Several days had passed since the sixth stratum's launch.
Maple was once again logged into NWO.
Today she was visiting the Guild Home for repairs on her archangel gear.
Maple didn't normally take damage, but her equipment sure did.
"…By the looks of these scratches, monster attacks are getting plenty powerful."
"I've gotta raise my defense even higher!"
"My dwindling potion supplies are speaking volumes."
Maple took her gear back from Iz and returned them to her Quick Change slots.
"Welp, off to explore!"
Just as Maple was about to leave, the front door opened—and the last person she'd
expected came in.
"Gasp! Sally?!"
"Oh… Maple…"
"Whaaaat?! You came back?!"
Maple looked dumbfounded, so Sally awkwardly explained herself.
It seemed that there were simply too many things she couldn't let slip through her
fingers.
Well aware that heading out of town on her own was a recipe for failure, Sally had
come by the home hoping someone could help.
"Got it, got it. I'd be happy to help. I didn't really have anything particular in mind
anyway."
"You… have no idea how much I appreciate this."
"Let's get a move on!"
It was rare to see Sally this cowed, but Maple took her hand and pulled her out of their
home.
Maple took Sally out onto the field by the hand. Once they were outside, she summoned
Syrup, Giganticized it, and climbed up onto its shell. She patted it gently as she said,
"Thanks… Martyr's Devotion! Heaven's Throne!"
Once her throne appeared on Syrup's back, Maple took a seat. Sally settled on the shell
in front of her, eyes tightly closed.
After they were in place, Maple asked Syrup to levitate and stand by.
"Sally, where to?"
"There's a mansion to the west of town… over that way."
"Got it. Westward ho!"
Syrup banked obediently, and their flight was soon underway.
"Sigh… This is where it gets baaaad…"
Sally was hunched up on the shell, face buried in her hands.
They gracefully wove through the air for a while.
"Ah!" Maple yelped.
"Huh? What…?" Sally made the mistake of looking up.
There was a pale-faced woman floating right in front of them.
Her hands reached out and brushed Sally's face.
"...…!!"
"Full Deploy! Commence Assault!"
Sally threw herself on Maple just as the bullets disintegrated the ghost.
"They pop up right in front of you!"
"Th-those things are bad news!" Sally wailed, not letting go and pointing wildly at
nothing.
"As long as the throne is up, all they can do is touch us. Don't worry!"
"Urgh…"
"Bad news is that I don't think I actually beat it. That thing'll probably be back soon…
Oops, there it is. And it brought a friend!"
The ghosts came wafting closer, wailing.
"Time to exorcise!" Maple said, banishing them once more.
Sally was too busy wrapping her head in her scarf to pay much attention.
Not too long after, Maple spotted a run-down mansion below.
The fog was thicker here, so thick that the building was impossible to make out in its
entirety.
"Sally! We're here… probably. Double-check?"
"Any ghosts?"
Maple quickly scanned the area.
"Um… not right now! Coast is clear."
Sally tugged the scarf, opening a tiny crack to look through.
"Mm, we're good, that's definitely the place. Okay… let's do this!"
"Coming in for a landing!"
Maple had Syrup slowly descend. Once they were on the ground, she took Sally's hand
again and helped her climb off. Then she put her throne away and returned Syrup to
normal size.
Their destination didn't look roomy enough to accommodate a giant Syrup.
Sally fixed her scarf once she realized exploring like that wouldn't be very practical.
"The moment I lose my nerve even once, it'll all be over. Gotta empty out my head. No
thoughts at all."
"We going, Sally?"
"W-wait, I'm not ready—"
"I've heard that one before, so I'm just gonna go ahead and be the bad guy."
Not only had Sally made her wait outside a haunted house for a full hour once, that
had actually ended with Sally running away, tears in her eyes.
This time, though, Maple was bristling with artillery.
To keep Sally from turning tail, Maple used her self-destruct technique to propel them
right at the half-open front doors.
She knew Sally well. Forcing the issue would ultimately be to her benefit.
"Let's make an explosive entrance!"
"Aiiiiieeeee!"
With a boom, they shot through the doors.
As Maple and Sally touched down, the doors slammed shut behind them.
"Come on, Sally! On your feet! You're here for a reason, right?"
"Uh… right. Maple… don't let go."
"You got it!"
Maple took Sally's hand, pulled her up, and then looked around.
The mansion was clearly massive. They were standing in an entrance hall and could
see three sets of doors: one in front and one on either side.
There was also a staircase going up and more doors at the top.
The remains of a chandelier hung from the rafters, while the walls were decorated
with candelabra, tiny flames clinging to nearly spent candles.
"This place is huge! Where do we go?" Maple asked.
"We should… Oh, wait. I don't actually know."
Sally had looked into it, but there were gaps in her knowledge.
It wasn't that the knowledge wasn't out there—she'd been struggling with simply
reading the guides at all.
"In that case, we'll just have to check out everything!" Maple said.
Sally desperately shook her head. "Let's come back when I've looked up where we
need to go. That'll be better. Searching without a plan is so inefficient. Plus, the
monsters here are pretty tough. We don't want to fight too much. Better that we know
the shortest…"
Sally trailed off. Maple was looking at her hard, boring right through Sally's bluster.
"I don't think so," she said, brooking no argument. "Let's just get this over with. You've
got me with you, so it'll be fine."
"Mm…"
Maple still had Martyr's Devotion active, which blocked basically all attacks.
Accepting that they wouldn't be leaving, Sally managed a few shaky steps, walking like
a newborn deer. It didn't look like she'd be much help.
"My hunch says… right!"
Maple moved over to the corresponding door and flung it open.
This kicked up a cloud of dust, but through the opening, they saw a corridor leading
away.
Maple put a hand to one ear, listening close, but couldn't hear anything.
"Looks like."
She headed down the hall.
There were paths forking to the left at regular intervals.
And between them, doors that led to even more rooms. There was no shortage of
places to search.
"Where do we even start—Wagh!"
Feeling something odd underfoot, Maple looked down.
Countless white hands were reaching up from the floor, grabbing at their ankles and
steadily climbing up their legs. To top it all off, the ghost woman they'd met on the way
here came right through the wall, heading straight at them.
"M—! M-M-M-M-Maple!"
"Hold on!"
Maple switched her war gear to sword mode. The short sword in her right hand
became a giant blade she used to slash at their feet.
Once again, she didn't slay anything, but the hands did vanish.
After their feet were freed, she deployed her artillery again, firing multiple rounds
through the persistent apparition.
"Whew. All clear! You good now?"
"Mm. I'm so glad you're here, Maple," Sally murmured. Her spirit already seemed halfbroken.
Like Sally had said, the moment she lost her nerve, this little adventure would be over.
"Let's find this stuff quick so we can leave!" After boldly announcing this, Maple was
about to take a step right as she noticed a dull blue glow at their feet.
Sally would normally have had no problem getting herself and Maple out of the way.
But not today.
The light steadily grew brighter, and before they knew it, they were somewhere else.
Even before the shining faded, alarms rang in Sally's brain, telling her things she'd
really rather not focus on.
Like that Maple's hand was no longer holding hers.
Sally opened her eyes as her regular vision returned. She found herself in a totally
different corridor.
"M-Maple? Wh-where are… Eeek!"
Voice shaking, Sally called out—just before a hand landed on her shoulder.
She flinched. Her back bolt upright, she stayed perfectly still as her eyes snapped to
the left.
The hand on her shoulder was pale. Far too pale to belong to one of the living.
Sally opened her eyes wide, scared stiff, right as a pair of thin, cold arms wrapped
around her.
"Ah… ah! Ah! Aiiiiiieeeee!!"
Screaming, she ran off, easily slipping away from the unknown person's grasp.
Her flight sent her into the nearest room.
"Haah, haah, haah… T-time to log out…"
She pulled up her menu to do just that, only to discover red palms covering it, banging
loudly.
"Uaaagh…"
This actually forced her to calm down somewhat.
She regained enough composure to remember there were certain areas that prevented
players from logging out—and exactly what kind of monsters tended to populate
those locations.
It was common for enemies in these places to lower AGI every time they grabbed a
player—and once their victims' AGI hit zero, they started using instant death moves.
But these areas were always easy to get out of as long as you kept moving.
"Th-they're after me…!"
Sally wasn't dead yet. If she kept moving around the mansion interior, not many
spooky things could lay a finger on her.
But clearly, that didn't make it any easier.
Like Sally, Maple found herself suddenly somewhere else.
"Um… Sally?"
A quick scan of her new surroundings revealed no signs of her friend.
She was inside a room.
There was a yawning closet with no door and a dust-laden bed. The sheets were rags,
and the floor had seen better days.
"I've gotta find her!"
She grabbed the doorknob to take her leave, but it just rattled in place. The door
wouldn't budge.
No keyhole that she could see. In fact, there was no visible reason why it wouldn't
open.
"Hmm… dang it. Can I break it down? Might as well try."
Maple pointed her cannon at the door.
Then she heard a creak behind her and spun around.
A shadow was rising off the floor, like the night itself was taking shape.
"Yikes! Heaven's Throne!"
Maple hastily summoned her throne and dived onto it.
"I don't have eyes in the back of my head like Sally, but this helps!"
She watched the shadow closely.
It was vaguely human shaped and was reaching toward her with its hands—but
nothing happened.
"Huh. I guess I don't need to worry. Commence Assault!"
Maple fired some rounds, but they all passed right through her target, hitting the wall
behind it.
"Hmm. Physical attacks aren't really doing anything… I wonder if beating this thing
opens the door? Hmm. Well, let's try!"
Maple leaned forward, sticking her head inside the shadow's torso.
She tried biting, but only got air.
"Nothing's working! Hmm. Oh, I know!"
A moment of inspiration later, she quickly started searching through her inventory.
She still had some of those papers left—the ones she'd used to poke the King of Light's
toes.
Fire and wind hadn't been effective against that boss, so she still had heaps of them
left.
"Starting a fire here would be scary, so let's go with wind. Take that!"
When she used the item, a gust of wind tore through the room, shredding the shadow.
"Nice, it worked! Don't believe me? Here, have another!"
She started sticking more papers on it.
The shadow was only a bit smaller than your average trash mob, and it went down
after the tenth item.
Since these items were only usable at ultra-close range and took no skill at all, not
many players bothered using them. As a result, the damage they dealt was surprisingly
respectable.
When the shadow faded away, Maple heard the door behind her click.
"So it was locked! Even though it didn't have a keyhole…"
She put her throne away and tried the knob again.
This time the door opened easily.
"Yes! I'm free!"
She quickly left before the room decided to trap her again.
"Let's look for Sally. Gonna keep an eye on the floor this time. Last thing I want is to
get teleported again."
Maple plodded off down the corridor.
By this time, Sally was shivering under a desk in a room she'd stumbled into.
She couldn't bring herself to go out, so she'd decided to wait for Maple.
"O-oh… I could send her a message…"
She did exactly that.
All she wrote was that she couldn't log out and needed rescuing. Nothing that would
actually improve her situation was included, but she was too far gone to realize that.
"I'll just stay here for a few more minutes," Sally whispered.
By that she meant "until Maple gets here."
Or possibly "forever."
But this area was not about to let that happen.
The door opened with a creak.
Sally couldn't see it from her hiding spot, but she heard something step in.
She clapped her hands over her mouth, holding her breath.
Warped floorboards creaked.
A few moments after hearing that, Sally saw pale feet appear right in front of her. They
clearly didn't belong to anything alive.
"...!!"
She prayed for them to pass on by, and perhaps her prayers were answered because
the feet kept walking.
"...…"
But just as relief washed over her, there was a beep—message received.
Maple was nice. She always answered. But the noise startled Sally, and she banged her
head on the desk.
The feet swung back toward her, and Sally somersaulted out from the desk, scrambling
out the door.
"Maple! Mapllllle! Heeeeelp!"
But the only answer to her screams was grasping hands reaching out from the walls
and the ghosts of blood-soaked, maimed children.
"Superspeed! Superspeed! Superspeed!"
Sally ran like hell into another room.
But this mansion was full of ghosts. There was no way to escape them.
Thoroughly lost, Sally was running mindlessly—and heading deeper inside.
"Hic… sniff…"
She ran and ran, from room to room.
Cold hands kept grabbing at her.
She was way past being able to just run away.
If these ghosts had looked like orcs and goblins, Sally could easily have dodged right
through their midst without letting even a finger touch her.
But if her special flair didn't kick in, stats-wise, she was nothing more than a slightly
more nimble than average player.
And Sally's AGI was down to a quarter of its full value.
Any change in stats could tank her dodging skills, so it was no wonder she was getting
swiped at left and right.
This soon proved too much for her, and Sally holed up in a closet, eyes closed tight,
shaking like a leaf.
She sent Maple a message saying she was in a closet and specified that she didn't need
a reply. She'd completely given up on surviving this solo.
"Maple… sniff… get here soon…"
Sally whispered through her sniffles, but no answer came.
Two figures were slowly converging on Sally's location.
One was the ghost that had been chasing her, and the other was Maple, who'd finally
made it to the same floor.
This was pure coincidence—Maple was just systematically searching every single
room.
"Where in the world is Sally…? I've searched a lot of rooms now… but at least she's still
not dead!"
Since they were in a party, she could see Sally's status and, more importantly, her
approximate location. She was clearly still inside the haunted house.
Maple was plastering her items on every ghost she found like a Shinto priest exorcising
spirits with paper talismans.
A bloodstained ghost child appeared before her, coming her way.
"Oof… Go into that white light—Wah?!"
Maple had opened her inventory but found her screen covered in red handprints.
"Man, that caught me by surprise! Um… items, items…"
She didn't really let it get to her. She soon slapped a paper charm on the ghostly child.
It caught fire and quietly faded away.
Maple looked back at her inventory to ready another charm.
Then she realized she couldn't log out. After moving around a bit, she found the
threshold of the zone that prevented her from logging out.
"So this is what Sally was talking about. Does that mean she's nearby?"
This was her first real sign of progress. Maple pumped a fist.
"But… how is she holding up?"
The ghosts here seemed significantly scarier than anything she'd come across earlier,
and Maple did not think Sally could handle them well at all.
"Yeah, she'll be a mess for sure. I'd better find her quick."
The corridor looked ominous, so Maple kept her shield up, moving cautiously forward.
"Sally… probably won't answer if I call. But she's definitely crying…"
Maple did her best to prick up her ears, trying to catch the sound of Sally's sniffles. She
checked every inch of every room.
"Oh, right! I should tell her I'm close."
Maple sent Sally a quick message, then resumed her search.
Maple's message reached Sally.
Sally read it, and her face lit up. It was like a ray of hope had shone upon it.
"Oh! Footsteps…! Maple?"
Whoever was coming closer stopped outside the room. Then she heard the door open.
Sally was hiding in a closet to the right of that door.
"Just a peek…"
Sally cracked the closet door, looking to see who'd come in.
The message that had arrived moments before made her certain this was Maple.
And her desperate need for salvation led to this lapse in judgment.
Long spindly arms. Sallow skin. An unrecognizable face, but the long hair hanging over
it failed to disguise the empty eye sockets or the tears of blood flowing from those
twin black pits.
In that instant, Sally knew.
It had seen her.
"Eep...!"
She slammed the closet door shut but heard the floorboards creak right outside.
"No, no, no!"
Sally held the door shut, but her hands were shaking too hard, and it was overpowering
her.
The ghost's empty eye sockets locked on her through the gap in the door.
"Ah…!"
Sally went limp, collapsing in a heap on the closet floor.
The door was flung open wide, and the ghost's hand reached for her.
Black shadows spilled out from the horrifying creature, and blood seeped from its eye
sockets.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…!"
"Heaven's Throne!"
Just as Sally abandoned all hope, Maple leaped through the open door. Seeing Sally's
predicament, she hastily pulled out her throne and sat down upon it.
A circle of light spread out beneath the ghost's feet, dispelling the sinister curtain of
shadows.
"Sally, you okay?"
"Unh… unghhh… Maplllle…!"
Sally scrambled out of the closet, clinging to Maple on her throne.
"Whew! But now what?"
Maple looked up and found the ghost hovering over them. The ominous shadows
might be gone, but even Maple thought this thing was creepy.
"It's hella staring at us…"
Maple averted her eyes, trying to push its face away with both hands only to find them
passing right through it.
"Augh… urgh… wahh…"
"Seriously, now what?"
Maple was stuck sitting down, at a total loss.