Time passed, as it is wont to do. Before long, early March arrived.
A dungeon on the fifth floor now contained a path to the next stratum.
A few early birds had already run it, and now it was Maple Tree's turn to do the same.
"The boss this time is a jellyfish made of clouds," Kasumi explained. "It uses a slew of
different status effects."
Chrome and Sally frowned.
"Do physical attacks work at all?" Chrome asked.
"Yes."
"In that case… we've got Mai and Yui," Sally pointed out.
Chrome's eyes narrowed. "Does it have piercing damage?"
"No one mentioned it," Kasumi said.
Chrome visibly relaxed. "Then we're set."
"Yup."
"That's right."
All Maple Tree members were present and accounted for.
They could tackle the boss in peak form.
These three spoke of victory not from arrogance but as a matter of course.
While plans were being laid, Iz and the others were getting ready in the back. They
soon emerged into the main living room.
"Let's go! Get this over with and hit the sixth stratum!"
"Should we take Syrup for a ride?" Maple suggested.
Everyone agreed, and the entire guild climbed aboard, bobbing on turtleback across
the sea of clouds.
"And we're here!"
Syrup settled onto the ground as they came in for a landing. Maple gave it a nice head
rub before returning it to her ring.
"We ready?"
"Maple in front! Kasumi and I'll take the rear. Just in case," Chrome said.
This really was nothing but a precaution. Even as he spoke, Maple was activating
Martyr's Devotion.
"Well, sometimes things cancel your skills…," he said.
With the twins in the center, the party headed down the narrow passage.
Mai and Yui were generally kept heavily guarded until the boss fight, where their true
potential could be unleashed.
"I mean, I think Maple could win this on her own."
"I entirely agree."
Kasumi and Chrome nodded at each other just as Maple's shield gobbled up a
thundercloud.
"Onward! March!"
The road was too narrow for ambushes, and as long as she had uses of Devour left, she
could vanquish all challengers just by holding her shield in front of her.
If she'd been running this solo, she'd have filled these corridors with poison, so this
was Maple being considerate.
Any monsters capable of slowing Maple down were overqualified to be trash mobs
and would never be on this map in the first place.
On her own, Maple's odds of making a wrong turn (or accidentally going to the wrong
dungeon entirely) were fairly high, but this time she had Sally navigating for her, and
they made it to the boss room in style.
They opened the doors and stepped in. The room itself was made out of clouds—and
as they entered, the downy ceiling began to move.
Wispy tentacles also made of clouds extended downward, and the jellyfish followed.
"Wow! That looks so fluffy!"
"It's poisonous, though. Maple, you keep it busy."
"Roger!"
Maple began horsing around with the jellyfish.
The tentacles had a paralytic effect, but it didn't affect her. If anything, she found it
rather pleasant.
The boss was hitting her pretty hard, but the impact seemed only to knock the
tentacles back.
Behind her, Mai and Yui were standing just at the edge of Maple's protection, loaded
up with buffs and waiting for their moment.
They didn't have to wait long.
"Here we go!"
"Looking good…!"
Certain Maple had its full attention, the twins stepped forward, each carrying two
hammers bigger than herself.
Spotting their approach, Maple said, "Okay, Mr. Jellyfish. I am sorry, but we need to
beat you."
She gave the fluffy tentacles one last forlorn pat and stepped aside.
""Double Stamp!""
"Keep going, Mai!"
"On it, Yui!"
The jellyfish took a pounding before being flung aside and crumbling into mist before
it could even turn its tentacles toward the new threats.
"Should've had more physical resistance if it wanted to survive that," Kanade said.
"I thought the same thing," Iz agreed.
These two had been responsible for the bulk of the buffs on the twins.
But as they pointed out, the cause of this travesty also lay with the boss design.
Thus the party of eight cleared the fight without breaking a sweat and headed for the
sixth stratum.
"I wonder what it's like, Sally."
"Hmm, I didn't actually check. Heh, I thought it would be more fun if we found out
together."
"Eh-heh-heh, that does sound fun."
"I'm cool with whatever, but… if my webs turn out to be useful, that'd be ideal."
The entrance to the sixth stratum loomed overhead.
Maple Tree stepped through, finding itself in a wasteland—and the remains of an
ancient cemetery.
A thin mist shrouded the area, making even the moon above seem sinister.
"Whoa… what's this?"
Maple felt something clutch her hand and looked toward it.
"N-not cool…," Sally said, visibly pale.
Scary levels are a video game staple, and NewWorld Online had clearly gone with that
theme for the sixth map.
As always, their first stop was the Guild Home.
Sally never once let go of Maple's hand. Her gaze darted nervously in every direction,
and it wasn't because she was on the lookout for incoming enemies.
Their new Guild Home looked like an abandoned building, but inside, it was just as
cozy as on previous stratums.
While everyone else hit up their rooms or scoped out the other amenities, Maple and
Sally huddled up in the living room.
"Sigh… Okay, I'm good."
Sally brought up her menu, ready to sign off.
"Welp, Maple… guess I'll see you when they add the seventh stratum."
"Whaa?!"
Sally managed a listless smile and vanished before Maple could say another word.
She'd wanted to run away so bad she'd literally quit out of the game. Maple knew full
well just how much Sally hated horror, so she took this in stride.
"Looks like I can't explore with her this time…"
Just as Maple didn't want to get hurt, Sally didn't want to be scared.
"Judging by what she said… Sally's really not coming back for a while."
Maple decided there was no use hoping for the impossible and set off to explore the
town on her own.
Outside the Guild Home, she looked around, wondering where to go first.
"Mm! Let's just look at everything. That way when Sally comes back, I can tell her
where everything is!"
All fired up, Maple began wandering the moonlit avenues.
"Man, everything's in ruins. I bet all these buildings look normal insi—Mm?"
A few buildings were completely collapsed, and as she passed them, winds brushed
the back of her neck… some hot, some cold.
But when Maple turned around, there was nothing there.
"Yeah, it'd be impossible for Sally to handle this place at night."
She caught a glimpse of a blue wisp floating behind a window. Sally was always way
more perceptive than Maple. There was little doubt she'd be all too aware of these
happenings.
"Welp, let's try out a shop!"
Maple found a building with lights on and stepped inside.
While Maple was out exploring—
Risa was curled up in bed in the real world.
"Nope, nope, nope. Absolutely not going back. And I'm sure it's fine. I'll just catch up
on the next stratum."
She sprawled out like she had come to terms with her decision, but it didn't take her
long to start reading up on the sixth stratum.
And one of the first tidbits she found was about how to get an MP-increasing skill.
"Kanade could use that… so could I, really. A race? Against a skeleton?! NOPE."
One look at the enemy and Risa let out a moan.
She kept looking for the latest posts. Intel was still scarce, but people had already
started finding new skills and items that had been placed in obvious locations.
She read about one skill that inflicted status effects and another that had a low chance
of doubling an item's effect. There was also a skill that buffed AGI.
Worse, she found stories about a pair of shoes that made a single invisible platform in
the air. The third stratum's flying machines didn't work on other maps, so she'd given
up on being able to move like that anywhere else. Perhaps there was hope after all.
"Argh. Hngg… urghhh. Mmm! Auuuugh…!"
Making a serious of horrible noises, Risa ran her fingers down the screen. But the
words refused to change.
Risa spent a while psyching herself up to sign in, abandoning the idea, and then trying
once again—ultimately to no avail. In the end, she simply collapsed on her bed in
weary defeat.