The first week of December brought with it the fifth event, which was all about
exploring the existing fields. Players got points for beating a specific monster type and
competed to see who could get the most. And while it was active, the fields were
covered in white as snow fell softly from the sky.
"It's gonna stay like this all month," Sally said, appreciating the view through the
window of their fourth-stratum home.
"It does look pretty," Maple said. "And it doesn't make it harder to walk!"
"True. Welp, I'm gonna go slice and dice some event monsters."
"Have fun!"
Sally peeled her face off the window and went out the door.
Alone, Maple got up from the window seat, too.
"This time… different monsters give different points, huh?"
There were now four types of target monster.
Each of them had different spawn rates and point values. The rarer they were, the
more points players would get for defeating them—and the game developers had said
they had a low chance of dropping rare items, too.
"Well, if I see any of the rare ones, I'll take 'em out," Maple muttered. "The lower point
monsters are too fast, so there's no point even chasing after them."
With her mind made up, she left home. Her participation in this event would be
entirely secondary to raising her access rank.
Maple opened the door and stepped out into the snow.
Having snowflakes dancing in the air really changed the atmosphere, and she was
enjoying just walking around in it.
Her current quest involved gathering Soul Fragments, and that had to be done on the
field to the west, but she took her time, savoring the journey.
"And I'm here!"
This area was filled with abandoned houses. Maple drew her short sword, deployed
her mounted guns, and then began her circuit.
She soon found some blue fireballs floating toward her. These dropped the item she
was after.
"Gotcha!"
They weren't a significant threat, and her bullets were merciless—the battle was over
in seconds.
"Whew… oh, nice. Today's my lucky day!"
These fireballs did not have a generous drop rate, and if the fight dragged on too long,
they'd vanish like the monsters she'd helped the twins with.
She scooped up their drops, pleased with her good fortune, and headed out in search
of more prey.
"Heh-heh-heh… What a run!"
Maple had been fighting living fireballs for half an hour, and now she only needed one
last Soul Fragment to complete the quest.
The fireballs were spawning faster than she'd ever seen them, and she was thrilled.
"All right! We're doing great! Just one more!"
She was excited—but odds are ever variable.
For the next hour and a half, Maple didn't even see another fireball.
Right when she thought things were going well, she got incredibly unlucky.
Maple was starting to feel like she should take a break.
So she put the fireballs out of her mind and sat down against a tree, deciding to enjoy
the snowy view.
"Ugh, I'm so tired… That last torii gate seems so far away…"
Once again, she had no idea how Kasumi had burned through all these quests so fast.
"There are some event monsters around…"
In the distance, she could see a white wolf. She took a potshot at it.
"Score! Nice… sigh."
One wolf wasn't going to make a difference.
"Okay, okay, let's find one last fireball and get this over with."
Maple jumped up, remotivated and ready to resume the grind.
She narrowed her eyes, scanning her surroundings, determined not to miss a single
fireball.
"Finally!"
Spotting a wisp of flame out of the corner of her eye, she trained her cannons in that
direction and hosed the area with bullets. This was completely overkill. Bullet after
bullet struck the fireball. It never had a hope of avoiding this fate, and it quickly turned
to motes of light.
"Whew… done at last."
Maple collected her drop and checked her inventory, making sure she had the
necessary number of Soul Fragments.
"Good! Man, that took forever. And I thought I was having a good day, too…"
Her progress had only been good in the beginning.
She stretched and then turned to leave. It was time to turn this quest in.
But once again, the odds do ebb and flow.
"Mm?"
There was a scrunch behind her. She turned to see what it could be.
It turned out to be a four-yard-tall snowman looming over her.
Eyes and mouth made of coal, a carrot nose.
Its branch-like arms clutched a sack, and there was a red hat on its head.
"Whoa!"
This was an event monster—and the one that gave the most points to boot.
"You're mine!"
She spun around, unloading directly in the snowman's face.
Her bullets went all the way through, but the HP bar hardly budged.
And the snowman pushed right through her volley, swinging the sack at her.
"Eep? That's how it attacks?!"
The swing caught her on the shieldless side, shattering her cannons and sending her
flying.
"Is this one of those magic-only monsters? Time to find out!"
She raised her shield and aimed her cannons diagonally down, shooting herself
toward the snowman.
Devour tore away a huge chunk of the snowman's body, and she shot right through the
gap left behind.
She landed with her usual lack of finesse, shattering a few more weapons, and spun
around—only to find the HP bar still almost completely full.
"They sure are coming up with loads of new monster types… Hydra!"
At the least, it wasn't fast on its feet. The snowman didn't even try to dodge the attack,
which hit dead center, splashing patches of poison everywhere.
"Wait… n-no effect at all?"
The attack itself did knock off a dot or two of HP, but the status effect didn't take hold
or seem to do anything.
She could probably keep chipping away at it and win eventually, but it was clearly not
worth the time.
"Still, I'd hate to let it get away…"
Weathering a storm of icicles the snowman was shooting at her, she considered her
next move.
After a short while, she decided her only option was to team up with Syrup and take
the slow-but-steady route.
"All ready!"
She used Giganticize to ride Syrup to a safe height and then blasted Spirit Cannon
down at her target.
Meanwhile, she planned to burn through all her remaining uses of Hydra and then
switch to her armaments.
"Okay! Hydra!"
Another poison dragon chewed through the snow—and this time, all its HP vanished.
"Huh? What the—?"
The monster vanished in a burst of light as something fell to the ground.
"Um… hmm. Oh! It must've been the instant death thing!"
This was the first time her Bug Urn Curse had activated, but it clearly worked like a
charm.
Maple ran over to the item lying on the snow.
It was a box wrapped in red paper with a green ribbon, which really stood out against
the white backdrop.
She scooped it up and checked the description.
Gift Box
Usable for a week after December 25. Contents are random.
"I wonder what's inside? Something Christmassy, I hope?"
Since her goal here was already accomplished, Maple headed back to town, thoroughly
satisfied.
Meanwhile, Sally was taking the opposite approach—running pell-mell across the
map, slaughtering every event monster she could find, and racking up points.
After polishing off another group, she sheathed her daggers and decided on a quick
rest.
"Sigh… I just can't catch up," she muttered.
She was picturing a certain friend she had invited to the game.
This was the first time she and Maple had played together for any length of time, and
she loved that, but it also brought out her competitive streak.
And no matter what tactics she used, she couldn't picture herself ever taking Maple
down.
"I never thought she'd get so strong…"
Maple was blazing a trail far out ahead of her, and Sally was hunting high and low for
skills that might help, even scouring forums in her desperate bid to catch up. Sadly,
she still hadn't discovered anything decisive.
"I'm not giving up, though. Back to the grind."
She forced her legs to start moving again.
Sword Dance was providing its maximum buff, and that meant Sally could dispatch
the low-point monsters without even breaking stride, so she was making excellent
progress.
"You guys should learn from Maple and boost your defense!"
Red sparks sprayed in her wake.
Just as monsters without piercing damage never stood a chance against Maple, foes
with no AOEs couldn't even touch Sally.
"If she was just tanky, I could have taken Maple on, too."
She could handle these simplistic foes even with her mind elsewhere, but there were
limits to how far raw talent could carry her, and she kept running into the same walls.
"Any good skills just lying around?"
After spending another two or three hours grinding the event, she spotted a huge
snowman ahead of her.
"Oh, that's the high-point one. Lucky me."
Sally closed in, ducking under its swing and casting a spell.
"Fire Ball!"
Her magic wasn't that powerful, but this thing was especially weak against fire, and
that sealed its fate.
Maple may have struggled with this monster, but a few Fire Balls was all it ordinarily
took.
"Mm, delicious points!"
She had plenty of drops to collect before this event ended, so she was soon on the
move once more.
The increasingly pressing need for some new power-up had her even more motivated
than before.
Maple was too close to ignore, and Sally was too competitive to accept defeat.