With the first floor cleared, Maple and Sally logged out, saving the second floor for
later.
Once a boss was defeated, the system would save the progress and allow players to
continue from the last floor they'd reached.
When they returned, Maple and Sally stepped onto the second floor and found both
walls lined with shelves, all filled to the brim with books.
The shelves reached the ceiling, but the halls themselves were the same size as the
floor below.
"A library?"
"Feels like one. Bet there's a lot of magic attacks…"
"And with the halls this cramped, I can't ride Syrup around!"
Giant Syrup was too big for most indoor areas.
Lots of things could be avoided if you were flying, but this event took that option off
the table entirely.
"We'll just have to walk."
"Looks like it… That'll be slow going, though."
They figured it was best they get moving.
Books to the left of them, books to the right. Eventually they reached an intersection,
the passage continuing straight ahead and branching to either side.
"...Left?"
"Left it is!"
They turned the corner, and a few steps later—
—a book shot off the shelf, hurtling toward them.
"...! Nuh-uh!"
Sally reacted in time, twisting herself out of the book's path and drawing a dagger to
hit back.
The book-shaped monster sprayed red damage sparks but continued unerringly on its
original trajectory.
The cover popped open, but unlike in real books, the pages were lined with teeth.
This alien-looking jaw bit down on Maple's face hard.
"Eek?! Hey… uh, Sally? I can't see! Get this thing off me!"
Maple was shaking her head, but the monster was firmly clamped on, and she couldn't
dislodge it.
"Hang in there. Double Slash!"
The book was totally defenseless, so Sally had no problem landing a deadly combo.
These enemies clearly didn't have much HP, so it soon vanished in a puff of light.
"That was a shocker! I guess that is the kind of monster you'd find here."
"True. But that does make 'em hard to spot."
Sally could dodge even without prior warning, but she did have to stay on the alert.
No further books attacked. Maybe they had to cross specific points in the halls.
"Should I put Martyr's Devotion up?"
"Mm, please. We've already seen a bunch of wind magic and AOE attacks here."
Maple activated her angel form and chugged a potion to restore her HP.
Once those preparations were done, they headed off through the packed shelves once
more.
"That book wasn't all that strong."
"Hard to say—it might have done a lot of damage? I just can't tell."
If Maple was on the receiving end, it was hard to gauge just how powerful a hit was.
The damage could be one or a thousand, it made no difference against her.
"…This floor's boss may be the same way. I'd at least expect a wide variety of attacks."
"I wonder if there's any info about it? Like in these books."
Maple reached for the shelf on her left and tried to pull a book from it. But they were
fixed in place.
"No use! Oh well."
"But there might be something somewhere. We didn't explore half the first floor before
we found the boss room, and it didn't really matter. Still, it can't hurt to keep an eye
out."
"True!"
No sooner had the word left Maple's mouth than another book monster flew out.
This one loitered near the ceiling before dropping a lightning bolt.
The electric field spread out in all directions. There was a clap of thunder, and the
passage lit up.
"What do you think, Sally? Should we get it?"
"Yeah, the strobing's getting to me."
Neither one of them seemed at all concerned about the potential danger.
Maple deployed her weapons and aimed the barrels at the book.
The first laser flash canceled the lightning bolt, and the second burned the book up.
Once again, the books proved no match for their relentless offense.
"Heh-heh-heh. No traps so far, either! This place is a breeze."
"You're making it one. Oh, three at once!"
Three glowing books were fluttering toward them. Sally gave Maple a look, and Maple
knew just what to do.
"I got this!"
She aimed her weapons down the hall.
If they wanted to take Maple down, most monsters would need to venture inside her
range.
They'd only just started this floor, and she could still use all her skills. That meant no
random mob stood a chance.
Maple and Sally were making steady progress through the vast library.
But the place was a serious labyrinth, and every corridor looked exactly the same. It
was impossible to tell if they were actually getting closer to the end.
Maple had gotten bored and swapped her gear for a change of pace. She was now in
the green clothes she'd found on the sixth-stratum manor.
"How far are we?"
"Good question. We definitely walked a long way… Oh, here they come again."
Sally spotted several books flying their way down the darkened corridor.
Maple didn't need further prompting. She aimed her weapons.
"Heh! Commence Assault! Poltergeist!"
Maple's lasers fired, and then she waved her hands, changing their paths and burning
up all the books.
The tower's difficulty being what it was, they weren't instantly vaporized, but multiple
laser hits were definitely carving away at their HP.
Narrow corridors made this kind of fighting trivial.
"Gosh… that takes skills."
"If I move one at a time, it's easy! Like waving swords around!"
Maple demonstrated by swinging her arms.
Since the books were just coming head-on without bothering to make any evasive
maneuvers, their HP just kept dropping, and soon they burst into shards of light.
"You are good at ranged attacks. This one's on the weird side but… just weird."
"Still, they don't do that much damage. And I'm not good enough to hit anything fast
yet."
"Well, worth practicing. They should be pretty easy to hit with."
"Let's hope so… Oh, they're all dead already?"
Maple scanned the corridor ahead.
Sally did the same and found nothing moving.
"Flawless victory."
"Great! Let's keep moving."
Kicking the occasional book's spine, they continued ahead cautiously.
Each time they reached a corner, Sally carefully peered ahead, keeping them from as
many fights as she could.
"Looks clear, Maple. Maple?"
"Well? Does this make me look smart?"
Sally turned to look. Maple had taken a pair of fake glasses out of her inventory and
was peering through them at a thick tome.
There was a gap on the shelf beside her where the book had been.
"…Maybe if you hadn't asked?"
"Urp. You think? Mm. I guess I see that."
Maple flipped through the pages of the book.
Sally stepped closer, looking over her shoulder.
"All white? Nothing in it…"
"Should we write something? Augh!"
As Maple spoke, the book had suddenly turned to light, vanishing into thin air.
It reappeared in its original location.
"You can't take it with you… shame."
"If you could, you might find something weird to do with it. Right?" Sally said, giving
Maple a pointed look.
Maple caught her drift and shifted uncomfortably.
"I don't… do that all the time. Or at the very least, it's not on purpose. Not always!"
"Yeah. That's… mostly accurate."
Sally was remembering a bunch of Maple's wilder exploits, and that left her nodding.
Many of them had been happy accidents.
She had just tried a thing and been surprised by the outcome.
"Anyway! Moving on!"
"Mm. No more enemies here… but it feels like it's getting darker."
Maple decided they needed light.
If she felt like it, she could easily add more shields or weapons—or a lantern.
Maple took the latter out of her inventory and lit up the passage.
"Sally… this lantern is usually brighter."
"...Could be one of those areas. Hard to be sure. Hmm… Fire Ball!"
Sally's spell flew off into the distance—and the flames were definitely smaller than
usual.
"Looks like some spells and skills are weakened. Light and flame? You… should be
good on offense, right?" she asked, mentally running down Maple's skill list.
Maple had a lot of skills that were light or dark, but none of her attack skills had names
that made it seem like they'd be affected.
"Martyr's Devotion doesn't seem at all different… I wonder why not?"
She'd had that up the whole time, with no discernible changes.
"Maybe that'll change as we get farther in. I'll have to try not to get hit."
"You can do that, right?"
"You betcha. But if they use an AOE, make sure to get your shield up."
"Will do!"
They picked their way down the dimly lit passage, ready to squash any threats ahead
of time.
Sally was in the lead, and Maple was bringing up the rear.
"Still haven't seen any—"
"S-Sally?!"
"Maple?"
Sally spun around.
Behind her, Maple's feet and weapon were totally immobilized, caught in the grasp of
shadowy hands reaching up from the ground.
"You okay?"
"Uh… I just can't move—! Eep!"
"! Sorry."
Mid-sentence, several toothy books had chomped down on her.
Sally had deftly jumped out of the way, but Maple wasn't going anywhere.
"Sally! Get these off! I—I don't want this gear breaking!"
"Hold on, I'm working on it!"
Sally closed in and carved her way through one book.
They still weren't that tough, so she pried them all off before long.
"Now the hands… are gone? Huh…"
"My gear's still good, but I better get it fixed up later."
Maple switched back to her black armor, which boasted Destructive Growth.
Her gear's durability had taken a hit while Maple herself remained entirely unharmed.
However, Sally noticed something else amiss.
"Maple? Martyr's Devotion's gone."
"Huh? That's weird. Hmm… apparently, I can't use it for the next thirty minutes."
"So that attack sealed your skill? And the reason they only came after you… was either
the angel form or because you were holding the lantern."
"But that didn't go out, so… Oh! But if they attack me again next time, we'll know
they're targeting lights!"
"If it's just any old light source, Sword Dance makes me light up like a Christmas tree—
but whatever the cause, with your defense, it shouldn't be a problem."
Their enemies could attack Maple all they liked.
It might ruin their plan to clear this tower without damage, but if these monsters
turned out to be strong enough to get through her defense, Indomitable Guardian
would prevent her going down instantly.
"Totally! I can defend against anything!"
"I'll spot pierce attacks for you, so be ready to use Pierce Guard."
"Mm, got it."
Maple hefted her shield confidently.
"But it looks like they're here already…," Sally muttered, far less sure of herself.
She was pointing into the darkened depths—where a shadowy figure stood.
The shadow had a single red eye, which was staring fixedly at the shelves.
"What now, Sally?"
"I don't even wanna go near it, but it's a one-way path. Uh… maybe on top of the
bookcases? But maybe we should at least figure out its deal."
"Can you… get us up there?"
"Well, more quietly than your flight anyway. Wanna try?"
Maple was all for it, not wanting to fight more than they had to.
"Gimme a sec."
"No problem."
Sally prepped by wrapping Maple in her webs. Then she put two rings on, boosting
her STR, and put down an ice pillar.
"Here we go."
"Huh?"
With Maple still attached, Sally began pulling on the strings—while running up the
pillar and the wall to the ceiling.
Maple was yanked upward with incredible force.
"Oh… my…!"
Legs dangling, Sally pulled her all the way up.
Then they sneaked along the top of the shelves past the monster and dropped down a
safe distance beyond.
"Whew, that was easier than I thought."
"I-it was amazing! You're like a ninja!"
"I bet we can find a use for that again somewhere. If it's cool with you, of course."
"It's a fun change of pace! Minty fresh."
"Not a thing you could ever do in real life. But that thing really doesn't budge, huh?"
Sally glanced back down the corridor, and the shadow was still standing there.
It wasn't moving at all. Sally watched it for a minute but couldn't detect any changes.
"Does it attack if we get close? We'll have to try that if we end up in a position where
we can't find a way to slip past it."
"Yeah. Would be scary if they show up as adds in the boss room—but if this is the only
one, then we probably don't have to worry about that."
Unable to figure out how big a threat this was, they decided to avoid it for now.
"Okay, let's move out, Ma—"
"Sally! I'm caught again!"
The black hands had grabbed a hold of Maple once more.
This time Sally knocked the books aside before they could bite her, but as she did, she
spotted something.
"Maple, gimme a sec!"
"Mm? Okay!" Maple said, trying to peel a book off with both hands.
Sally raced back to the monster they'd just skipped.
She'd spotted a blue glow around it, and hands reaching up from a spot on the floor.
"If I know what you do, there's no prob! Double Slash!"
Sally hit it once, and the monster soon melted into the floor.
"Oh, they let go! I'm free, Sally!"
The hands that had been on Maple's feet faded away.
Now they just had to get rid of the books, which were old hat at this point.
When that was over, Sally said, "I don't think we can actually kill that monster. It just
ran away. Probably hiding somewhere until it pops back up, coming and going at
regular intervals."
"Nothing we can do?"
"Plenty of paths we haven't taken; one of them might have a solution."
They'd certainly not been trying to map the place, so they might have missed it.
"Think it'll show up in the boss room?"
"It might. And that would be bad news."
"Then we'll just have to take the boss out quick!"
"Good idea. Whatever skills it tries to seal, if we win fast enough, it won't matter."
These two definitely had the skills to romper-stomp most bosses, so if anyone had
been there with them, this exchange would likely not have engendered argument.
They moved on.
Maple got her skills sealed a few more times, but eventually they reached the boss
room.
The expected big door loomed far overhead.
"About time!"
"Part of me wants to check the paths we didn't take… but that can wait. Your skills still
sealed, Maple?"
"Hmm… they'll be back in twenty."
"Then best we wait for that. Better to be in peak condition!"
They sat down in front of the door, killing time with idle chatter.
Once all Maple's skills were available again, they charged through the door.
"No change in theme, huh?" Maple said, glancing around.
The room itself was large, but the walls were covered in shelves, crammed full of
books.
Sally peered into the dimly lit depths—and a blue magic circle appeared in the air.
"Mm! Maple, incoming!"
"Got it! Let's start with Full Deploy!"
As they braced themselves, the boss appeared—a massive book, several yards wide.
Glowing blue, it lowered itself until it was hovering just above ground level.
"Early bird gets the bookworm! Commence Assault!"
Even as Maple fired her opening volley, the book's pages flipped to a drawing of a book
on fire.
In response, red books shot off the shelves on either side, shooting fireballs.
"Maple, you take the right! I'll cover this side!"
"Got it!"
Sally sped off, deftly taking books out with skills and magic.
But as she did, the big book's pages flipped again—this time shadows appeared in the
corners of the room.
Five of the monsters that had sealed Maple's skills.
"Ack! D-don't—!"
"Can't get 'em all!"
"Hng, in that case… Hydra! Saturating Chaos!"
Maple shot her poison dragon and monster after the bullets, trying to hit the boss with
them before the skills got sealed.
But the pages flipped once more—and now a blue barrier appeared in front of it.
The barrier intercepted the bulk of Maple's attacks. After a short while, it shattered
like glass, but it had done its job. The damage the boss took had been dramatically
reduced.
"Sally, I didn't do much!"
"High-attack moves can backfire like that! Lemme try! Superspeed!"
"I'll work on the shadows!"
Sally put out an ice pillar, vaulting over Maple's lake of poison to the boss's side.
Maple started shooting the approaching shadows.
Some of the fireballs hit her, but they seemed to have no side effects.
"How's this?"
Leaving it to Maple to deal with the incoming attacks, Sally sailed over the boss,
slashing away with both daggers.
Without the barrier page open, the book was not terribly tanky; she did a solid amount
of damage to it.
"Nice! And again!"
She used her webs to launch herself—but the book's pages flipped, and a gust of wind
emerged.
Sally was forced to extend her webs, yanking herself out of range.
"That was close! Oh, there's a knockback effect, too."
She spotted Maple flying away, slashed the boss a few more times, then raced over to
her friend.
"I took a chunk off it."
"Nice one, Sally!"
"Still a long way to go. Next…?"
They looked toward the boss just as its pages flipped once more.
But this time, it opened to a blank page—nothing on it at all.
"…What? Blank?"
"! Maple! Dodge!" Sally yelped.
But it was too late—black chains spawned at her feet, binding Maple in place.
Sally feared this would seal some skills, so she did her best to free her, attacking one
chain at a time until they broke.
"Hmm… this isn't sealing anything!" Maple said.
"Huh?"
"It's worse! They're stealing my skills!"
All of Maple's artillery had vanished.
"…What?"
Sally cut the last chain, but the boss's pages were already turning.
To a page bristling with artillery.
"Crap…!"
Sally's eyes went white—and multiple magic circles spawned, barrels reaching out of
them like so many branches.
"! Maple, sorry! Right Hand: Web!"
"Huh? Yikes!"
Sally snared Maple and dragged her away, fleeing the boss room.
Maple was banged loudly against the floor, towed helplessly in Sally's wake.
"…Retreat! Retreat!" Maple wailed.
"Yup! I ain't up for fighting a fake Maple!"
They barely made it through the doors before the newly formed artillery started firing.
Maple and Sally slammed the doors behind them and collapsed against them.
"Whew… Okay, let's review."
"Wh-what do we do, Sally?"
"I mean, that depends… what exactly did it steal?"
They had to figure that out first if they were to stand a chance against the boss's latest
tactic.
Maple opened her stat menu and checked her skill list. She was missing Machine God,
Saturating Chaos, Heaven's Throne, and Pandemonium.
"And Atrocity was part of Saturating Chaos, so…"
"Urp. Doesn't even matter if you've stuck it on your gear? And it only took the good
stuff! Any time limits?"
"Doesn't look like it. A-are they not coming back?"
Maple looked very anxious.
"If we beat the boss… or maybe leave the floor? I think at worst, they'll come back once
the event's over."
But that would mean giving up on clearing this tower. And they weren't about to do
that.
"Hmm… well, there is a way…"
"Oh? What is it?" Maple perked up.
"Might have to abandon the no-damage idea, but we could try forcing Martyr's
Devotion on it. If the boss tries using that skill, it'll basically be suicide. But… even if
we do get it to steal the skill, no telling if it would actually voluntarily use it."
"And if it steals Absolute Defense, we're sunk!"
"Yeah… without your defense, Maple, you're, uh…"
Just a normal girl.
Maple with no offense or defense frankly wasn't much use in combat.
"Wait, Maple, how much is your VIT? Without skills?"
"Mm? Uh, lessee… I haven't really thought about it recently."
She flipped through her menus, checking her raw VIT.
"Um, just over two thousand."
"Huh."
Sally closed her eyes, saying nothing more.
"Should I be more specific?"
"No, that would be negligible. A rounding error."
She had already concluded that there was no point worrying about Maple's safety ever
again.
Since Maple had no piercing skills herself, no matter what this boss stole, it could
never actually hurt her.
"In that case, Maple, you just keep me safe. I definitely can't slip through that barrage."
"You got it! What else?"
"Just hang in there. Let that boss steal skills until it grabs Martyr's Devotion and uses
it."
Sally had done pretty solid damage with Double Slash, so she didn't think this boss
had much in the way of defense.
Absolute Defense and Fortress were both heavily dependent on your raw VIT stat, so
even if it stole them, they could still pull this off.
"Okay! Once that happens, we hit it with everything we've got!"
Maple thrust a fist out in front, ready to lay down the punishment.
"Mm. I can also foresee a few other headaches that we should plan for. While we're
still safe and have the chance to anyway."
"Then let's get strategizing!"
They huddled up and began throwing out ideas.
When they were pretty sure they had their bases covered, they rose to their feet.
"It's really all about my skills, huh?"
"Maple—all your skills are exactly the kind of thing bosses use. If we don't have clearcut plans in mind, I would never make it."
Maple might be immune to all her own skills, but Sally was much more fragile.
She needed a plan for each and every one of them.
"You've put the short sword and shield away?"
"Yep, they're gone! If I lose Poison Nullification, even I'd be in trouble."
The idea was that if her black sword and shield were stowed in her inventory, the boss
wouldn't be able to steal the skills on them. She'd replaced them with the white gear
Iz had made for her.
But the book had already stolen the skill from her black armor, so she left that where
it was.
This left her defense lower than they'd originally planned, but since there was a real
risk of Bug Urn Curse kicking in, they really didn't want to risk offering up Hydra.
They also weren't sure just how effective Devour would be on Maple herself, so they
figured better safe than sorry.
"We don't know the exact boss stats. This might nerf you, but if it can get past your
nerfed defense, then that attack's so strong it would hurt everyone. No use worrying
about that."
"True. I hope it works out!"
Maple looked up at the door, a little nervous.
"Maple, ready when you are."
"…All right. Here goes nothing!"
Maple slapped her cheeks and raised her shield.
Sally nodded and shoved the doors open. Both girls ran inside.
The boss had fully recovered its HP and was back to its initial phase, summoning the
fireball books and the skill-sealing shadows.
"Okay, it isn't starting with it. Once it does try and steal your skills, check what it takes
and let me know!"
"You betcha!"
And with that last reminder, Sally raced off.
Maple did her best to keep up.
"The early stages look like they're the same, so no worries yet."
Like the last time, Sally began carving chunks off the boss's HP.
Maple was mostly using Taunt to keep the fireball books focused on her, but she
positioned herself so she could use Cover on Sally as needed.
"Hmm… it's been a while since I used Cover Move. I think this was the range… Maybe
I'd better get a little closer."
Adjusting her position, Maple watched Sally slash away, one eye on her feet to avoid
getting skills sealed.
Sally was going all out, trying to get the HP down before her focus wore out. It didn't
take long for the boss's pages to turn to a stolen skill.
"Maple!"
"Cover Move! Cover!"
Sally leaped back, and Maple didn't miss a beat, warping directly in front of her.
A moment later, bullets started pounding her.
"As long as I'm watching, it's no problem!"
The sound of bullets bouncing off her was jaw-dropping.
"I guess not? Seems like it doesn't try and steal skills all that often."
Given what they'd seen so far, Sally decided to stick to Maple's back like glue, and they
approached together.
"Ugh, so many!"
"I didn't have time to notice last time, but all the adds vanished when it flipped to this."
"Oh, so they did! That makes it easier. Sweet!"
As they got closer, the bullets started coming in from above, and Maple had to hold her
shield like an umbrella, keeping Sally safe.
"Nobody but you could ever soak these, Maple."
"Heh-heh-heh! Attacks like this are nothing! It isn't even coming for my other skills!"
"Yeah. Hmm, if the steal is a onetime thing, I guess I'll just start fighting back like
normal."
"I got your back!"
"Good. Here goes!"
Sally slipped out from behind Maple and hit the boss hard.
She'd said she couldn't slip through the barrage—but here she was knocking bullets
out of her path with the flats of her daggers, not even breaking stride.
Maple kept pace with her, shield up, keeping the durability loss to a minimum.
"Double Slash!"
With Sally's Sword Dance aura active, the boss's HP went down quick.
Sally had several ice pillars around and was using them to keep herself out of the
volley's path.
Maple could tell this must have taken a lot of practice.
"…Sally!"
"Don't worry, I see them!"
When its HP dropped far enough, the boss activated two more skills.
A pair of monsters crawled out of the ground.
Then the now-familiar chains wrapped around Maple once more, trying to steal yet
more skills.
"Whoa… this was our plan! We meant this to happen!"
"Maple, the Predators are after you!"
She was all trussed up, making her a great target—the monsters surged toward her
through the barrage.
One giant mouth closed around her legs and torso, the other around her head.
Maple closed her eyes, but then she realized she wasn't taking damage and slowly
opened them again.
"G-gosh… I didn't know what it looked like inside them! All this time we've been
fighting together, too."
She checked the skills she was losing.
"Bug Urn Curse… Fortress, and Martyr's Devotion! Oh, and Absolute Defense."
She might not be able to see far in front of her, but she could check her skill menu as
per usual.
Sally confirmed she was still going strong, and Maple could hear the sounds of her
spells and more ice pillars spawning.
"I'm gonna finish this while the Predators are still focusing on you!"
Sally bounced off another ice pillar and used her webs and invisible footholds to dance
through the air. The boots Maple had given her gave her an added degree of precision
that made it look like the spells were avoiding her. In no time flat, she was up against
the boss, her daggers stabbing down.
"Cool, it used Martyr's Devotion! I've got more targets!"
Sally started flinging spells around, and each little book she hit racked up more
damage to the boss itself.
"Going well! I think!"
Ascending, descending, focus at the max, slipping through any gap in the onslaught.
"And the finisher!"
Sally sheathed her daggers, balled her fist, kicked off a midair foothold, and
accelerated.
"I've gotta free myself… uh… got it!"
Maple had her inventory open, and she found one of the bombs Iz had made.
She dropped it on the floor at her feet, and the incoming bullets caused a chain
reaction.
"How's that?! I can attack even without skills!"
Maple might have her head inside a monster, but she still seemed smug. The raging
fires snapped all the chains restraining her, but those pet monsters weren't letting go.
"…Y-you can let go anytime now?"
The Predators finally let go—less because of what she'd said and more because of the
binding skill wearing off. They turned and headed toward Sally.
"Oh no you don't!"
Free, Maple quickly looked around—and saw a ton of little books spewing flames,
water, wind blades, and stone bullets in all directions.
And the big book had white wings outstretched. The attacks were coming so fast,
Maple couldn't even find Sally.
"Uh-oh?!" Maple said, getting worried.
She hustled toward the boss—and its HP dropped like a stone. It exploded in a shower
of light.
"Howww?!"
"And done. Whew, that was exhausting."
Sally came striding through the shower of light, landing before her.
Maple ran over.
"Y-you beat it?!"
"Yup. Thankfully, it used Martyr's Devotion. And good thing it didn't try to heal."
"Aww, I wanted to fight, too! Those things bit me, and I couldn't even see!"
"Well, I pulled you into this game. Sometimes I've gotta show off a bit, too. Lemme
show off sometimes! Still, it was a bit mean to just leave them stuck to you."
Sally looked a little guilty.
Maple thought for a second, and then her face lit up.
"Oh, I know! Since I took out the first-floor boss, we're even. What say we make it a
contest? See who can beat the third-floor boss?"
Sally blinked at her.
"…Uh, I dunno if I can manage that…"
"Well, if you can't, then I've already won."
Maple grinned triumphantly.
And Sally wasn't about to take that lying down.
"You're on! Next time I'll back you up properly and take out the boss!"
"Then let's hit the third floor! The early bird… I said that already."
"No time like the present? I'm in."
At that, Maple turned and ran toward the stairs.
"Don't let yourself get carried away next time," Sally muttered, chasing after her.
The seventh event had only just begun.
And each girl was certain the next boss was hers.