Meanwhile, Maple was exploring the third stratum on her own.
Chrome and Kasumi were out hunting watermelons, while Yui and Mai were training
with Sally.
Iz was crafting equipment, and Kanade hadn't shown his face around the Guild Home
at all.
So Maple went out because she had nothing else to do.
The town was packed with machinery. Players were happily flitting about the skies
in their flying machines. Looming in the center of town was a huge, imposing
building—the town landmark. Maple looked around, wondering where to go first.
"Let's check out those machines!"
She headed for the NPC shop and looked at the machines everyone was using to fly.
There was quite a range. Car-like ones for whole parties, backpack-shaped ones for
solo players. There were blue lights shining deep inside the machinery, suggesting
the power source was some unknown technology.
Maple found one she thought was cool and went to buy it, but it was more expensive
than she'd expected.
"Hngg… Awfully steep for a required item… It's a bit… no, that's a lot for me right
now."
Maple didn't really grind for cash, so she was always in danger of going broke.
Her conclusion was inevitable.
"Yeah, let's not. I've got Syrup anyway!"
Maple could already fly without needing to rely on machines.
So for her, they weren't actually required.
Still, she was a curious girl, and she took her time examining all the new things this
stratum had to offer.
And the more she looked, the more observations she made.
"These don't have any screws! How futuristic!"
Not only were they screwless, but they were all much lighter than she'd expected at
first glance.
And if Maple thought they were light, they were really light.
After examining everything, she headed out.
Wandering the streets with no real goal in mind, she found an elderly NPC collapsed
in an alley.
"Um… a-are you okay?"
Maple patted him on the back, and he began to whisper.
"Might I ask for some water? Could you spare a bit of food?"
When he asked like that, Maple wasn't about to refuse, so she took the requested
items out of her inventory.
The old man took them, and she watched him eat and drink his fill.
"Whew… thank you. In return, might I offer you a story?"
"Huh? Uh, okay."
Maple settled down across from him, and he began his tale.
"You know that magnificent building at the heart of this town? There lies the
Machine God. It creates all these flying contraptions."
"The Machine God? Tell me more!"
"Nobody understands how it makes these contraptions. There are those who have
smashed them apart… but there was nothing inside that gave away the secret. No
screws, gears, or springs."
"Wow! That's kinda creepy."
"Everyone in these parts knows that! But what they don't know is this…"
Intrigued, Maple hung on his every word.
"This is actually the Second Machine God."
"So there was a first…?"
"Yes. Once, this town was filled with ordinary machines. Before The First came, we
knew nothing of machinery, but it brought us hope and dreams."
For a society with no reference for understanding technology, all machinery must
have seemed like miracles.
"Then… one day, while I was away from town, I saw a pale light burst from the skies
above the city."
"A-and…?!" Maple was leaning forward with anticipation.
"I hurried back, fearing the worst… and found the town flooded with new machines.
No one remembered The First. And there was no sign of the old machines at all."
"So the light you saw robbed them of their memories? You were spared because you
were too far away?"
"That concludes my tale. We are the only two who know The First existed."
"Well, thank you for sharing!" Maple said politely.
The old man shuffled off down the alley, vanishing into the maze of back roads.
"So did The Second hate The First? Doesn't seem like that triggered the start of a
quest or anything, so… Maybe it'll be useful later?"
Maple filed the old man's story away in the back of her mind, then resumed
exploring the town.
The more Maple explored, the more she found machines made by the Second
Machine God. Without exception, they had that same blue light gleaming within.
Otherwise, there wasn't much worth writing home about.
"Hmm… maybe it's time to check the field."
Outside of town, she found a highly vertical map, with sheer cliffs and mountain
peaks obscured by clouds.
Very much impossible to explore without wings.
"Syrup! Let's head out!"
Maple opted for her usual approach.
The only difference was that she was no longer the only player flying.
"I guess if I just wanna take it easy and enjoy my flight, I can head back to the second
stratum…"
Having all these other players buzzing around was definitely not the most relaxing
thing in the world.
The most aggressive explorers had already found a dungeon, and most players were
headed that way. They were all using flying machines, securely attached to their
bodies.
Maple was just following the flow, unaware that the flow of traffic led to a dungeon.
"Where are we all going?"
Maple had no clue.
She didn't know why they were headed toward the mountains beyond these mistshrouded cliffs…
Or about the sudden crosswinds.
"Waugh?! Uh-oh…"
With STR 0, Maple could hold on to Syrup's back for only so long.
The other players were all strapped into their machines—but Maple was just sitting
astride her turtle. She had no defense against strong winds buffeting her.
So when the gust swept her off Syrup, all she could do was fall—headfirst.
"Aiiiiiieee! S-Syrup! Heeeelp!"
She couldn't see the ground. She wasn't even sure there was a ground.
Even Maple would take damage from a fall this high.
And despite her cries, Syrup wasn't fast enough to catch up with her.
"A-Atrocity!"
The only silver lining here was that the dense fog hid her outrageous skill.
In this form, no matter how much damage she took—it would just knock her back to
her human body.
Far below, Maple was moving through the mist—still in monster form.
"H-huh? I didn't take any damage."
This was not a result of her notoriously high defense.
This area was clearly set to not cause any falling damage.
She switched back to her real body and pushed forward through mist so thick, she
could barely see past an arm's length in front of her.
"Hmm? What's this?"
Her foot bumped into something, so she bent to pick it up.
It was a broken machine.
The remains of one anyway—all kinds of parts jumbled together.
Maple checked her map and found the name of the area.
"This is the… Graveyard of Dreams? I wonder if this is related to the old man's
story?"
A hard-to-find hint.
And the hard-to-find item from the second stratum.
Both required conditions for reaching this location.
Conditions Maple had accidentally fulfilled.
"Welp… Best to proceed with caution!"
She threaded her way through piles of ruined machines, following the few walkable
paths.
"The mist looks like it's thinning!"
Taking that as a sign, she went that way—and reached the depths.
She found herself surrounded by mountains of broken parts, with blue lights
scurrying about—the same lights emitted by the machines in town.
And at the back of the area was an old man, leaning against a pile of destroyed
machinery.
His body, too, was a machine, made up of countless gears, springs, and screws.
But he was too human to be a mere machine.
And yet, too machine to be considered human.
There was no light in his eyes, and half of one arm was missing—and there was a
gaping hole in his chest.
"Yikes?!" Maple yelped.
The Bygone Dream—the mystery gear she'd found earlier—had suddenly left her
inventory, moving unprompted.
It floated over to the man—and fit neatly into the hole in his chest.
Nothing else happened, so Maple gingerly approached.
"A-are you… with us?"
"Guh… gah…"
The instant Maple let her guard down, red light pulsed, and the man began to speak.
Maple flinched and hid behind her shield.
"I was king… the king of all machines… Crystallization of distant dreams and
fantastical knowledge."
"......"
"I was king… in bygone days… before I was deposed."
Maple listened intently.
"I was… Wh-what was I…?"
But his speech was sputtering out. The red light faded. And then he lay still.
"D-did he break?"
Maple looked worried—and then a blue light fluttered down, enveloping the man.
It was absorbed into the hole in his chest… and then light gushed out.
"Guh…!"
There was a metallic screech, and the man began to move once more. Wreathed in a
cold blue light, he quietly rose to his feet. The blue light grew stronger, and the red
light faded.
"G-good, you're not broken!" Maple said happily.
But she soon sensed something amiss.
"I am… the king of the junk heap! I slumber amid the refuse… Dreams, miracles—are
naught but garbage."
And then he transformed.
Scraps of junk flew in from all around, hurtling into the hole—and re-forming as
weapons.
Loads of them. Every inch of him bristled with tools of violence—and every barrel
pointed at Maple.
"Refuse… you will join the heaps!"
Maple realized the man in front of her was the First Machine God.
And he had clearly lost his mind.
"…Snap out of it!" she yelled, bracing her shield and drawing her sword.
She had a good idea what had made the god crazy.
That blue light—the one powering the Second Machine God's creations. The light
that filled the town and now gleamed in The First's chest cavity.
"Gotta focus my attacks there!"
Maple made up her mind…
And her vision filled with pale-blue artillery fire.
Maple's great shield did its job, and it briefly swallowed all the incoming fire,
blowing right through her stock of Devour. Once it was gone, she wound up slammed
against the wall.
"Whoa… that's some heavy knockback!"
These bluish bullets packed a wallop, and Maple didn't have the speed to avoid them.
She quickly wound up pinned against the junk heap.
But they were unable to penetrate her defenses. So she was only stuck in place and
not in immediate danger.
"Argh! I can't even move."
The bullets hammering against her were more of a pleasing sensation than anything
else, but the constant knockback was keeping her completely immobile.
"Hydra!"
Figuring it was worth a try, she fired a poison dragon at the Machine God, but… he
was totally immune to the toxic effects. Hydra's impact itself did some damage, but
there was no added damage from the poison.
"Ugh, now what?"
She was out of Devour and had used Atrocity when she fell.
Syrup was back in the ring, having fallen harmlessly after her the moment it was out
of her skill's range.
But if she brought it out, it would just end up riddled with bullets.
Her remaining options were the ineffective Hydra, the Devour crystals, Predators, or
Saturating Chaos.
Maple had incredible defenses and attacks that hit really hard, really fast—but she
also had a clear and unavoidable weakness.
Specifically, she was not fuel efficient.
Maple's skill use was buffed by the zero-cost uses afforded by equipment skill slots,
but those were finite.
She could not keep up her assault for long. And once she was out of skills, her
offensive capabilities were drastically reduced.
Running out of skill uses was an ever-present problem that needed to be planned
around, and she constantly ran the risk of finding herself in a situation where she
wouldn't be able to defeat the monster—who in turn had no shot at defeating her.
That would just make the battle one of pure attrition.
And unlike Hydra, she couldn't eat this foe.
Even Maple couldn't consume rusty metal.
That much was obvious.
"Martyr's Devotion!"
While piercing attacks were still a concern, Maple would have to rely on Predators
and Syrup's attacks.
Since Hydra wasn't doing much good, she switched equipment sets.
With a tiara on her head and a white short sword in one hand, she drank a potion.
This put her HP at 650.
Her defense had dropped, but the bullets were still more friendly massage than
deadly attack.
"Okay! Predators!"
Two monsters spawned, and Maple took a deep breath, focusing.
"Syrup! Giganticize! Mother Nature!"
At her call, Syrup made vines and mounds of earth grow from the ground.
These obstructions gave Maple a chance to find respite from the volleys of fire.
Then she charged toward the Machine God with what little speed she could muster.
Syrup's job was done, so she returned it to regular size.
But before she could reach her foe, another hail of bullets hit her.
"Whew!"
Hydra's ineffectiveness was not the only reason Maple had changed armor.
Martyr's Devotion came with a skill…
And a steep cost—600 HP.
"Aegis!"
A dome of light appeared around them, and for ten full seconds, any and all attacks
were negated.
But as much ground as Mother Nature and Aegis combined let her cover, it still
wasn't enough.
And the closer she got, the more intense the incoming fire—she would have to put a
stop to that.
She had the Predators eat any weapons aimed at her, buying her some time.
New weapons were soon generated from nearby the scrap heaps, but that happened
with a noticeable delay.
"Cover Move!"
While the weapons were being downed, Maple had sent Syrup (regular size)
forward—and all she had to do now was warp to it.
She dismissed her Predators as she reached the Machine God's side in an instant;
then she thrust her hand deep inside the blue-glowing chest cavity.
"This light is bad!"
Maple had her other arm around the Machine God, feeling inside it.
Her goal was to restore her opponent's senses while doing as little damage to him as
she could.
"Saturating Chaos!"
A monster shot out of her palm, piercing her opponent's chest.
On the one hand, this was the right choice—on the other hand, it wasn't.
Attacking the chest wouldn't make the god less crazy. But it was the boss's weak
point, so focusing attacks there did a ton of damage—and as a result, a change swept
over the Machine God. Deep inside that chest cavity, beyond the remnants of the blue
light—was a faint red glow.
This red glow grew stronger. And a voice echoed, machinelike but with a clear
purpose behind the words.
"Gah… kahhh… I may be vanquished… yet…"
Maple listened intently, determined not to miss a single word.
"…While I still have a fragment of my mind restored… I bestow this upon thee, brave
soul."
The blue glow was growing brighter once more.
"…Use my power… to defeat this vile creature… that once was me."
The Machine God turned toward Maple and tossed her old gear with a bright red
gleam.
The same gear she had used to bring him back to life—
And this time, it was absorbed into Maple's body.
"…Let me… sleep…"
And with that, the Machine God changed again.
Pale-blue light covered his entire body. Where once he had been a wreck, he now
turned to gleaming silver. His arms and back morphed like liquid, generating
cannons and guns with no component parts. The blue light flared; then the form that
clearly embodied the Second Machine God flew up into the sky, bristling with more
weapons—and firing blue bullets down at her.
Like before, Maple was blasted back against the wall.
A mechanical voice grated above.
"Passing on power… is futile…"
Maple knew this must be The Second.
It had taken over The First's body and was forcing him to act.
"…Machine God…"
The skill the bygone deity had bestowed upon her. It was a simple power—nothing
mysterious about it.
A change to Maple's equipment.
Playing things safe, she took off the tiara and Bonding Bridge, then switched back to
her original short sword.
"Machine God!" she yelled. An image welled up inside her mind.
Maple chose her armor, great shield, and short sword.
The Second could make machinery from nothing, but The First required materials.
In other words…
The skill shattered her equipment and made weapons from it.
And of course, better components made more powerful equipment.
Maple whispered, "Full Deploy."
And black equipment materialized around her…
Innumerable weapons came into being, so black that they seemed hewn from the
darkest night sky.
On the arm holding her great shield, gun barrel after gun barrel appeared in a series
of thunderous clangs. On her back, a cannon aimed at the sky took shape, seemingly
far too large for her to carry, like the bough of a venerable, ancient tree.
From the arm holding her short sword extended an equally black blade, and around
her waist, an array of support armaments.
Gears great and small spun from her chest to her belly, and as the glistening panoply
of weapons finished deploying, a fiery red aura sprang up around her.
"W-whoaaa… Wh-what is all this?!"
Maple gaped at her new equipment for a moment but then remembered the fight
wasn't over.
"I have to beat that thing! Taunt!"
Maple put Bonding Bridge back on, called out Syrup, and had it generate vines and
rock cover with Mother Nature, temporarily blocking The Second's attacks. At the
same time, another set of vines grabbed Maple, carrying her toward her foe.
"Keep it up, Syrup!"
Pulling Maple along, the vines wove together, surrounding the two of them.
The Second soon found itself in a vine cage—which was closing in, forcing it and
Maple together.
"Now you can't get away," she said.
Maple had inherited The First's power—she was The Third.
The newly born Machine God looked The Second dead in the eye and aimed all her
weapons.
The Second readied all its weapons, too.
""Commence Assault.""
With a roar, flames spurted from every barrel and port. Blue and red lights strobed,
filling the air with a dazzling fusillade.
These armaments might look like equipment, but they were not.
The power of them was determined by the sacrifice made—Maple's STR didn't factor
into the output at all.
The strength of each shot was not that high—it was definitely quantity over quality.
At least, this time. She had multiple weapon types deployed—guns, cannons, and
swords.
And it was obvious from the start which of them had endurance to spare.
As the vine cage burst, the blue lights and The Second machinery vanished from The
First's form. As the Machine God went limp, Maple gathered him in her arms,
protecting him as they drifted to the ground.
The First fell into a slumber, cradled in Maple's battery of machinery.
Maple quietly rose to her feet and leaned him and his constructs against the
mountain of machines made from recognizable components.
"…You can rest now."
Certain the blue light was gone, she walked away, occasionally glancing back in The
First's direction.
While Maple was slowly making her way back to the surface…
Four players were holding talks inside their Guild Home.
One had been the top-ranked player in the first event—Pain, a classic-looking knight
in white armor with a silver sword. Many players called him the Holy Sword—a
name derived both from his skills and his appearance.
Next was Dread, the man they called Godspeed. He'd taken second place in the first
event—like Sally, he wielded daggers. His avatar boasted coppery-bronze skin.
Beside him was Frederica. She carried a wooden staff with a large jewel—making it
clear she was a mage.
And the last member had ranked fifth in the first event.
Drag, the Ground Splitter. Rough armor and a massive, unadorned ax. His bulging
muscles made it clear he was a powerful fighter.
The topic at hand—everyone in the top ten they had failed to recruit.
And the guild on everyone's minds—Maple Tree.