way.
"Try that on for size!"
As the light faded, he heard a shattering sound.
The barrier was down.
But that wasn't entirely a good thing.
There was a rattling noise, and the boss stabbed its sword into the ground.
Skeletons started pouring out of all four corners of the room.
Alone, Chrome would easily have been overwhelmed—but he had Syrup with him.
Syrup managed to occupy most of the skeletons, making it easier for Chrome to focus
on the boss.
Keeping one eye on Syrup's health, he chipped away at the boss's health.
Syrup managed to land the odd blow, too.
As long as he could avoid the boss's attacks, Battle Healing would take care of any
damage the skeleton hordes managed to do.
He could take care of them once the boss slowed down a bit.
Steady play kept the advantage on Chrome's side.
"Shield Attack!"
The boss had no shield, so it was easy to land blows—and that was a huge help.
Reeling from the knockback, the boss was totally exposed.
"You don't have that much HP, do you?"
Focusing too much on his combination attacks could leave him open to a nasty
counter, so Chrome backed off after a few hits—but even that much had brought the
boss down to nearly half health.
But only because Syrup was with him.
Syrup's Mother Nature attacks were doing a fair bit of damage.
And the incredibly helpful pet was keeping the bulk of the skeletons busy; without
Syrup, this likely would never have been much of a fight at all.
"I better thank her for this later… Flame Slash!"
After his blade became wreathed in flame, he landed a diagonal strike on the boss's
torso.
And with that, the boss's health finally dipped below 50 percent.
The boss retreated to its starting point, calling the skeletons to its side.
And they collapsed to the ground—black orbs emerged from each for the boss to
absorb.
No more skeletons lumbered out from the corners of the room.
A pitch-black aura emanated from the boss, taking the shape of an even bigger
skeleton.
One hand of this bony giant gripped a very long sword—one third the length of the
room. The other held a battle-ax.
"Second form, huh? Maple's is way scarier. Maybe you should try copying her?"
Chrome readied his shield as he made the comment.
And so the battle entered its second phase.
"Let's get this done…!"
Chrome stepped forward, shield raised.
The boss swung its sword in response, but Chrome didn't try to block it—he dodged
instead.
A moment later, his great shield caught the ax as it came in from the other direction.
The impact knocked him backward.
"Gah…!"
Chrome checked his shield.
Unlike Maple's and Sally's gear, Chrome's would break if he pushed it past its limits.
He was still good for now, but if he kept taking blows that powerful, the risk was very
real.
He pulled back out of the boss's attack range.
"Spirit Cannon!"
The boss couldn't reach Syrup, so Chrome had it use the laser-beam skill.
However, the boss crossed the sword and ax, successfully blocking all damage.
"Gotta get in close, huh?"
They weren't beating this thing with ranged attacks alone. Chrome pressed forward
once more.
"Mother Nature!"
The boss crossed its weapons again to block the incoming vines. But while it was
busy with Syrup's attacks, Chrome dashed underneath, rapidly closing the distance.
"Flame Slash!"
As his blow landed, the boss's sword turned toward him—but Chrome had a great
shield.
The attack couldn't hurt him.
The moment Mother Nature ran out, the boss would have both weapons free—so
Chrome couldn't afford to waste a second.
"Thrust!"
His short sword pierced the boss's armor, reducing it to 20 percent health.
The moment it crossed that threshold, jet-black spikes shot out of the boss.
Chrome raised his shield on pure reflex, defending himself, but the sword struck it a
moment later—and it shattered.
"Iz is gonna be furious!"
The spikes were a onetime thing and soon vanished. Chrome dived in, slashing with
his short sword, trying to do what damage he could.
Then Syrup's Mother Nature ran out.
Without his shield, Chrome was fully exposed to both sword and ax.
He kept moving, letting only the sword hit him, attacking the boss as much as he
could.
Both were carving chunks out of each other's health with their blades.
The boss had raised its ax high, and while Chrome's attention was on the sword, it
scored a clean hit on his back. A huge hit to his HP bar—and it blew off his armor to
boot.
But he was still standing.
Indomitable Guardian had left him with a single point of health. One of many vital
survival skills Chrome had in his toolbox that could make all the difference in a close
fight.
"Flame Slash!"
Already at his limit, Chrome swung his blade.
However, the boss still had 10 percent health left.
Its weapons were hurtling toward him.
Battle Healing wouldn't restore his health in time.
"Spirit Light!"
This was the skill Chrome had used his medals to procure.
The ultimate ace up his sleeve.
He was wreathed in a holy light that nullified all damage for ten full seconds.
"I ain't dying yet!"
Ignoring all incoming attacks, he mustered everything he could and channeled it into
his offense. The boss did the same—but couldn't do him any harm.
Chrome's short sword slashed diagonally across the boss's face.
In an instant, the blue light in its eyes vanished.
Within a few moments, the pitch-black skeleton turned to light… and was gone.
"Whew… that was close. Great shielders really oughtta stick to defending."
As he sat down heavily, a magic circle appeared—along with a coffin.
Chrome scrambled backward, calling over Syrup.
"If that's a monster, cover me… I'd better chug a potion."
Once his HP was back, he carefully lifted the coffin lid.
Inside was a skeleton, wearing a set of bloodred armor.
It wasn't moving.
"Huh? I-is this a reward?"
Chrome gingerly reached in and took the gear for his inventory.
"Unique… series? Whoa…"
Bloodstained Skull
[VIT +25] [Indestructible]
Skill: Soul Eater
Bloodstained Bone Armor
[VIT +25] [HP +100] [Indestructible]
Skill: Dead or Alive
Headhunter
[STR +30] [Indestructible]
Skill: Life Eater
Wrath Wraith Wall
[VIT +20] [HP +100] [Indestructible]
Skill: Soul Syphon
"So OP! The names and the look of the set make it seem totally cursed, though. Also,
is this a short sword? Looks more like a cleaver."
Chrome went ahead and put on the new gear.
The lower half of his face was covered in a bloody skull.
The armor might have been bone white… once.
Like the name implied, the bloody cleaver looked like it had severed many a head.
Even the shield had a skeleton motif.
"Let's check out these skills and then… head on home."
Soul Eater
Recover 10% of max HP after felling a monster or player.
Dead or Alive
When HP becomes 0, 50% odds of surviving at 1 HP.
Life Eater
Whenever dealing damage, recover HP equal to one third of damage dealt.
Soul Syphon
Recover 3% HP when taking damage from an attack.
Chrome read through the skills, put Syrup back in the ring, stepped onto the magic
circle, and left the dungeon behind.
A few days after Chrome took the first step on his journey to stop being a regular
person…
…there was a brief maintenance outage, and the skill Shearing was added.
Like the name implied, it was a skill… for shearing things. Nothing else!
To accompany the skill, sheep had been added to certain areas.
According to Iz, these provided good materials, and they should collect them if they
got a chance.
Maple and Kasumi had nothing better to do, so they set out across the first-stratum
prairie.
"I came along because I had some free time, but will we be okay with just Shearing?"
"Not 'we,' Kasumi. Only you have the skill!"
Maple had put everything into defense, so she was unable to acquire Shearing.
Her job on this outing was to use Paralyze Shout and stop the sheep in their tracks.
Sheep HP was pretty low, so they needed a way to snare them without doing damage.
And Maple was perfect for that role.
"Not seeing any sheep with wool left…"
"Yes. Seems like other players have already shorn them."
They spotted a bunch of post-cut sheep, but no normal ones.
Their search went on for a good half hour.
"There's some!"
Kasumi pointed at a group of three sheep up ahead.
"Paralyze Shout!"
Maple immediately tried to paralyze them, but she wasn't quite in range and caught
only one.
When they approached, the other two sheep ran away.
"Well, let's take care of this one. Shear!"
Kasumi used the skill, and the sheep's wool vanished—and was conveniently added
to her inventory.
"That's clearly not enough…"
"Yeah… probably not."
If they showed up with one unit of wool, Iz wouldn't be able to make anything.
"Hmm… On my own, I can probably catch a running sheep. I'm not… entirely lacking
in skills that could stop them. I'm gonna give it a try solo."
"Okay! Have fun!"
Kasumi ran off after the sheep.
Leaving Maple and a shorn, paralyzed sheep behind.
"......…"
Maple glanced at the sheep.
It looked soft.
Kasumi was chasing after a sheep.
"Superspeed!"
It was fast enough that she had to use one of her ace in the holes to catch it.
And it seemed likely that Shearing wouldn't work if she couldn't find a way to stop it.
"Worth a shot, though… Shear!"
Figuring it was futile, she used Shearing while running parallel to the sheep…
And it was neatly shorn.
She skidded to a stop.
"Even on the go, it'll work as long as you're in range, huh? How very gamelike."
She checked her inventory, and she definitely had more wool.
The rest of the sheep had fled in a different direction. She looked but couldn't find
them again.
She headed back to Maple, secure in the knowledge that nothing could harm her
friend.
But when she got there, she found a mysterious white sphere instead.
"Huh?"
Kasumi drew her katana, approaching with caution.
"Is this… wool?"
Kasumi reached out and touched it, confirming it was definitely wool.
"Shear!"
Which meant the skill was worth trying.
And it worked like a charm! The giant wool sphere became ten pieces of wool in her
inventory.
And there was a clang as Maple fell to the ground.
"Maple… You were… inside that thing?"
"Not… exactly. That… was me."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"...... I just… tried a thing."
Maple did not explain further.
"I… am so lost. But I get the sense it's better if I just don't ask."
Kasumi could take a hint, so she said no more.
"I can now make wool every twenty-four hours, so make sure to Shear me then!"
"Uh, okay. Sure."
They climbed aboard Syrup and headed back to the Guild Home.
Along the way, Maple checked her new skill again.
Sheep Eater
Back at the Guild Home, Kasumi and Chrome sat down together, talking.
Specifically about Maple and wool.
"I took my eyes off her for one minute, and she got yet another new skill."
"A friend of mine warned me never to take my eyes off her again," Chrome said. "I
think I'm getting used to it, though."
"You are?"
"I may have started following in her footsteps…"
He waved a hand at his new gear.
It certainly was a step away from the norm.
"Then what would it take to surprise you?" Kasumi asked.
Chrome thought about this. It took a while.
"Uh… I guess if she sailed away into the air without warning, turned into a cloud, and
started dropping lightning bolts?" he said, making it sound like a joke.
"Ha-ha-ha! Surely, that won't happen."
"Yeah, agreed. Oh, say, did you see the message from the admins?"
Kasumi shook her head.
Chrome quickly filled her in.
"Third event's in two weeks."
"They're pumping these out now, huh? What's the format?"
"Event-limited monsters show up, and we're collecting their drops. Individual and
guild rewards are based on the number we collect."
And the minimum threshold for the guild reward varied depending on the guild size.
Maple's guild had been created with the lowest-ranking Glowbug Seal, so their
threshold was on the low end.
But there was also an individual player ranking, with rewards based on personal
performance.
And there was no gifting drops.
These drops wouldn't even appear in player inventories at all; the count was simply
registered to your account.
"…Might be tough, then."
"…I thought the same thing."
They both meant for Maple.
She'd done very well in the previous events, but that was down to sheer strength,
and it had not taken much time.
This format made it impossible for her to do well.
"I'm on the slow side myself, but… there's always someone worse."
Maple Tree began preparing for the third event.
On one such day, Iz and Kanade were chatting in the Guild Home.
"We're basically support for the other four."
Iz was noncombat support.
Meanwhile, Kanade was the sole player who occupied the rear of the party's battle
formation.
"I've learned some attack magic, too, but… doesn't seem like there's much call for it.
Perhaps I should try a different tactic."
The four front-liners could take out any monster before Kanade got a chance to
attack, so he was focused on skills to buff ally stats and recovery magic.
"I'm the only one with a staff, which means I can learn things the rest of you can't."
Sally had learned some magic, but Kanade had a lot more spells available to him.
And in this guild, that was his exclusive domain.
"If I can buff them, they'll be able to take anything on."
"Yeah, they're good like that. Oh, that reminds me… How's that gear working out? I
made a couple of adjustments… You liking it?"
This was the original reason Iz had asked him here. Kanade was already nodding
enthusiastically.
He'd bought a couple of things to improve his starting gear, but by the second event,
he still looked like a newbie. Iz had hooked him up with some proper threads.
A newsboy cap as red as his hair.
The rest was mostly red and black and looked less like equipment than ordinary
clothes.
Maple's wool had been used to help improve it.
Every piece raised INT and MP, so just wearing this gear buffed Kanade considerably.
"I'm not exactly the armor type."
With his new-and-improved gear on, Kanade left the Guild Home.
His goal for the day was to learn Magic Barrier.
At the moment, Kanade was the guild member racking up the most new skills.
Opponents would have to take him out to stop the support and recovery magic.
But that might mean taking out angel-Maple first.
In that form, Maple's VIT would be buffing Kanade, too.
And the instant her HP dropped, Kanade would be ready with heals.
Soon the most sensible plan would be to just not fight Maple Tree at all.
Perhaps that day was already here.
Meanwhile, at the edge of the second stratum…
Sally was in a forest.
"Whew… Haven't taken any damage so far, but… might be high time I prepare myself
for the possibility."
She'd picked up a number of new skills over the past few days.
But this was nowhere near her ideal build.
"Plus, I've gotta level up Oboro."
In this forest, you didn't have to walk far to find more monsters.
Sally was focusing on evasion, damaging monsters a bit, and then letting Oboro finish
them.
After grinding like that awhile, Oboro leveled up.
"Whew… Let's see… Oh?"
Oboro's new skill put a grin on her face, and she rubbed its head.
"Maybe I don't need to worry about taking damage after all!"
With that, she stopped training Oboro and headed back to town.
Chrome was in the second-stratum desert.
"This is nuts! Ain't nothin' gonna kill me!"
He was taking attacks with his shield, then hacking away with the cleaver.
That alone was making his HP skyrocket—and the effects of Battle Healing stacked
on top of that.
And if he ever found himself in real danger, he could just bust out Spirit Light.
Chrome dispatched the final monster and sheathed his weapon.
"Maple's gear is definitely a unique series, too. That shield and sword definitely have
skills on 'em. But doesn't seem like the armor has anything…"
The Indestructible thing was also huge.
No more need to maintain his gear.
"I bet Maple's got Indestructible on hers, too."
She actually had something way more terrifying, but Chrome was blissfully unaware
of that.
"Let's hunt a bit longer."
Chrome might have been a great shielder, but solo hunts were now also completely
safe for him.
Neither of Maple Tree's great shielders was anything close to "normal" anymore.
This class was not known for being any use on the offensive.
Elsewhere, Kasumi was also engaged in combat.
She was the Maple Tree member with the most consistent DPS.
Sally used daggers, while Chrome and Maple had their short swords. That meant
Kasumi's sword gave her the longest reach on their front line.
She had the highest STR in the guild, and her AGI was up there, too.
Her build meant her defense was a bit of a concern, but angel-Maple had solved that
problem.
It was all very… stable.
"Right… Better head on back."
Then she realized she had an unread message.
"From Maple… Let's see…"
She opened it up and read the contents.
Due west of the second-stratum town.
Come Shear me.
I would appreciate it if you could hurry.
"Um, huh? Well, no reason not to…"
Kasumi ran off in search of Maple.
Ten minutes earlier…
Maple had gone west to experiment with her wool-growing skill.
When she found a good spot, she yelled, "Wool Up!" and her vision filled with an
expanse of white fluff.
"Definitely doesn't seem like I can control the volume of it… Hmm. Mm! Hmph!"
Maple burrowed diagonally downward and managed to pop her head out of the wool
ball.
And her arms and legs.
"Can I move like this?"
That might not make a difference.
But since she could now see monsters attacking her in this form, she realized
something else.
"Does this wool have my full defense value?"
It did.
As long as it was attacked, the wool was considered a part of her and shared her
stats.
"So if I'm holed up in the wool, I'm pretty OP until someone Shears me?"
Maple tried to think of how that might be useful but didn't really get anywhere. Then
she tried to be less woolly and realized something important.
"Augh! I can't do anything about this on my own?!"
She could see some players passing in the distance, frowning at the mystery ball of
wool.
It wouldn't be long before she was exposed—and on all fours.
She quickly sent a note to Kasumi.
"T-time to hide!"
She burrowed back into the wool and sprayed poison in all directions so no other
players could get near.
"Augh! Now Kasumi can't, either!"
The realization came too late.
She could hear a lot of voices outside, but nobody could Shear her through the
poison.
After a while, the poison vanished, and Kasumi collected her, but by then everyone
knew it was Maple, and her crazy stunts were a hot topic on the forums once again.
280 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
Maple back at it again, huh?
281 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
So I hear.
Eyewitness reports claim she turned into a giant fur ball.
282 Name: Anonymous Mage
There's no way you can do that while playing normally.
283 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
I suppose not, no.
284 Name: Anonymous Archer
Did the sheep get to her? Did she become one?
285 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
I feel like it's an oddly fitting fate.
286 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
Fur balls seem harmless.
They're just fluffy.
287 Name: Anonymous Mage
But there was poison gushing out of it.
288 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
Is it some sort of sea urchin?
289 Name: Anonymous Archer
Maple spurts poison when she's in trouble.
290 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
I think she'd be plenty strong even without poison.
291 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
Well, there is her natural enemy, piercing damage.
292 Name: Anonymous Mage
Mm? Wait, how does the damage work in fur-ball form?
Would you be able to hit her while she's inside?
293 Name: Anonymous Archer
She's slain her natural enemy.
294 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
She's the top of the food chain.
Look out for the fur-ball fortress.
They resolved to ask Chrome if he showed up, and thus… time passed.