As Christmas drew near, Maple was looking forward to opening her Gift Box. It was
beautifully wrapped, and she'd taken it out of her inventory just to stare at it.
"I wonder what's inside."
After a few more minutes, she double-checked the admin news to see when this event
would officially end.
As she was reading, something in the article gave her an idea. She put the present away
and bounded up from her chair.
Her feet took her directly to Iz's workshop.
She peered inside and found the master hard at work.
"Oh, Maple! What's up?"
"Um, it's not super important…"
Maple proceeded to suggest cooking up something Christmassy.
Why? So they could have a party.
"Nice," Iz said. "But wait, I think tomorrow's the last day everyone can play until after
Christmas."
"Would you need more time than that?"
"That's not the problem. It's a perfect chance for me to strut my stuff! Now that I don't
even need to repair Kasumi's weapon… Well, I'm just glad to have a chance to do
something else."
Iz wasn't just a blacksmith—she was a crafter.
"But if we're going to have a party, we'll want everyone there, right? That means we've
gotta be ready by then."
"R-right… and there's nobody else here…"
Maple and Iz were the only guild members logged in today. Any party prep would have
to be handled by the two of them.
"We'll need to gather a bunch of stuff to pull it off. Anything you particularly want to
eat?"
Maple showed Iz the admin e-mail she'd been looking at.
Iz knew what it said, so she quickly started nodding to herself.
"Right, the event monsters drop those Gift Boxes if you're lucky, but their 'bad' drops
actually come in handy for our purposes."
The common drops could be used to make cakes and chicken. They weren't exactly
valuable items, but it was definitely in the spirit of the holiday. At least… the Japanese
version.
"Heh-heh-heh… I'll go get us some!"
"Well, the drop rate still isn't exactly generous, and we're gonna need a lot, so… good
luck?"
"I got this!"
"That's the spirit. I'll take stock of the fruit and vegetables I'm growing."
Iz waved her out, and Maple left the Guild Home.
She made her way to the town entrance and did a few stretches to get herself fired up.
"Okay! Let's see how many I can get! It'd be nice to nab some presents while I'm at it!
Atrocity!"
Maple was enveloped in darkness and emerged in monster form. Adroitly moving all
her limbs, she scuttled off across the snow.
A short run later, she encountered several event monsters.
Maple started every fight by breathing fire, roasting them instantly. Once the dust
settled, she checked to see if they'd dropped anything.
"Snow Shards… these sell for a decent price, but you can't eat them. Hmm, I'll sell them
later!"
Undaunted, she went looking for more monsters. The higher the point value, the better
the drop rate. Consequently, she was especially looking for rarer monsters.
"Sally was absolutely right: Fire makes it easy!"
Maple ran around for a bit, scanning the horizon as she went. She was finding fewer
monsters than she'd hoped.
She kept this up for a while but didn't run into many more and hadn't found anything
she was looking for, either.
"…W-were they always this rare? Urgh, now what? It's looking less doable by the
second…"
Feeling tired, she decided to curl up under a tree and rest, hoping to recover her
motivation.
"…I wish the snow was deeper."
There was only a light dusting on the ground, not even enough for your feet to sink in.
Maple thought it was a bit of a waste.
"Maybe there'll be a whole stratum like that someday…"
Then she and Sally could explore it together. After a moment imagining the adventures
they'd have, she finally felt like resuming her drop hunt.
"Up and at 'em!" she cried, scrambling back to her feet. "Mm? Isn't that…?"
She saw someone in the distance she recognized, so she ran over.
And nobody ever missed Maple in monster form. They looked rather alarmed.
"Mii! Fancy meeting you here."
"Maple! Uh…" Mii coughed, then narrowed her eyes. "What's seems to be the matter?
Did you need something?"
She had three guild members with her—Misery, Shin, and Marx, all of whom were
trying not to stare.
"Not really! I was just out looking for event monsters and thought I'd say hi!"
"Oh…," Shin said, relaxing a bit. "Seeing you run up in that body, we just… naturally
brace ourselves."
"Yes, I may never get used to it…"
"Humans should look human…"
Oblivious to this general air of discomfort, Maple kept casually talking to Mii.
"I just can't seem to find any! I checked places where there were lots before, but…"
"Mm? Oh, that won't work. The high-spawn areas change every day."
"They do?! Thaaat explains it."
Maple had not planned on participating in this event much, if at all, so she'd only just
read the full message explaining how the event worked earlier that day. She never got
past the part about the various ingredients.
"Whether you need it or not, it's always better to be in the know. It's something worth
remembering."
"Mm, fair enough. I'll bear that in mind! Oh, right, Mii, if you're going monster hunting,
can I tag along? You can have the Gift Boxes. Please!"
The trio with Mii looked puzzled. The presents were what everyone else was after.
"If you don't want those, why hunt at all? I mean, there's the points, but… it doesn't
sound like you care about that."
"Um, actually…"
Maple explained her goal, and Shin looked taken aback by the very concept.
"That way of playing is basically alien to Shin."
"This guy… he barely bothered to put a table and a chair in his guild room…"
"I mean… I'm just here to fight, you know?"
"I say we team up," Misery said. "No reason to turn her down. Mii said you made it easy
for her to go wild."
No one doubted Maple's fighting skills.
And if the price of her help was the dropped ingredients, well, that was a great bargain.
"Sounds like a plan. Maple, do you mind?"
"In this body, I'm pretty fast! Hop aboard!"
She flattened herself out, letting the others scramble on.
"Oh! I kinda wanted to try this!" Shin yelled, excitedly climbing on.
Marx was far more cautious. "It's not a ride," he grumbled. "You won't drop us, right?"
"Mii, shall we?"
"But of course."
Once all four were on board, Maple got up. Marx sat at her head.
"I'll show the way… so run where I point."
"Will do!"
Following his instructions, Maple raced across the field, and they were soon at their
destination. The snow was falling pretty hard—a sure sign the spawn rates were
higher here.
Maple put the others down, then activated Martyr's Devotion. They'd formed an ad
hoc party, so as long as everyone stayed in range, death was nigh impossible.
"Seeing that form with angel wings is even creepier!"
"Yeah… some things are better off left unseen. I'm gonna go that way."
Marx walked off, setting some traps as he went.
"Flame Formation… here, and here… and maybe here?"
While he was getting set up, Shin used Splinter Sword to break his blade apart, and
Misery imbued the shards with the fire element. And Mii was, of course, a fire
specialist.
"Time to rock and roll. The monsters are spawning."
All that fruitless searching Maple had done, and now there were tons of them.
She was about to breathe fire herself, but before she could, Shin's blades, wreathed in
fire, sliced apart a snowman monster.
Anything that got past those was burned by flames spurting out of Marx's traps.
"Mii, wanna see who beats the most?"
"You've got me on numbers. But if we make it total damage dealt…"
Their idle chitchat didn't make them any less ruthlessly efficient. Monster after
monster kept dropping.
The field was awash in flames, damage sparks, and the lights of dying foes.
"If we don't need to defend or heal you, there's not much for me and Marx to do."
"Yep… nothing gets close."
"Wow! I wish I could make swords fly or cast big fire spells!"
"You're terrifying enough, Maple…"
"I love the angel wings."
"Heh-heh-heh. Next time we meet, I'll have mastered fire!"
"That's… Could you not try too hard?"
"I'm looking forward to seeing that."
"Misery?!"
And while they bantered, more monsters went up in flames.
They repeated this operation in a few more places, tearing through the monster
population and getting Maple all the ingredients she needed.
"Well, Maple? That enough?"
"Eh-heh-heh! Totally. Thanks, Mii!"
"You helped us plenty, too. We didn't have to run from place to place on foot or worry
about defending ourselves. It was a blast!"
"Well, see you around… hopefully in… a human body, next time…"
"Bye now. I do hope you enjoy your feast."
Maple waved and headed back to her guild.
"If we end up with extra, I should share with Mii's group."
She reverted to human form near town and ran back home.
The next day…
Maple Tree members gathered in their Guild Home's hall. On the table were the fruits
of Iz's labor: roast chicken, ice cream cake, salad, and soup.
"Um… S-Sally? Wh-what am I supposed to say here?" Maple asked in a panic.
"Huh? You actually stood up without a plan?!"
"Augh…! Merry Christmas! And a happy New Year!"
Everyone cheered and promptly dug into Iz's feast.
"Well, I'm pretty proud of what I managed to do! And once this event wraps up, we
may not see these ingredients for a while… such a shame."
""It's all great!""
The twins were both stuffing their faces, as were Chrome and Kasumi.
"Always nice to take a break from the grind."
"Yes, it's a nice change of pace. The most important thing is to have fun."
"So where did you get that katana? It must've been a weird quest, right?"
"…That's top secret."
"Figured. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing it in action, even if that shrinking effect
is a little weird."
"Ugh, spare me… and then there's the sarashi…"
While they talked, Iz gave Kanade a new puzzle, which took him all of one minute to
solve.
"Well… the food's good, so eat up!" she said. It mostly sounded like she was making
excuses for the puzzle.
"G-got it. I'll have some more now!"
"The next one'll be twice as hard!"
"Mm, can't wait."
Kanade took a big bite.
"Mm! With all you've made for me, I'm gonna gather materials for you. It's guaranteed
that anything I give you will come back better."
Maple and Sally were listening to the merry festivities, looking delighted.
"Was it hard putting all this together?"
"I had help, so everything worked out. Wish I'd thought of it sooner!"
"When I logged in and saw you partied up, I almost freaked out! But I guess I'm getting
used to you surprising me."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, I mean… You're pretty much always doing something unexpected."
She named a few examples, and they were basically all skills Maple had stumbled
across.
"Eh-heh-heh. I was just having fun, and before I knew it, this is how it turned out!"
"Yup! I'm content as long as you're enjoying yourself."
Maple turned toward Sally, smiling. "Sally, next year will be even more fun."
"Can't wait to play more with ya!"
And the party went on strong till all the food was gone.
On Christmas Day…
Maple was finally able to open the Gift Box she'd found.
She and Sally both showed up in the Guild Home at the same time.
"Oh, Sally! I didn't know you'd be here."
"Could say the same about you, Maple. You planning on going anywhere?"
"Mm… I don't think so. I'm mostly here for my present. Basically just couldn't wait to
open it."
Maple took the red box out of her inventory.
"You got one? So did I."
Sally's present was yellow. The wrapping was a little different, but it was undoubtedly
the same Gift Box drop item.
She held it in both hands, letting the emotions wash over her.
"It was a long journey," she said, stroking the lid. "I lost count of how many I defeated."
Maple decided not to mention she'd got hers the first time she fought one.
She decided to forge ahead instead. "Let's crack them open! I'm dying to see what's
inside!"
Both tugged the ribbons and popped the lids off. Inside each was a scroll.
The items that gave you new skills.
"A skill, huh? Let's see what's what."
They checked the skill descriptions.
Ice Pillar
Creates a single indestructible column of ice for 3MP. Limit five.
Lasts one minute.
Zone Freeze
For three seconds after activation, immobilizes any players or monsters in contact
with the ground within a five-yard radius of the user.
Three-minute cooldown.
The first was Sally's scroll.
The second was Maple's.
"Sally, look what I got!"
"Here's mine. Looks like there are several types. I haven't used Oceanic much lately, so
this might be more useful… Gotta watch my MP, though."
Sally was muttering away, figuring out what this new skill meant for her.
If she used it right, it could definitely help with her defenses.
"Meanwhile, I can just freeze any monsters that seem strong! I just go schiiing!"
"Yeah, that sounds good."
"Yep, yep. I guess that's it for this year!"
"Mm? Really?"
Maple already had her logout window open.
"I gotta pick away at our homework, and the start of January's always really hectic. I
think I might not be back on for a bit. Sally, don't wait until the last minute to do the
homework."
"I already did it all, so I'm actually gonna be playing a ton."
Sally's motivation levels could make a big difference. Shaking her head at that, Maple
logged out.
Left to her own devices, Sally returned to planning.
"They're gonna add another new stratum soon, so things are quiet for now… We
haven't found a way to weaken the dude behind the last gate, so I can't do that… I guess
I could backtrack and explore more around the machine town?"
When Maple wasn't around, Sally was usually trying to catch up, so it was rare for her
to be operating without a specific goal like this.
"Maybe following my whims once in a while won't hurt. It works for Maple!"
Pinning her hopes on the upcoming fifth stratum, Sally headed back to the third.
Ultimately, she found no new skills and no weird events.
All she really got out of it was a solid grasp on how to use Ice Pillar.
But that was enough to prove just how useful her new skill was.
All along, she'd handled AOE threats with magic barriers, but these didn't last long.
Having something that stuck around for a full minute was an enormous boon.
Part of her wished it wasn't translucent—she was fully visible behind it—but even so,
it was still pretty great.