A few days after Maple and Sally got lost in the haunted house…
Maple was hanging out alone in the Guild Home. Sally had not yet been foolish enough
to consider another run at the map of terror.
"Sally's busy grinding on the fifth stratum while Mai and Yui are exploring on other
levels, too… What should I do?"
The twins were struggling with the sixth stratum for very different reasons.
Most monsters here were immune to physical attacks, which meant their normally
deadly blows were not so helpful.
"Hmm, you know, one thing Sally wanted was actually equipment."
Maple nodded to herself and decided to go find that for her.
"I promised she could have anything I found that would help her build, but I never
actually found anything! This'll be perfect."
Sally had given her an accessory that boosted her HP and helped a lot when she was
gathering crafting materials. And Sally had been the one who earned all the gold they
needed to purchase the Guild Home.
Maple thought it was high time she returned the favor.
"But Sally said she hadn't actually looked up where to get them…"
Sally had been so busy freaking out that her information gathering had been…
selective. So Maple would have to start by checking the bulletin board in the town
square.
"Time to head on out!"
She departed the Guild Home with some pep in her step.
At the end of a long road lined with abandoned houses, she found the information
boards.
"Wow, so many people…"
The stratum was still brand new, and lots of people were scoping out the boards.
Maple wriggled her tiny frame through the wave of humanity until she could see well
enough to scan for the intel she sought.
"Hmm… there! That's it!"
Maple made sure she knew the location and the success conditions. As she pushed her
way back out of the crowd, she ran into some familiar faces—Pain, Dread, and Drag
from the Order of the Holy Sword.
"Oh, Pain! You guys are looking for info, too?"
"More or less. Gotta keep up with you, Maple."
"He's all fired up for a rematch! So am I, for that matter."
"Eh-heh-heh! Well, I'll try not to disappoint."
"…Uh, hey, Frederica's been looking for Sally. Griping that she can't find her for another
duel," Drag said.
Maple smiled awkwardly, unable to admit the truth. She wound up promising to pass
word along.
After they parted ways, Maple pushed her way farther out. Finally, she escaped and
breathed a sigh of relief.
"It might be pretty crowded in the fields, too…"
That was a concern, but it didn't stop her hopping aboard Syrup and flying away.
"Tons of people here, just as I expected."
Maple looked down and saw the sparkle and shine of skills and spells below.
The monsters here were all undead, made entirely of gleaming white bones.
They tended to vanish and reappear, evading attacks, and of course—they were
immune to physical damage.
"Oof, that makes it hard for me."
Most of Maple's skills were wide-area attacks or close-range strikes, and she honestly
didn't have anything that was geared toward carefully aiming at significant range.
"I wonder if they show up anywhere else?"
Maple decided to skip this location and search elsewhere.
Fortunately, the target monsters had a glow to them that was relatively easy to spot
from above, so her plan seemed reasonable.
"If I don't see any, I can always come back. Let's go with that. Syrup, onward!"
She had her pet swing round so they could set out, going farther and farther from the
town.
"Nothing? Well, let's just keep looking."
Maple was peering over the edge of Syrup's shell, keeping a close watch on the ground.
Not long after, the fog thickened as they neared the mountains.
"Now I can't see anything… Maybe I should check the peak? That's where I'd hide
stuff!"
She had Syrup fly lower, landing in an open area.
"Thanks, Syrup!"
She made her pet turtle-size again before starting her ascent.
Not long after, she ran into a monster made of red bones shrouded in the mist.
"Not quite the right color… but maybe it'll work!"
Clearly a different monster, so not really what she was after, but Maple decided to beat
it anyway.
"Okay! Taunt! You aren't getting away from me!"
Using Taunt actually made several more of the same monster close in.
"Nice! Luck is on my side."
It always took Maple a while to find enemies, so she never objected to them coming
after her.
"Hydra!"
This hadn't been an option at the haunted house.
Poison gushed out of the magic circle, swallowing up the monsters.
"Whaa…? They survived that?!"
Apparently, they boasted high poison resistance, given that one Hydra was not enough
to take them down.
Maple had not been expecting them to be this tough.
Black smoke rose from the monsters' backs, forming the shapes of skulls.
An earsplitting shriek went up from the bones below.
"W-wait… that looks like bad news! Heaven's Throne!"
Maple flopped onto the throne like it was an emergency escape.
It worked—Heaven's Throne sealed Attribute: Evil attacks, and it was clearly
canceling the smoke skulls.
"Mm, but if I'm sitting down, I can't attack, either. It's pretty, so I want to use it more,
but…"
All these physically resistant monsters were making fights longer, too. Maple tended
to struggle when Machine God didn't work.
"If I was with someone… Argh, I miss Sally. Hngg… I'm doing this for her, too…"
The whole point was to explore the sixth stratum where Sally couldn't.
If she could find the shoes Sally wanted, it might cheer her up. She had to make this
work.
Once again, Maple fell back on the paper charms.
"I'll have to restock," Maple muttered, burning the face off a spirit. "Wait, I think I saw
some exorcism charms for sale, too. Maybe I should get those instead?"
"Boom!"
The last of the red ghouls vanished, dropping materials.
"Hmm… not what I was after. I don't even know if these guys drop it…"
It was easier for Maple to fight when no one else was around, so she had definitely
been hoping these would drop the shoes, too.
But they weren't the monster the board posts had mentioned, so her efforts would
likely be in vain.
"Maybe I can get something else Sally would like… At the least, I can give these
materials to Iz. She's always looking after my equipment!"
And grinding here would help Maple raise her level.
She hadn't spent much time fighting recently, so maybe it was high time she did.
Maple remained perched on her throne, eyes gleaming as she looked for any new red
ghouls.
"Oh, there's one! There's always a lot of these, huh?"
The red ghoul drew close before launching a magic attack at her.
"Oh, they have normal spells?"
Red light hit Maple in the guts and burst loudly, vanishing.
"Nice! No damage! Come on, now, just a little closer…!"
Maple beckoned to the red ghoul, and when it came into range, she slapped a fire
charm on it.
"This sure takes a while. I've been mowing foes down lately, so this really takes me
back."
But a leisurely fight was a nice change of pace, and Maple wasn't exactly stressing out
about it.
"Clear! Oh, the next guy's here."
Maple smiled, waving it toward her.
That red ghoul was clearly neither "guy" nor human, but it lunged right at her, its
attacks uselessly whiffing. It was soon vanquished.
"Oh, right. Don't my poison skills have an instant death effect now? This skill!"
She'd nearly forgotten all about that.
This was the skill she'd learned by beating all the monsters in the pot on the fourth
stratum.
Bug Urn Curse
Applies a 10% instant death chance to all poison attacks.
This is unaffected by poison resistance skills.
"Hmm, so if I use weaker skills, the instant death effect might kick in? I'm running low
on attack items, so it's worth a shot! Um… Venom Cutter!"
Multiple red ghouls were approaching, and these poison blades were nowhere near as
powerful as Hydra—but if the instant death kicked in, that wouldn't matter.
Unfortunately, the ghouls looked totally unfazed.
"No luck, huh? And I'll end up needing MP potions soon. Man, fighting solo is hard."
But given everything Sally had done for Maple, one pair of shoes would hardly be
enough.
"I've gotta play for the both of us on this stratum… Yeah, I like the sound of that. I'm
sure she'll be thrilled to get a bunch of presents."
Maple tried the poison thing a few more times, then had a horrifying thought.
"Wait… Are you guys immune to instant death?!"
She reached out and tried to thump one of them on its rib cage, but her hand passed
right through it.
The ghoul did not seem inclined to answer her question.
And then Maple realized a much more obvious problem.
The throne she was sitting on was fundamentally incompatible with curses.
The name Bug Urn Curse even sounded evil.
"Argh! I-is that why?! Ugh. This throne is great, but… it's too effective! Does that mean
I'm stuck using items, then? Or do I have to ask for help?"
Maple decided to fight until she ran out of items, and once her stock was gone, she ran
away before any more red ghouls found her.
"Syrup, take us home. Next time we'll have to do better."
She gave the ground below a baleful glare, vowing to return soon as she flew back to
town.
When she arrived, she had Syrup take her in for a landing.
"Whew… there should be a bunch of items that work on some spooky boys!"
She'd seen some before, and she was certain they weren't the only ones. She set off
down the street.
"Let's hit up the shop with the exorcism charms first."
She went inside, ready to stock up.
"I think they were… yeah, right here."
The charms were made of paper, with indecipherable characters written on them in
red ink.
Maple double-checked the item name, making sure these were exorcism charms, then
bought as many as she could.
"Maybe I should sell these materials? I'm running low on money."
She was planning on checking other stores and doing more shopping, so she sold all
the extra materials she'd collected on this stratum, making her wallet flush again.
Deciding nothing else here was immediately useful, Maple left the shop and headed
off down the main road.
There were shops on both sides of the street, all looking rather worse for wear.
"How do I find the good stuff?" Maple wondered, head swiveling back and forth—then
she saw a familiar face coming her way. "Oh! Mii!"
Maple waved, and Mii came over.
Talking quietly so no one else could hear, Mii asked, "How's it been, Maple? Enjoying
the new stratum?"
"It's not bad. I'm looking for items that work on ghosts. My attacks aren't really good
for that."
"Check the place at the dead end here. They had Banishing Salts, I think? Something
like that anyway."
Maple's face lit up. "Thanks! I'll take a look."
"Mm. Hope it helps."
"Lemme know if you need anything, I'll come running."
Mii gave Maple a wave and continued on her merry way.
Maple watched her go, then headed for the shop she'd mentioned.
She didn't have to walk for long.
The previous shops had all been run down, but this one had intact windows. It looked
surprisingly normal for this area.
"Um… is this the exorcist shop? Looks like it!"
Relieved, Maple stepped inside.
It had row after row of items and accessories.
A much bigger selection than Maple had imagined. She headed right toward the
accessory section.
"They even have shields and short swords! Um, Purging Great Shield and Purging
Short Sword, hmm."
The short sword had a bonus to attack damage against ghost-type monsters.
And the great shield reduced incoming damage from that same type.
"Hmm… but that won't help me."
She put them back on the shelf.
Maple didn't really take damage to begin with, so the shield was useless.
And since she couldn't do type-specific damage, the short sword wouldn't really help
her much.
"I guess it's just the Banishing Salts, then. I'll buy some of those."
She looked around and found the salts in the item section.
She bought them and then stocked up on the fire and wind charms she'd been using.
"That oughtta be… hmm?"
Maple had glanced around to make sure she hadn't missed anything, which was how
she spotted something in the corner she'd totally overlooked.
"Um, a vacuum cleaner?"
It was certainly shaped like one. Maple ran her fingers down the nozzle of the
extension.
The device sported the same red writing as the charms, and this shop was heavily
specialized, so the item clearly came imbued with some sort of exorcism effect. She
picked it up.
"Hmm, could I use this? Oh, no. This is like those fermentation weights."
It was just a decorative item for your room. Maple put it back down and left.
On the street outside, she muttered, "This would be a lot easier if you could just suck
'em up with a vacuum cleaner… I wish that thing worked."
But no matter how much she wished for it, the words room decoration were still
undeniably in the vacuum cleaner's description.