The event came to a close while Maple was still flying around on Heaven's Throne.
She never did make it back to the jungle.
As things wound down and everyone was ready for a breather from grinding, Maple
found herself back at the Guild Home.
"I didn't even realize the event ended! It was just way too hard to get those jungle
tickets."
As Maple thought about what to do next, Sally came in the door.
She waved Sally over.
"Sup, Maple. Any luck in the jungle? I came out decently."
From the grin on her face, she must be pretty happy with her haul.
"Mm… not really. I gave up and just explored the normal map instead."
"Ah… no luck with tickets? Well, find anything interesting on this side?"
"Totally!" Maple said, her face lighting up.
"Yeah? What?"
"A throne!"
"Um. Sorry, come again?"
"...? I got a throne!"
"Riiight…"
That alone seemed to give Sally a sense of the implications, and she settled onto the
couch next to Maple.
Sally had been hitting the jungles hard, so they hadn't seen each other in a while.
Between Maple's new throne and Sally's jungle adventures, there was no lack of things
they needed to catch up on.
And eventually the conversation turned to the next stratum.
"With the event over, it might not be long till they add a new level."
"Oh yeah. Wonder what it'll be like? I hope it's pretty."
Maple's mind was on fantastic sights to come.
Beautiful ocean vistas, murmuring forests, bustling towns…
"So if you've got anything left to do here, better get it done."
"That makes it sound like you've got a place in mind, Sally."
"Kinda. You hit the place with the slow rain yet? Wanna try and clear it?"
This was an area Chrome and Kasumi had found.
The fifth stratum's motif was an illusory world nestled among the clouds, and it had
none of your typical forests and fields. The ground was all fluffy white and so were the
dungeon walls. While the map reflected this, dangerous areas were marked with
lightning—or slow-falling rain.
Sally explained that someone else had already cleared this area and the reward was
now public knowledge.
"Oh, but Sally, you haven't been to the lightning zone yet, right?"
"No need. The skills you mentioned don't sound like my thing."
"Roger. In that case… shall we?"
"Yep. Let's get ready and hit up the slow rain."
Preparations did not take long.
As they reached the building exit, it opened from the outside.
"Oh, Maple, Sally. Where you headed?"
It was Kasumi, swinging by the Guild Home because she didn't have anything better
to do.
"We're headed to the slow-rain area. Thanks for the tip-off!"
"Oh, that place… Actually, mind if join you?" Kasumi asked. This sounded like the
perfect opportunity.
Naturally, Maple and Sally had no reason to refuse. The three of them set out together.
"So, uh, Kasumi, you pick one up yet?"
"No, afraid not. I was busy with the event."
"...?"
Maple had no clue what they were talking about.
Seeing that, Sally threw a riddle at her.
"Maple, what do you need when it's raining outside?"
"Er, I guess… an umbrella?"
A shot in the dark.
"Exactly! You gotta have one to get through the slow rain."
"So our first order of business is to go umbrella shopping. We know where they're
sold."
Kasumi and Sally led the way, Maple in tow.
After a quick stroll, they reached the umbrella shop.
It was a tiny store filled with rows of umbrellas in all shapes, sizes, and hues.
"Hmm, which one…?"
"They all do the same thing."
"Yeah, I get that," Maple said, but she kept prowling the shop, searching for the right
umbrella.
"I'm going with this one."
"Simple is best."
Kasumi chose a dark red while Sally opted for a blue that matched her outfit.
"Maple is… over there. Uh, what is that?"
Maple was holding an umbrella made entirely of fluffy clouds.
"It's a limited item!"
"That phrase is like your only weakness."
"Hrk… I know, but… it works like a normal umbrella, see?"
She opened up her first choice and twirled it overhead.
"I assume if they're selling it as a regular product, it's functional, so… it shouldn't be a
problem, right? Probably?"
Kasumi found it hard to make definitive statements when Maple was involved.
All three of them made their purchases in short order, and they continued on toward
the slow-rain zone.
They ran into several monsters on the way, but that didn't even slow down this party.
They bulldozed their way right to their destination.
"Looks like it's still coming down. Maple, umbrella time."
"Gotcha!"
Maple fished the cloudbrella out of her inventory. Sally and Kasumi followed suit.
"The umbrellas protect you from anything falling, but if a drop lands nearby, try to
dodge the spray."
"Will do! Let's go!"
Umbrellas held high, they ventured into the slow rain.
"See? It's not getting through!"
Maple could feel drops striking the umbrella above her and was relieved to find it
really wasn't porous.
Her umbrella didn't exactly look like an umbrella, but it worked just fine.
"That shop wasn't kidding about their merchandise, then," Sally said. "We've got a bit
of a hike ahead of us, so let me brief you on your role in the boss fight, Maple."
She quickly laid out the basic strategy.
"Mm-hmm, I can do that!" Maple said, nodding. It was fairly straightforward.
"Heads up," Kasumi said. "We're here."
She folded her umbrella.
The skies above were still cloudy, but there was no more rainfall.
Maple and Sally put their umbrellas away, getting ready for action.
After completing last-minute preparations, all three stepped into the boss's domain.
"Here it comes!"
Before them, a mass of water seeped through the clouds, rising from the ground in a
humanoid form.
The surface of it rippled, and within that water floated a blue lump.
That blue bit was the boss's core—its weak point.
And as its shape coalesced, the clouds above began to change.
"More rain incoming, Maple!"
"Yep, just like you said!"
"That's all yours, girls."
Each of them knew her job and sprang into action.
And in response, the boss's liquid body shifted, its arms becoming swords.
It moved toward them, feet squelching on the clouds below.
Meanwhile, the skies opened, releasing not raindrops but orbs of water over a yard
across.
At the same time that Kasumi charged the boss, Sally activated two skills in rapid
succession.
"First up, Oceanic! Then Subzero Domain!"
The first created a puddle, and the second froze it, coating the ground in a layer of
frost.
"Perfect. Web Spinner! Ice Pillar!"
Sally used two more skills, and Maple watched in awe as she used her webs to scurry
up the side of the pillar.
"Wow! That's so cool! Oops, time for me to get going, too. Full Deploy!"
Maple aimed her weapons at the sky.
She had two jobs.
The first was to break the water orbs as Sally froze them. Since this would likely make
the boss target Maple, her second job was to soak its attacks.
Maple began firing into the air, shattering the chunks of ice as fast as Sally could freeze
them.
This tactic was effective because they didn't let the orbs come near them even after
freezing all the water in midair.
Like the surrounding slow rain, these watery orbs would apply a speed debuff if they
hit any of the players.
Their strategy hinged on not letting that happen.
"Wow, Sally's bounding all over the place…," Maple murmured in awe.
She was watching Sally jump from pillar to pillar, freezing all the rain orbs overhead.
"That's so cool!"
Maple's eyes were gleaming in pure admiration, but pulling this amazing feat off
required untold amounts of effort, even for Sally.
"Right Hand: Web, Right Hand: Contract, Left Hand: Web, Left Foot: Web, Left Hand:
Contract, Right Foot: Web, Right Hand: Web, Right Hand: Contract, Left Hand: Web!"
To control her webs, she had to constantly rattle out commands.
It was an excruciatingly careful ballet of creating webs, contracting them, and
canceling them with impeccable timing.
She soared through the skies, constantly monitoring her webs all the while.
Coming to a stop on an ice pillar, she took a moment to catch her breath.
"Whew, that's one stage down. If we let these orbs fall, we'd all be snails… The next
part isn't any easier, so I can't let up now."
Once they'd shattered a number of orbs, the boss changed tactics.
It had been busy pummeling Maple's head with its swords, but now its core shifted,
slipping into the clouds underfoot.
They didn't have to wait long before several cores emerged, making copies of the boss.
The more rainwater fell, the more copies would appear, and the harder it would
become to find the real core. Since Maple's party had handled the orbs well, the boss
only made the minimum number of copies.
"Looks like our plan worked. It's time for Blood Blade!"
Now it was Kasumi's turn. The cursed sword in her hand transformed into a dark red
liquid.
This temporarily halved Kasumi's HP—
But the results were absolutely worth it. Her Blood Blade shot out in all directions,
hurtling through the air and running along the ground, staining the clouds red as she
hit every core at once.
"When in doubt, just stab everything!"
Once the attack ended, Kasumi's blade went back to normal, returning to her hand.
In a solo fight, this was a risky skill, but with Maple keeping the boss busy, she could
safely take full advantage.
"I think doing that three more times should be enough. This boss definitely makes you
work for it."
"Kasumi! Potion!"
"Thanks!"
If they let even a single orb fall, she wouldn't be able to hit every core, and the tide of
the battle would slowly but surely turn against them. Until the boss went down, there
would be no margin for error.
The second stage of the final boss fight on this stratum had begun. It would only get
harder from here on out.
That said, what they actually did wasn't much different.
Kasumi and Sally both knew exactly how the boss's attack patterns changed in each
phase. (Maple not so much.)
Making it through the first phase made them confident they could pull this off.
"The rain's falling faster! Sally's… got it covered."
Each stage of the boss fight they cleared meant more orbs that moved faster and faster.
Since Maple was keeping the boss itself thoroughly preoccupied, Kasumi could afford
to keep her head on a swivel, ready to step in if Sally couldn't freeze an orb in time.
But Sally was flawlessly taking them out, so she was mostly just admiring Sally's
performance.
"Sally's conquered the sky, too. I guess she's still relatively normal compared to Maple…
I think?"
Technically speaking, Sally was merely jumping from pillar to pillar and not literally
flying. Technically.
"I bet she could go absolutely nuts in a forest. With less slippery footholds, her
mobility would be even more dizzying to look at."
But while Kasumi pictured that, the boss's core moved again, creating slightly more
copies than before.
"Blood Blade!"
At the cost of yet more HP, her red blade spread out, once again destroying every core.
"I can hit that number, too? Hmm. Definitely more versatile than Purple Phantom
Blade. Of course, the damage isn't as high…"
Kasumi's persistent core hunting was apparently enough to draw the boss's aggro.
However, this monster was on the slow side, and her AGI proved more than enough to
keep her out of its reach. This boss had only gotten the opportunity to pummel Maple
because she was so slow—and, more to the point, hadn't bothered evading at all.
"It should start using ranged attacks alongside the rain right about now…"
And since Kasumi was well aware of what each new stage would bring, she was not
about to be caught flat-footed.
Ultimately, Sally never let a single orb hit the ground, and the boss remained at a
disadvantage.
Maple never ran out of ammo, and Kasumi didn't get hit even once.
Their plan went off without a hitch.
When the last Blood Blade pierced the final core, the boss crumbled away.
"Aww, I didn't get a chance to bust out my secret weapon."
Maple was disappointed she hadn't gotten to use her throne. Sally came sliding down
the ice pillar and trotted over.
"Whew… first time slinging these in a real fight, but it sure is exhausting. I don't think
the devs meant for the skill to be used this way."
She started doing stretches.
"You were amazing, Sally!"
"Mm? Was I? Sweet. I can't exactly fly alongside you, Maple, but maybe someday we
can team up for some aerial combat."
"Hey, you two! It dropped some items!" Kasumi called.
They ran over and checked out their loot.
Rain Crystal
Creates up to three water orbs that inflict a 50% AGI debuff on contact. One-minute
cooldown.
Sally didn't waste any time trying it out, and the orbs it made were a good twenty
inches across. They slowly wobbled away.
"Looks like the orbs vanish if they take damage. I dunno… maybe you could use them
as footholds, Sally?"
"That was my thought. Worth a try anyway. Seems pretty hard to hit anyone with
these…"
If Sally combined the orbs with her Ice Pillar, she might be able to gain even more air
time. That was one reason she'd wanted to come here.
"Is there any way for me to use them?" Maple wondered. "I suppose I could try it if
anyone pops out right in front of me."
They would certainly be quite effective at such close range, but whether Maple would
have the wherewithal to remember that option was a separate matter.
But this was the last thing they'd had to do on this floor; they'd be spending the rest
of their time here waiting for the next event or stratum.
"Time to hit the road?"
"You know it."
But before they could turn to go, they saw an impish grin on Maple's face.
"Heaven's Throne!" she yelled.
A white throne appeared behind her.
"Um...?!"
"Wha—?!"
They gaped at Maple, then hastily looked around.
"Ha! I just wanted to show it off. Well? Surprised? Pretty, ain't it?"
Maple was all smiles.
"Sure… but it wasn't the aesthetics that startled us."
"Then again, this is pretty much par for the course with Maple."
"...?"
Maple had no idea what Kasumi meant by that.