"Where to next?" Pain muttered, on his own. "At least I know exactly where I am. That
makes it easier to plan."
Most of the jungle looked completely the same, and this tree was one of the few
discernible landmarks.
Pain decided to head to an area nearby where lots of golems spawned. That seemed
like a good destination now that he'd gotten the skill he wanted.
He stepped onto the exit circle and was back on the twisted giant tree.
"Mm-hmm. Time to go."
Pain set out once more.
On his way down the stairs, he bumped into a party of four on their way up.
Chrome, Misery, Kanade, and Marx.
Both pairs had been heading for the same spot and met up not far from the tree,
deciding to run the boss together.
They looked surprised to see Pain on his way down.
Chrome and Pain chatted a moment. When he heard where Pain was headed, he
conferred with his party and offered up a new proposal.
If Pain helped them out, they'd help him.
With this party, they needed someone who could dish out a lot of damage in a short
amount of time.
"…Fair enough. Let's share info."
Accepting the offer, Pain told them everything he knew, making sure they would have
everything they needed to win this fight.
Chrome asked a few questions, then concluded, "That works. We can handle this."
Pain's resources were still in good shape, and he'd already fought it once with Maple,
allowing him to carefully observe its patterns from a position of safety.
Moreover, this eliminated any chance of failure.
"With the five of us, it won't take long."
Pain's prediction proved true.
He took the lead attack role, while Chrome used his shield to deflect the boss's blows.
With Pain relaxed and confident, he was able to handle this foe with maximum
efficiency.
Chrome took no damage, easily soaking or deflecting everything the boss threw at
them.
Pain and Marx found his performance reassuring—but perhaps not entirely because
he was "strong" or "reliable."
Be that as it may, the other four all got the skill they had been searching for.
And once they were all back at the tree, they set out in search of golems.
They stayed close together.
This party was heavy on back-liners, so they couldn't exactly surge forward carelessly.
They had to take their time, staying hidden.
Pain told Chrome that if they'd met up a few minutes earlier, they'd have had Maple
along.
"She was here?"
"I was playing with her just before I found you. She's something else. Always has been."
"Never fought her myself. I'd like to give it a shot someday, but… that could get ugly."
Chrome had been playing with Maple for a while. (Though not as long as Sally.)
That meant he'd had time to think about how he could use his shield and skills against
her attacks.
Whether that would lead to victory was another matter.
Chrome was confident he could survive her onslaught but didn't have anything that
granted him a win condition.
"If the chance comes along, I'll go all out. I can be pretty tenacious," he said, thumping
his chest.
"The way she is now… I'm not too far off from being able to cut her down."
"That's the spirit! But she has a tendency to evolve in the weirdest ways, so there's no
guarantee she'll stay like this."
Chrome had seen it firsthand.
Maple would get stuck for ages, then suddenly grow explosively.
And nobody could tell when that cycle would come around—not even Maple herself.
"Heads up, golem time! Battle stations!"
Watching their surroundings as they talked, they made it to their destination—the
golem-infested area.
Lots of moss-covered ruins here—more fallen pillars and rubble than there were trees.
Misery cast buffs on Pain and Chrome.
"Hmm, I haven't done much… better set some traps."
Marx switched from his on-the-go setup to instead ready some costlier traps that
worked well against large foes.
While he was preparing those, Pain started hacking away at a golem's rock arms.
"A single golem is no challenge!"
He twisted himself to avoid its swing, then used Leap to strike at its torso.
To Pain, one golem no longer even required blocking.
This golem had been several times his height, yet Pain handily took it down all on his
own.
The fight lasted less than a minute.
As he sheathed his blade, Chrome came over.
"Uh, Pain… Look there."
"Hmm? Interesting."
Where Chrome pointed…
Shattered pillars. Moss-covered ruins.
…And a golem emerging from the shadows. Not just one, either. Golem after golem
marched out, rocky feet thudding as they approached.
As if they were intent on preventing anyone from heading farther in.
The party watched as the area filled with golems, like gray ink blotting out the
landscape.
"Pain, what do we do?"
"Take out the bare minimum and make our getaway!"
"Got it."
With that brief exchange, Chrome and Pain readied their weapons.
Misery cast an AGI buff on everyone in preparation for their imminent escape.
"Both sides'll be held up briefly by traps, but not for long."
"Let me use a grimoire… Hmm, do I have anything that has piercing? This one?"
Kanade pulled out a yellow-green tome.
Just before battle began, the tome glowed, activating.
Winds roared overhead.
The howling gale grew in volume, taking direction, sweeping onward.
Loud as any explosion.
Spears made of air suddenly impaled a number of golems.
Dirt flew, and the ground beneath their feet shook.
"It doesn't do as much damage as it might seem to at a glance," Kanade said. "Hurry!"
At his urging, Pain led them through a gap in the golem formation.
"Don't… you move…"
There was a burst of light beneath the feet of the golems on each side, impeding their
movements.
Marx was burning through MP fast, but Misery quickly used her skills to top him up.
She could help people recover more than just health.
There were limits to it—it was hardly infinite—but it was enough to get them out of
this jam.
"There's too many! Don't even try and fight!" Chrome bellowed, deflecting a fist to the
side so it hit the ground.
Breaking free of this ambush was hard enough already; trying to take on the golems
in a stand-up fight would be downright suicidal.
But just as they seemed trapped—
—a burst of fire decapitated a golem nearby.
Why had a golem suddenly gone up in flames, crumbling into a shower of light?
Pain and Chrome spun toward it, baffled. But the flames weren't finished yet; they
were already assaulting the next golem at the direction of a lone girl—Mii.
She, too, had found herself surrounded by golems—and the combined spawns that
had been triggered were what resulted in the ridiculous numbers they were facing
now.
Mii had heard them fighting and naturally moved in their direction. Kanade, Chrome,
and Pain all had gear that was recognizable at a distance, and the other two were
friends of hers, so she immediately recognized them.
"If they're all here, then…"
She generated a massive pillar of fire beneath the golems' feet. It caught both the
golems around her and some around the other group.
This alone wasn't enough to kill them, but they did stagger.
And that gave the other party enough opening to rush over to Mii's position.
Misery and Marx suggested they were better off joining forces.
Mii took one look at them and called out, "Misery!"
"On it!"
Misery knew exactly what Mii wanted.
She started channeling over her excess MP.
"Ready…!"
The name of the skill was drowned out by the tramping of golem feet, but what
happened next made it clear this skill was insanely powerful.
A wall of fire sprang up around them, creating a straight corridor through the golem
horde.
"Clandestine Bloom," Marx whispered.
Slender tendrils grew around each of the players, and white flowers blossomed.
This skill could only be activated when out of sight of monsters. The cost was rather
high, but it kept them from spotting you for thirty seconds.
When the effect wore off, the flowers withered and fell, making it hard to miss.
"The golems despawn quick if they lose track of you," Mii said.
She started walking down the path of fire.
"Follow her. These walls won't stay up for long," Misery said. Then she caught up with
Mii, whispering, "Mind if we join you?"
"Please do. Dealing with them alone was… a lot."
Once Maple had uncovered her secret, it hadn't taken Mii long to mess up in front of
Misery. Now two people knew she was just role-playing.
But being able to drop the act around Misery meant she could relax more in her Guild
Home.
Misery took Mii's words and translated them for the others.
"Mii has agreed to a temporary alliance. Our forces are now one!"
And Misery was perfectly willing to help maintain Mii's painstakingly cultivated
image.
"My attack magic is all over the place right now, so that's a relief," Kanade said.
Only Misery saw how relieved Mii looked.
"Then let's keep moving. This stuff is time limited, right?" Chrome said, waving
everyone on.
And thus, they escaped the golem ambush before the flowers wore off.
Once again, Mii was relieved that the jungle was designed to not catch fire.
They moved on together.
"That's gotta be it."
Once past the golem blockade, the next thing they saw was naturally what the golems
were protecting.
Pain was pointing at some ruins made of moss-covered rock.
And deep within those ruins was a larger building—the kind that clearly had something
inside.
There were no monsters around, so they made it to the building without further
trouble.
They found a long, long set of staircases that led deep underground.
This was clearly the way to go, so down they went.
Their goal was the treasure that obviously lay hidden below—whatever it might be.
The stairs had no illumination at all.
And they had to make several turns. Soon, the light from above was not enough.
"I've got a lantern," Misery offered, pulling one from her inventory.
With that, they had enough light to see again.
"Nothing on the stairs," Chrome said, peering over his shield. Nothing here but endless
walls.
"...! I can see something up ahead. I think?"
"Mii?" Misery said, glancing her way.
Mii looked shifty immediately. She was getting way too used to being herself around
Misery.
"Yes, I see it clearly now. The stairs end not much farther on. At a door. I trust you all
know what that means."
Mii's eyes were glowing red.
This was a night vision skill that let her see farther than everyone else.
It wasn't long before the others could see the door, too. It was made of stone, with only
a groove cut in it—a handhold to help slide it open.
Chrome got a good grip and tried to do just that.
"Hmm? No use. It won't budge."
"Must require a certain Strength threshold. In which case, allow me."
Pain put his sword away and gave the door a heave.
There was a grinding sound as the door slowly slid open.
Blinding light poured out.
Corridors and stairs ran up, down, left, and right.
Magic circles glittered here and there alongside ancient switches that seemed clearly
significant in some way.
This was a true labyrinth. A real dungeon. They paused for a moment, gaping at the
view that had just opened up before them.
"Uh… so where do we start?" Chrome said.
"Too many choices," Pain grumbled. "I don't like it."
On his left alone there were five or six magic circles.
This could take forever.
"What now…? Where should we even go…?"
The look on Marx's face was almost as bad as when he'd first laid eyes on Maple's
Atrocity form.
Clearly, he was about ready to leave and was only staying put because they had this
party together.
"I vote we proceed at random. Monsters won't be a threat. And thinking about it won't
get us anywhere."
"Good point, Mii. I suggest we start by tapping a circle or that lever."
"I can keep track of what paths we take. At the least, we won't get lost or forget where
we've been."
That settled their plan for the moment.
There was a switch nearby, so they decided to pull it and see what happened.
"Here goes nothing!" Chrome said. He glanced back once with his hands on the shaft.
Everyone nodded. He hauled the shaft to the other side.
As he did, the network of staircases all rearranged themselves. Walls opened up,
revealing new corridors, while previously existing passages vanished from view.
Some magic circles faded, and new ones began to glow.
A single switch had transformed the entire maze.
"Wowza…"
Marx was now at full Maple/Atrocity face.
Chrome looked pretty grim himself.
"What now, Pain? You can pick what we should try next, if you want."
"Honestly, it seems like a giant headache. Ha-ha-ha. Chrome, the choice is yours."
With the two front-liners trying to foist the burden of making a decision off onto each
other, Kanade spoke up.
"Almost every staircase, passage, and magic circle changed—but there is one corridor
that didn't. Should we try that one?"
Kanade had a flawless recollection of the previous layout.
What no one else here could notice, his eyes immediately spotted.
"Another impossibly unique skill…," Marx muttered.
"Definitely more the Sally type," Misery agreed.
No one objected to the proposal, so everyone followed Kanade.
The passage led to a similar room with another switch.
"If it just keeps doing this… most of these must be traps."
"Kanade, this is all you."
"Trust me on this one!"
On they went.
Slipping safely past horrifying beasts and deadly traps.
All the malice poured into this dungeon's design was defeated by a single player—
Kanade.
Every clever trick designed to protect what lay within was foiled by an even cleverer
mind.
After a long trek from maze to maze, they found themselves in a room that was like
none before.
Resting at the back was a coffin, decorated with gold and jewels. The room was
otherwise empty. Just a floor of sand and dry stones. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
But the coffin on the floor was a good five yards tall, and nobody here assumed it had
treasure inside.
Their actual assumption proved true.
As they approached, there was a scraping sound as the lid slid open.
From within emerged a head decorated with a glittering crown. A skeletal king,
wielding a golden scepter.
And where its eyes should be, there were instead dark fires that served only to
emphasize the hollow pits.
"Here it comes! Brace yourselves!" Pain yelled.
And the battle with the skeletal king began.
As the battle started, Pain and Mii both hurled themselves at the boss.
Chrome made to chase after them, but the tip of the scepter lit up with blue fire.
And the seemingly ordinary floor split open, weapons thrusting upward, skeletons
emerging.
Black goo dripped from their rusty spears and swords.
"Chrome, hold the line in the rear!" Pain yelled, slicing down any skeletons that got in
his way.
"Roger! Taunt!"
Chrome turned on a dime, keeping his shield close to the three back-liners. The room
was filled with skeletons, and it would be a fatal mistake to let them swarm their
party's mages.
And as Chrome stabilized his defense of the rear, the back line let loose with roaring
fires and howling winds overhead.
Kanade was using grimoires with broad AOE spells while Misery was using similar
innate spells.
Marx was focused on backing up Chrome, trapping skeletons to ease the pressure on
him.
But using Taunt assured there were a lot of skeletons focusing on him.
Chrome was using every shield trick in the book to keep them back, hacking away with
his cleaver the whole while, but in time, a spear found its mark.
He reacted quickly, knocking the assailant away with his shield, but red sparks sprayed
from his arm.
"Not much damage from the hit, but… crap! Bad news! Look out, everyone, these
skeletons can inflict damage-over-time effects!"
Chrome's health bar was steadily dropping.
The effect only lasted a few seconds, but clearly, poison wasn't responsible—which
meant there were no possible countermeasures.
"And the skeleton mobs seem like they have infinite spawns!"
"In that case… focus your attacks around Mii and Pain. I'll lay traps here."
Marx pulled crystals and some type of seed from the pouches on his waist, scattering
them around.
The crystals shattered, and several nearby skeletons were bound by crackling light.
Those seeds grew fast, forming a hefty vine barrier and blocking the enemy's
approach.
This left Kanade and Misery free to focus their fire on the front line.
The closer Pain and Mii got to the boss, the more skeletons had stood in their way, but
the powerful cover fire finally let them get in range.
"Does fire work?"
Mii waved an arm, and Flame Empress's fire balls struck the boss, taking a visible
chunk of its HP bar.
But even as its health dropped, the resulting red sparks were drowned out by a pitchblack fluid.
Mii managed to avoid a direct hit, but several ancillary drops struck her.
"A DOT effect…!"
One of the worst effects to encounter in a no-heal zone.
"But it's made of paper. Holy Condemnation!"
Pain swung his sword, and the boss raised the scepter to block it. He parried that and
made a deep gouging cut upward from fleshless chest to skull.
Tanking his share of black goop, Pain attempted another strike, but more black fluid
started flowing over the coffin's brim.
"Tch. Mii!"
"One more!"
Mii smacked the boss's head again, making it stagger, and then she and Pain leaped
back.
There were skeletons where they landed, but the constant spell barrage from the rear
took care of those. They were free to focus on the boss.
The coffin fluid coated the floor around the boss and stopped.
Approaching on foot guaranteed they'd take some damage.
Then the boss flung the scepter upward. The ceiling absorbed it.
And all the boss's bones began to gleam with a dark brilliance.
As they did, half the mob skeletons crumpled and vanished, but black goo began
dropping from the ceiling.
And each drop carved a bit of HP away.
"Everyone forward! All-out attack!" Pain roared, charging in.
The back line surged forward to mid-range—where their attacks could reach the boss
itself.
But the boss's insidious glow grew brighter still, reducing the effectiveness of their
attacks.
"Chrome, can you get next to it? It's got a strong buff… but I can dispel that," Marx said.
There was a white disc over his right eye, like a monocle.
This allowed him to observe the boss's stats in detail.
"Will you two be okay?"
"I'll use a defensive grimoire. Don't worry."
The confidence in Kanade's voice gave Chrome the final push he needed. He took Marx
under his wing, and they plunged through the skeleton horde together.
He took plenty of damage, but Marx made it to his destination.
"All right… Holy Chains!"
A number of yellow circles appeared around the boss, from which emerged gleaming
white chains. These wrapped around the skeleton king.
The boss's black gleam vanished, and as a bonus, it was immobilized for three full
seconds.
And with Mii and Pain around, those three seconds were costly.
"Finish it!"
"Way ahead of you!"
Mii's fireballs scorched the bones, and a pillar of fire burned it and its coffin together.
Pain's holy combo carved a deep cross in the boss's face.
The black drops had everyone below half health—but at last, the skeleton king
returned to its eternal slumber.
After the boss's death light faded, the coffin alone remained.
When they peered inside, they found six scrolls and six silver medals, arranged like
they'd been buried with the ghastly king.
There were also a few rusty swords, but the scrolls and medals were the only things
that could be claimed as items.
Each took their share and checked the scroll's skill.
Reaper's Mire
For thirty seconds after use, attacks apply additional piercing damage equal to a
quarter of the damage dealt.
Five-minute cooldown.
This sounded a lot like the black goop that had done a number on all their HP bars.
Each of them considered how to best incorporate it into their builds.
Several of them found it merely interesting, while others looked immensely pleased.
Not long after, they left the dungeon behind and explored the jungle until their HP
finally ran out.