The next day, they prepped as planned and were ready to venture higher in.
"The eighth floor awaits!"
"I wonder what it's like."
"We didn't ask the others, so we'll have to find out."
Together, they stepped forward, and the magic circle swept them up to the new floor.
When the light faded, they found themselves in a jungle.
Like the jungle event before, there were no clear paths through it, just trees in all
directions. The underbrush got very dense in places, and there were vines dangling
among the massive trunks. Looking up, they saw colorful fruit. No matter where they
looked, there was zero indication of which way to go.
"Um. So… what do we do?"
"I mean, it put us facing this way, so… I guess we go forward?"
Neither sounded confident, but standing still would get them nowhere. They took a
step forward—
"Eek?!"
"Maple?!"
Something had shoved her from behind, and she fell over on her face.
Sally snapped around, drawing her daggers, squinting at the brush—but saw no signs
of any assailant or traps.
"M-Martyr's Devotion!"
Maple deployed a protective field, keeping Sally safe.
For a moment, they stood back-to-back, watching their surroundings. No more attacks
came. Sally put her daggers away, sighing.
"You okay, Maple?"
"Mm, glad they didn't hit you."
"I didn't detect anything."
"Was it a trap, or…?"
"Good question. Not enough info to work with. Can we keep Martyr's Devotion going
the whole time we're here?"
"Totally. I'll keep you safe!"
With that skill active, no ordinary attack could hurt Sally.
She always dodged everything, so it was easy to forget, but Sally's HP was very low. If
she ever did get hit, it would likely kill her.
"But I don't like getting the short end of the stick. Best we figure out what's going on
here."
"I'll keep my eyes peeled!"
Maple deployed her artillery, and they moved on, ready to fight at any time.
As they did, monkeys threw exploding nuts at them, roots popped out of the ground
at their feet—and Martyr's Devotion rendered the attacks moot.
"If there weren't any monsters, we could relax and explore."
"True. But we still don't know what knocked you down."
Sally was being much more cautious than usual—almost anxious. And the monsters
were attacking from a distance and hiding in the shadows—she couldn't venture out
to fight back.
"They're all running away!"
"Yeah… and not giving us any XP. Running after them doesn't seem worth it."
They hadn't found the boss yet, so they didn't want to waste any skills. They ignored
the monsters entirely, focusing on their search.
Eventually, they found a stone slab half buried in the vegetation.
"Oh! Sally! Look there."
"No magic circle. Doesn't look like the boss room… Let's take a closer look."
They moved in and found writing on it.
"'The path will be revealed to whomsoever defeats the crafty jungle ruler.'"
"The boss, then?"
"Probably."
"Then we'll have to— Whoa!"
Maple suddenly toppled forward and banged her head on the slab.
Something had hit her from behind.
Sally immediately whirled round. This time she spotted a giant chameleon on a tree,
rolling its tongue back up. It quickly turned invisible.
"There it is…"
"Urgh, what? What was it?"
"A chameleon. Probably behind both attacks. And I bet we're already in the boss room.
Or else this boss just free-roams the entire field."
"Then we'll have to chase after it!"
"Prolly, buuuut… it's invisible. That makes it tricky. This was just its way of saying hi."
With trees this dense, Maple's ranged attacks wouldn't be that effective. Since the
chameleon was moving around silently, Sally couldn't predict its attacks; her usual
speedy reconnaissance was off the table.
"Guess we'd better give chase."
"We'll just have to try stuff out… zzz."
Mid-enthuse, Maple's eyes drooped, and she slumped against the slab—sound asleep.
"…Maple? Ack! Sleep!"
This was a status effect that left you immobile for twenty seconds but would wear off
if you took damage.
The invisible attack must have been the cause.
And as if they were waiting for that, the enemies above dropped a ton of exploding
nuts on them.
"Crafty is one word for it. Good thing we had Martyr's Devotion up."
But since Maple didn't take damage from this, it didn't wake her up, either.
"Guess I'll just wait…"
Sally watched Maple slumber blissfully, wondering how they could catch this
chameleon.
"Mm… unh, huh?"
Exactly twenty seconds later, Maple sat up, looking confused.
"Morning. No more attacks while you slept it off."
"Oh… well, at least Martyr's Devotion's still active. Whew!"
"Yeah, but… if its attacks apply sleep on a delay like that, it's gonna take a while to
catch our invisible friend."
"Wanna bust out some of Iz's items?"
The pile Iz had given them yesterday included some items that would temporarily null
sleep. But the effect didn't last long, and they hadn't been given many.
Without knowing when the chameleon would attack, it was better not to waste them.
"First, we'll need to be up close. We don't even know how much HP it has."
"True! Welp, let's get look— Augh!"
For the third time, something hit Maple in the back. But instead of knocking her
forward, this time it dragged her higher.
"Yiiiikes!"
"Yeah, that's not good! Superspeed!"
Maple was already out of range of Web Spinner, so Sally had to use her speed boost to
catch up. Tree roots were right on her heels, and exploding nuts went off all around
her.
"Soooo close! I was only just in range!"
She'd had to do a dive roll to get inside Martyr's Devotion but was relieved to be alive.
"Ugh, that was a shocker…"
The thing pulling Maple had let go and dropped her, and she came crashing to the
ground.
Sally caught up, and this time she webbed herself to Maple so they'd be forced to stay
together.
"Okay, lifeline's good. Ugh, that nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Yeah… this thing is all about surprises."
"But it always moves around behind us, so we might be able to aim for that."
It had still hit them only three times. And attacking them from the rear gave it the
advantage, so it was hard to say for sure.
"The next time it attacks, I'll try shooting back. I might hit!"
"Yeah, that would certainly make this easy."
Since neither of them could spot it coming, they were forced to wait for it to make the
next move.
They stood there awhile.
"…Nothing's happening."
"No use stressing out about it. Not like we can see anything."
"Good po— Aughhh! C-Commence Assault!"
No sooner had the words left their mouths than Maple fired her guns dead ahead.
They made short work of the shrubbery, but no damage sparks went up.
At best, some colorful fruit fell from the trees.
"Ughhh… my face is all sticky…"
Maple was rubbing her face with both hands. Sally took out a towel and handed it to
her.
"It'll probably come off in time, but it looks pretty gross."
"Ugh, thanks."
"You didn't manage to hit like you were hoping, but you knocked something down.
We'd better check it out."
"Maybe it'll be materials or an item! Oh, I'd better change up my gear. Better to have
Helping Hands hold more shields."
"Yeah, good idea. Don't know where the attack is going to come from."
Sally was finally getting used to those disembodied hands. She still flinched when they
came out, but she was soon herself again. Maple's face was clean, and once she had
her extra shields, they moved cautiously over to the fallen fruit.
"Materials?"
"No, looks like eighth-floor-exclusive items. Three types."
One made invisible monsters visible but also made visible monsters invisible, another
provided temporary status-effect immunity, and the last one told you where the
chameleon currently was for ten seconds.
These effects could be active at the same time, so you only had to watch out for the
duration and total quantity. The invisibility toggle's effect could be turned off by eating
for a second while it was active, so carefully changing that up would be key to handling
its attacks.
"Wow, these oughtta help a lot."
"Yeah. I wanna make sure we have enough of 'em. Let's do the rounds."
"Mm, on the hunt for more!"
The boss hit them a few more times, but they knew they'd get it back eventually. For
now, they focused on gathering fruit. Especially the one that told them where the
chameleon was. That would really help them fight back.
"Ready to turn the tables?"
"Yeah. Let's!"
Maple bit into a fruit—and instantly knew where the chameleon was.
She put her arm around Sally and used Machine God's explosions to propel them
through the trees.
They closed in fast, Sally using her webs to adjust their trajectory.
No point in slowly cornering it—they just blasted straight at the thing.
"Sally, go right!"
"Got it!"
After some very forced cornering, Maple blasted off again.
"It's close!"
"Okay!"
Sally bit into the invisibility fruit, released the webs, and jumped to the trees.
The chameleon shot out its tongue, but Sally easily dodged.
"No prob if I can see you!"
She used Leap to close in and cut a deep gash from its head to its tail, falling back to
Maple below.
The chameleon was briefly visible, thrashing about, then started hopping away
through the trees.
"Sally, its HP was down to half!"
"I see! Not really a foe that can take us head-on."
"Yeah, we do this again, it might be over."
"Then we just gotta find it!"
But naturally, it wasn't that easy. Before their very eyes, it spawned several clones,
which scurried away into the underbrush.
This was clearly a phase shift, and they were soon out of sight.
"Do we have to beat all of those?"
"Could be one of them's real."
"Ugh, how do we know which?"
"If we're lucky, it'll have an HP bar. But I bet it won't be that easy."
Figuring the worst was still ahead, they settled on a plan.
"Gotta start thinning the numbers."
"Sure! Worth a try."
They both ate an invisibility toggle so they could see it. Maple found the nearest one
and shot a barrage its way.
But it quickly hid behind a tree.
"Hngg, no good."
"They sure hide fast. Looks like ranged attacks aren't gonna work."
As soon as Maple stopped shooting, several popped out, attacking from afar.
"Yuck, they're spitting poison!"
"Looks like it won't work as long as I'm in your cover… but it definitely curtails my
actions. It's sticking around, too."
"Is our first plan the only option?"
"That'll be rough. It's gonna take ages to find the real one."
"Yeah. We need an area— Oh!"
"What?"
"What about Paralyze Shout?"
This was one of Maple's skills and could apply a paralysis effect over quite a large area.
"It might not resist… Certainly worth a try!"
"Then let's try and snare as many as we can. Sally, grab on!"
As soon as Sally was secure in Maple's arms, they blasted off again. She found a spot
with three chameleons in it and activated her skill.
"Paralyze Shout!"
The visual was like an electric spark—and two of the three chameleons fell to the
ground.
Taking advantage of that, they fired spells and bullets, finishing them both off.
But rather than burst into light—they simply faded away.
"I bet that means there's a real one out there."
"Mm, but they don't always get paralyzed."
"Two outta three is plenty. This should make it a lot easier."
"Eh-heh-heh! Happy to help."
"You always do."
Eliminating two chameleons didn't seem to change much. Sally was probably right—
they'd have to find and kill the real one.
"Okay! Next… Yikes?!"
"Maple?!"
Just as Maple made her next move, something invisible smacked her in the face and
sent her flying.
Since they were webbed together, Sally was dragged after her. They'd each eaten a fruit
that allowed them to see invisible monsters, but that also meant they couldn't see
attacks that were usually visible.
"Ugh… argh, that really startled me."
"I'm so done with this floor."
They just couldn't get used to unseen attacks.
Especially Sally, who didn't usually soak attacks at all.
But their goal was clear—they simply had to take out every chameleon they saw.
"If Paralyze Shout works, then the paralysis items Iz gave oughtta work, too. I'll throw
those around—you focus on flying."
With Maple's MP, she couldn't actually activate Paralyze Shout at all. Slotted skills,
however, could be used a few times a day without MP.
But each use meant one less time she could bust out Hydra.
"We wanna clear this tower today, right? Gotta be stingy!"
"Yeah, but… we may have to turn back before clearing that last floor."
"Oh, right. They said that boss is crazy strong."
"I'd rather not lose."
"Then let's get this floor over with!"
Again, Maple used her guns to rocket through the trees, while Sally used her webs to
fine-tune their flight path.
Sally was regularly chomping on chameleon-detection fruit, helping Maple navigate.
The chameleons were pretty fast on their feet, but both girls were fairly mobile when
they wanted to be; once they were in the area, not many attacks hit them.
They were steadily whittling down the total numbers. The chameleon icons showing
up when Sally chomped a fruit were down to ten.
Still…
"W-we're not have much luck finding the real one…"
"Where is it? Maple! Right, right!"
"Huh? Where? Where?"
Sally had chameleon detection active, and in that ten-second window, she'd spotted
an icon hovering where nothing was.
She pulled two invisibility toggles out of her inventory and shoved one in Maple's
mouth. And lo and behold—the one visible chameleon stood before them.
"That's gotta be the one!"
"But it's already running!"
"Don't worry! I've got this."
Maple's mode of flight wasn't really great at stopping on a dime, so she landed by…
crashing into a tree.
Sally dropped the webbing and dashed after the chameleon.
"Superspeed! You aren't getting away—Leap!"
The chameleon was using its tongue to swing from a branch, but she vaulted to it,
daggers brandished. It let out a cry—and moved no more, shattering into light.
"S-Sally! You okay?"
Maple came pushing through the brush, and there was a rustle in the branches
overhead. The forest moved with a will of its own—and opened up a path.
There was a column of light ahead. Definitely a magic circle at the base.
"Another notch in my belt."
"Noice. Kind of a nerve-racking fight, but we got through."
"Your defense played a big part of that, and we didn't have to worry about the dungeon
itself."
"Should we hit up the next floor, then?"
"Absolutely."
They headed toward the magic circle and hopped on together.