Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense. Volume. 2.
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‘Chapter 9: Defense Build and the Event’s Fifth Day.’
Sometime after Kasumi departed, Sally and Maple rose to their feet.
“We’d better be going, too.”
“True.”
Their goal was to find a place to sleep.
“Guess we gotta get out of the desert first…”
There was no protection out here, so sleeping in the desert would be very risky.
They started walking.
“It’s awfully big…”
“Very.”
They crossed dune after dune, but the view never changed.
The dunes themselves were so big, they blocked the view ahead, and the girls weren’t even sure if they had their bearings straight.
And the desert wasn’t completely devoid of monsters.
Neither of them was in the mood to fight.
“Let’s take a rest once we cross this dune.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
The slope was so steep, they resorted to scrambling up the incline using their hands.
But when they reached the top—they saw something new.
“No more dunes?”
“It’s all flat!”
It was still a desert but one devoid of elevation shifts.
Not a single dune—if it had been daylight, they could have seen quite a distance.
“Let’s head that way?”
“Absolutely. Looks much easier to get around.”
They slid down the side of the dune and began walking again.
“If the sun was out, we might have found a landmark to head toward.”
“Totally a possibility! How much longer is this event?”
“Three more days. And our goal is another nine medals.”
“Hmm…that’s feeling pretty tough.”
“I think we’re gonna need a few PKs.”
“Hnggg, right…”
If that was the only option, Maple was willing to consider it, but since there was no telling who had medals or not, it wasn’t any easier than hunting for new dungeons.
“Well, we can think about it if we run into any other players. If they wanna fight, we’ll just have to beat them.”
“Mm, makes sense. If it happens, it happens! And if we can’t find enough, that’s all there is to it.”
Sally had long since discovered it was no use trying to force Maple into anything; instead, she always just proposed whatever seemed most efficient, citing her own experience.
Here, she specifically outlined it as one option, an option they might not even need. Just a card to keep up their sleeve if the situation left them with no choice.
They moved on across the vast desert.
It was too dark to see far ahead, but in the distance, they could hear leaves rustling—and they knew their desert trek was nearly at an end.
“No telling what monsters might be waiting here. Careful!”
“You got it!”
They walked through the darkened forest for a good half hour.
And then they found a cave.
“Let’s go in. It doesn’t look that deep, so it might make a good camp.”
“I’ll take the lead.”
They were worried this might turn out to be another endless cavern, but closer inspection proved it was only five yards deep.
Both girls flopped to the ground, finally able to rest.
“Ugh…that was a very long day.”
“Seriously.”
They each summoned their partner.
Both for the comfort and because they’d been unable to call them out much recently, which made them feel a bit guilty.
“Sorry you had to stay cooped up in there all day.”
“Once this event is over, I promise we’ll help you grind some levels properly.”
They both doled out head pats and back rubs, and their monsters looked thoroughly pleased with the pampering.
“I guess tomorrow we start by exploring this forest. We’re definitely done for the day, right?”
“I am for sure.”
They went right to bed, sleeping in shifts. After the day they’d had, they needed as much sleep as they could get.
And as they slept, they held Syrup and Oboro in their arms.
Six o’clock the next morning.
They’d banished enough of their fatigue to feel like exploring again.
They had a light breakfast and left the cave to see what this forest had to offer.
Maple had Syrup out and Sally, Oboro. Walking alongside them, Oboro darted this way and that, while Syrup dutifully plodded between them.
“……………”
“Wh-what’s that look about, Sally?”
“Syrup is definitely faster than you,” Sally said, making a big show of comparing the two of them.
Maple quickly picked up Syrup, hugging it close.
Sally’s grin just intensified.
They’d explored a lot of forests during this event, and this one was particularly unremarkable.
After a solid two hours of searching, they’d found…exactly nothing.
“If there are some special conditions…I can’t guess ’em.”
“Should we just go on until we come out the other side?” Maple suggested.
Sally considered this proposal a moment, then nodded.
“Which way?” she asked.
“No point turning back, so…straight ahead! Not like we’ve explored the entire forest anyway.”
They’d been focused on the forest depths, so if there was anything on the outskirts, they would’ve missed it.
But the odds of that were not high.
Whether it was a dungeon or a field, anything valuable would normally be hidden in the deepest section, guarded by a powerful foe.
Nobody was just gonna dump a chest with a medal in it right next to the entrance.
And as the girls reached the edge of the forest, they heard a tantalizing sound.
“Are those waves I’m hearing?”
“I think so.”
The trees thinned ahead, and beyond that, they saw white sands and a vast swath of ocean. The water was so clear, they could see brightly colored fish darting about at the bottom. The gorgeous coral reefs looked like flowers blooming in the ocean depths.
There was an island in the distance.
Sunlight glinted off the water, and everything sparkled.
“Wow…finally an ocean! This is a really big map.”
“So much variety!”
Over the last five days, they’d visited a field, several forests, a snowcapped mountain, a canyon, a desert, and a cave.
And now they had an entirely new type of terrain. This felt well worth exploring.
The sheer variety of landscapes they’d found made them all the more eager to see more.
Days and hours spent exploring had brought them to new dungeons and new views.
And so far, they’d been lucky enough to find dungeons no one else had conquered.
“But, uh…I can’t explore underwater.”
“Then I’ll explore for both of us!”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Sally dived right on in, took a deep breath, and vanished beneath the waves.
She could stay under for a full forty minutes.
Maple settled in for a long wait.
“What should I do…? Not like I can fish properly. And we’ve explored the forest already… Hmm, I guess I’ll see if there’s anything buried on the beach.”
Maple began rooting about in the sand.
Meanwhile, Sally was under the sea, enraptured by the jewellike fish flitting around her.
It was a wondrous sight.
After a day spent staring at gross, slimy snails, it seemed all the more beautiful.
But she couldn’t spend the whole time gawking. She started poking around among the coral and in the sand on the seafloor.
This would have taken ages without the right skills, but with her build, she could quickly and efficiently check the surrounding area.
“Gasp… Found one medal! Maybe not many people have Swimming and Diving. Without those, they can’t explore these depths!”
There was no need to push her limits, so she was surfacing for air regularly.
Some of the gaps in the coral went down pretty far, and she’d found the medal in one.
Leading off that, Sally was focusing her efforts on similar locations.
It seemed likely that was the most reliable way to find medals or equipment.
Figuring anything shallow would have been picked clean by now, she was sticking to the deepest areas.
And that rewarded her with a second medal.
“Whew…that just leaves…the island over there, huh?”
She started swimming that way.
The island was much too far out to sea for Maple to reach. It proved quite small, nothing but palm trees—and a staircase in the center.
“Worth a shot!”
Sally picked her way down the stairs.
After approximately one hundred of them, she reached an ordinary wooden door.
Didn’t seem to be sealed, didn’t have a keyhole, and no magic circles anywhere.
She carefully opened it.
And was quite surprised by the view beyond.
It was a beautiful domed chamber.
And in the center of it was a familiar-looking shrine, with a magic circle next to it.
“Yikes…another one of these…,” Sally muttered, inspecting them both.
The previous one had led to the bird boss. Honestly, she didn’t really feel up to fighting anything else that high-level.
“Best to head back and see what Maple thinks before anything else.”
Sally went up the stairs to the surface.
She’d been too busy diving and exploring to look over her shoulder. Only now did she catch a glimpse of what was going down on the beach.
“Maple…what are you doing?”
Even from this distance, she could make it out.
There was a sandcastle on the beach. One clearly taller than Sally herself.
“I guess…I should head on over…”
There was a splash as Sally hit the water. She swam back as fast as she could.
“Wow…it’s even bigger up close.”
It was twice Sally’s height.
She heard excited voices coming from within.
She found the entrance, peered around it, and found Maple sitting with a boy.
He had curly red hair and spade-shaped earrings. Pale skin and eyes the same color as his hair. He was only a bit taller than Maple, with androgynous features and a slim, delicate build.
With the exception of those earrings, everything Sally saw looked like default equipment.
Didn’t seem like he was carrying any noteworthy weapons, either.
No shields, swords, or wands.
Completely empty-handed.
Sally had never seen this boy before—and here he was, playing Othello with Maple.
“Auuugh, it didn’t work!”
“Perfect victory.”
The entire board was white.
Maple had obviously picked the color of her signature equipment—black.
Which meant she’d lost. Badly.
Mid–anguished wail, she noticed Sally and hopped to her feet.
“You’re back, Sally!”
“Uh, yeah. I am. So…who’s your friend?”
“I’m Kanade. Maple and I built this castle together.” Kanade turned to Maple. “It was a lot of fun,” he said.
“It was!”
Sally was starting to suspect these two had a lot in common.
If their minds were this alike, she could see why they’d made friends instantly.
“Is it safe?”
“I think so? You’re safe, right, Kanade?”
“I mean, I’m only level five. Not that it’s anything to brag about, but I’m still very weak.”
Kanade popped up his stats window and held it up to let Sally see.
He was definitely level 5.
“Y-you showed us that pretty casually.”
“Why wouldn’t I? You’re in Maple’s party, right? Then I don’t see the problem.”
Sally had no clue what had happened while she was gone, but Maple seemed to have earned his complete trust.
And the reverse was also true.
Maple insisted Sally register Kanade as a friend, too.
Maple and Kanade had already friended each other.
“Uh…well, I’m Sally. If Maple says you’re cool, then I’ll take her word for it. And…”
“And?”
“If you do attack, we can take you easily.”
Sally brandished her daggers.
“I—I promise I won’t, okay?”
Sally hesitated to say anything with Kanade here, but she told Maple about the dungeon she’d found.
“Ehhh…I don’t really wanna…”
“That’s what I thought. But we don’t actually know what’s inside, so…it might be worth a look.”
“Hmm…I guess…”
There was a long, thoughtful silence…broken by Kanade, of all people.
“Then I can go check it out. My start location is only a hundred yards away.”
This proposition was definitely based on the assumption that he would die.
The girls both tried to protest, but he was already on his way.
They watched him swim off into the distance.
“He’s got Swimming I, so I guess he’ll make it there without issue…”
“Y-you think he’ll be fine?”
“I really don’t know…”
They watched until he reached the island, wondering what might be inside the whole while.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m just assuming it’s another super-boss.”
“Like the bird?”
“Exactly.”
But that was just a guess. There was always a chance the circle led to a room filled to the brim with treasure.
“If there’s treasure, Kanade might just take it all.”
“Hmm…I don’t think he would, but…”
Maple put a hand to her brow, surveying the distant island.
Few people would pass up a chance at treasure.
And there was no telling where the transport circle inside would take him—meaning there was no way to give chase.
“Yup, I died,” Kanade said after emerging from the woods behind them.
They didn’t even need to ask how bad it had been.
This was just like the bird.
“Reporting in, Sir Maple.”
“Verily? Speak on!”
Where this bit had come from was a mystery, but Sally had done the same sort of thing before, so she let it pass without comment.
“The circle took me somewhere underwater. And this water seemed to slow my movements. I was helpless against the giant squid in there.”
“I see… Welp, I’m out!”
Maple couldn’t do anything underwater, and if the water had an effect like Sally’s Oceanic, then Sally’s evasion skills would be equally useless.
There was no point even trying.
Courage and recklessness were different things.
“Let’s leave this one be.”
“I thought you’d say that.”
“I’m gonna scour the seafloor a bit more; then we should move on.”
Sally did some stretches, glancing at the sea.
There were still a few areas left to check.
“Should I help? You can have any medals I find.”
This was a no-risk, high-return proposition, but…those were usually too good to be true.
“You mean that, Kanade?”
“This is all I really need,” he said, taking out…a Rubik’s Cube.
“What’s that?”
“This is my spoils from this event. I found a portal leading to the floating island that’s circling the forest behind us—actually, you can’t see it now that I’ve cleared it. Anyway, this is the wand I got as a reward.”
“That cube is a wand?!”
“Yup. The circle took me to an ancient library…and there was a jigsaw puzzle in one room. When I put it together, this popped out. It took me four whole days!”
The event map they were on was an island surrounded by water, and there were several islands floating in the sky above.
“And one of those had a library on it? I guess those are part of the map, then!”
Maple stared up at them.
They were hovering over the main island but were still pretty far away. She counted six floating islands, but there might have been more hiding behind the bird boss mountains. It was hard to be sure.
The Rubik’s Cube Kanade had found was glowing faintly, floating above his palm.
“This has a skill attached.”
“Wow…some of our gear did, too.”
“It’s called Akashic Records. It’s pretty neat.”
“How’s it work?”
Kanade was about to answer but thought better of it.
“I’ll tell you if we ever end up in the same party,” he said, flashing a mischievous grin.
Maple decided there was little use pressing the point.
“Hmm…I don’t think that’s happening soon,” she said.
“Ah. Shame!” Kanade grinned happily.
He didn’t seem particularly disappointed.
Kanade wasn’t like any players she’d met before. He had a unique vibe that made him a little hard to get a read on.
“I’d like to meet again once the event’s over.”
“Oh, sure! We can play more Othello.”
“Anytime.”
“With that settled,” Sally said, “I’m gonna go explore.”
“I’ll come, too. The more the merrier, right?”
Sally and Kanade headed out to sea.
Maple decided to search the beach properly this time.
Their scouring didn’t turn up anything else.
They’d checked every inch of the beach and the seafloor but came back empty-handed.
There was clearly nothing more to do here.
It was time for them to say good-bye to Kanade and set out in search of new pastures.
“Good luck!”
“Mm. See you around.”
And with that, they went their separate ways.
“He’s fun but a little odd.”
“Yeah? Maybe I’m just too used to you, Maple.”
“H-hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”
They decided to follow the coastline for now.
This seemed like the best way to avoid getting lost.
Two hours after they’d parted with Kanade…
The elevation had been rising steadily, and they were now following the edge of a cliff.
Meanwhile, the forest on their left had vanished, and they were entering a ruin of moss-covered stone.
This definitely looked promising.
A cobblestone road ran from the town to a prominence that protruded over the waters below.
On this overhang were several standing stones, placed around a pedestal.
They began to explore the run-down homes and dried-up wells—then they heard voices.
“Maple, hide.”
“Right.”
From the shadows, they scoped out the situation.
There were three players.
These were better equipped than most players they’d encountered; their gear was solidly in the upper rungs of mid-tier.
Nothing that looked like it came from a unique series but probably all boasting solid stats.
Sally assumed they had the levels to match.
They were already quite close. If either girl made a noise at all, they’d be instantly discovered.
“What do you think?” Maple whispered, leaning in.
A voice that quiet seemed safe enough, so Sally answered in kind.
“We can choose whether to fight or not. If we’re doing this…I can solo them. Or fight alongside you.”
Sally deliberately omitted the option of having Maple go in alone.
The other party was talking about something rather interesting.
“Any clue what that book means?”
“Nah, it’s in such bad condition—I can only make out fragments. I know it’s got something to do with water, but where the Ancient Heart is…”
“C’mon! That book’s guaranteed to drop if we die. You’ve gotta figure it out first!”
“I know!”
They turned back to their camp.
Moving away…
…without spotting the girls.
“Maple, I’d like to take them out. But they’ll try to protect this ‘book’ by scattering in all directions. Which means…”
She leaned closer, whispering the plan.
“……Got it. Think it’ll work?”
“Heh-heh-heh. I promise!”
The other players were almost out of sight.
If they waited any longer, they’d lose track of them.
So they put their plan in action.
“Yes! A fifth medal!”
A girl’s voice echoed through the ruins.
All three players swung toward it, then quickly ducked into cover.
If this girl had five medals, they definitely wanted those for themselves.
But there was no telling how good she was.
They had to scope her out first.
The girl popped up from the shadows, skipping along, all smiles.
She was wearing a scarf as blue as the ocean and shorts a little darker. Beautiful equipment that definitely drew the eye.
But the rest of her?
It was all clearly starting gear.
Just standard clothes. Nothing special at all.
No hidden buffs.
Even her shoes were the default pair.
“What do you think?”
“Clearly a beginner. She’s landed a couple of good pieces… Safe to assume she found them during this event. I looked just like that early on, myself—wearing whatever I found.”
“No proof she really has those medals.”
But even as they watched, the girl opened her inventory and took something out.
Five medals.
“Heh-heh-heh! Halfway there! I just need five more!”
Was this a habit of hers?
She’d plopped down on a nearby wall and was happily inspecting each medal in turn, putting it back in her inventory when she was done.
“That settles it. We’re going in.”
“Yeah. Take her down.”
They rushed out of the shadows, and the girl looked startled.
She drew her dagger and stood up, backing slowly away.
“Wh-what do you want?”
“Sorry, kid. We’re gonna help ourselves to your medals.”
“…………!”
She turned to run, but they had her surrounded. There was no escape.
Players approaching from three directions, and this girl clearly had no clue what to do. Her legs were shaking, her eyes darting this way and that.
“Now!”
“““Rah!”””
All three swung their weapons…
The girl swung her dagger, but that wasn’t nearly enough. Their weapons struck home…
And they knew the medals were theirs.
Except…
There were no medals.
And the girl herself vanished into thin air.
“““Huh?!”””
Even as they cried out in shock, red sparks erupted from one of them.
A second hit. A third.
The player gaped at the damage—and then took even more.
This proved fatal.
“Sorry. I’m gonna help myself to your book.”
The book fell to the ground, and it was scooped up by the girl—the same one they’d all thought was an easy target.
“Huh? G-give it back!”
None of this made sense. One of the survivors snapped and lunged at the girl, unleashing his best skill—but it was like his sword betrayed him, twisting out of the girl’s way.
She had a dagger in each hand.
Even as she dodged, she slashed his arm with both of them.
“Gah!”
And as he flinched, she put the book in her inventory, then promptly ran off.
“C-come back here!”
He ran after her, heedless of the damage spray—but an instant later, red sparks gushed from his guts like fresh blood…and then he vanished in a burst of light.
The girl he’d been chasing had disappeared—and she was standing where he’d fallen, spinning her daggers.
“You really shouldn’t fall for the same trick twice.”
“Huh? I…wh-what the—?”
The sole survivor couldn’t process any of this. He was just sputtering, at a total loss.
And in that condition…
There was no way he could ever beat Sally.
“Bye-bye, now.”
A moment later, the last player transformed into light.
Sally didn’t know where the three of them had started out, but she was confident they had no way of getting their book back.
“If you can’t beat me…you definitely aren’t beating Maple.”
Maple came running up to her.
“See? Told you it would work.”
“Yeah! It was fun seeing you break character.”
“That wasn’t the point!”
“Do it again! Especially the part where you started skipping.”
“No! Never again! Focus on the spoils!”
“…Fine, I’ll let you off the hook this time.”
“…Good. Argh, that was so not me.”
Sally vowed never to act like that again, no matter how effective it might be.
They started rummaging through everything the players had dropped.
Their first bit of loot was also their main goal: the book.
Additionally, they were rewarded with three medals after the fight.
That was definitely a stroke of luck.
Anyone who’d found three medals would likely avoid high-level opponents like the plague.
If Sally had been in her usual gear, they’d probably have bolted at the first sight of her. Maybe not everyone would notice, but Sally’s equipment definitely didn’t look like anything they sold in shops.
And the fact that she had five medals—more than the three of them—had definitely robbed them of their better judgment.
Who could resist the chance to almost triple their medals?
“You play with fire, ya gonna get burned.” Sally chuckled. Then she took the old book out of her inventory. “Let’s give this a look-see.”
“Yeah, I’m definitely curious.”
They sat down on the wall, peering at the pages.
It was in such poor condition, almost nothing was legible. But when she flipped through it, she found one page with a readable passage.
“The Ancient Heart—guided by gushing water and the beckoning faint light…there did I spy it. If thou dost have the courage to dispel evil, then hasten to the quiet azure depths.”
“What does that mean?”
“This Ancient Heart’s got something to do with this water…and that leads you to a dungeon? Seems like there’ll be a fight, too.”
“…Water… Is there a fountain, or…?”
Sure enough, a quick check of the area led them to four fountains.
There was a big one in the center of all the dilapidated ruins and three little ones placed some distance away.
At the top of each fountain was a diamond-shaped red crystal with a lovely gleam.
But all the fountains were dried up—no water anywhere.
“Let’s start with the big one in the middle.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
It was a short walk to the fountain.
Sally climbed up into the fountain’s main basin. Clearly, she had an idea.
“Oceanic!”
Water gushed out from her feet.
The basin was quickly filled to the brim.
As soon as it was, the entire fountain took on a faint blue glow.
“Ohhh!”
“Nice!”
But the glow soon faded.
The water in the basin vanished, like the fountain had absorbed it.
They listened closely, but it didn’t sound like anything had activated.
“Hmm. Nothing’s happening…”
“…No. But there’s clearly something up with this fountain.”
“Totally. Let’s try the others, too.”
They repeated this at all the fountains. Each of them glowed briefly, but nothing more.
“If the faint light is these glowing fountains…do we need the water to gush?”
Thinking about it wasn’t getting them anywhere, so they tabled the discussion and looked through the book again.
“Oh!”
“A drawing?”
There was something on the last page.
This, too, was in poor condition, but they could just make out the illustration on it.
“Pots…or jugs?”
People were placing some sort of vessels around the four fountains. Something round was floating at the top of the picture. This was painted red.
“Is that the Ancient Heart?” Maple asked, pointing at the red blob.
“…Maybe? Hmm. Do we have to fill some jugs and place them around the fountains? I don’t get it.”
They both made a lot of thinking noises, but the picture was too abstract, and no clear plans emerged.
“Let’s take a break. We clearly aren’t getting anywhere.”
“It sure doesn’t feel like we are, no.”
They sat down in the center of the ruins. Not even trying to hide.
It was easier to relax with a clear view of all approaches.
“Only three more days left…counting today,” Sally mused.
They were well past the halfway point. Only a little time left.
“I feel like these past four days have been suuuuuuuuuuuper packed! Like, way more stuff happened than in all the rest of the time we’ve played combined.”
“Ah-ha-ha, yeah, maybe.”
They’d beaten a goblin king, spent the night in a haunted forest, gone up against a stupidly powerful bird on a mountaintop, made friends with Syrup and Oboro, and explored a moonlit bamboo thicket.
Then they’d fought fake versions of each other in a canyon, met Kasumi in the desert, and been chased by snails through an endless cave.
Finally, they’d met Kanade on the beach, getting new medals and a new friend.
Like Maple said, the event had been jam-packed.
“If we can finish these ruins…and a dungeon, if there is one, I’ll be done for the day.”
“So we spend the rest of the day here?”
“Yeah, let’s go with that. It might just take us that long…”
That finished their break, and they got up to explore the ruins some more.
They split up to cover more ground and checked every corner, but by the time the sun set, they’d still found nothing.
“What now? Keep looking?”
“It might be time dependent, and…we need to be ready for tomorrow. So I’d say we take turns sleeping while the other one explores.”
“Works for me!”
They’d traded shifts several times. It was currently Maple’s turn to explore.
“Good luck!”
“Yeah…I hope I find something.”
Maple set off into the ruins once more.
She started with the fountain. Each shift, that was where she’d gone first.
Then she’d check the smaller fountains around it.
Then she’d look up at the sky.
“The moon really is beautiful…”
There was a full moon tonight, its pale light casting a soft glow on the ground.
The real world had artificial light everywhere, and Maple had never realized how much light the moon gave off.
She was almost at the fountain again.
“Mm-hmm?”
Maple stopped in her tracks.
This was the change they’d been waiting for.
The fountain was glowing. Without either of them doing anything.
Maple quickly sent Sally a message.
Sally caught up with her in less than a minute.
“Wow! It’s totally glowing.”
“Yeah! I figured that was an important sign.”
Sally hopped up on the basin and used Oceanic again.
“The glow got brighter…but not enough.”
Once again, it had simply absorbed all the water.
Sally hung her head, dejected.
Maple thought about this for a moment, until an idea suddenly hit her.
“What if it needs to be all of them at once? I mean, there are four fountains.”
“That makes sense, but…we couldn’t get to them all in time. Even with Superspeed, I’m not that fast.”
“But we’re not getting anywhere as is, so…why not try?”
“Try what?”
“You’re not the only one who can make a liquid, Sally.”
Maple explained her plan.
“Uh…huh. That…might be worth a shot.”
Sally hopped back up on the basin and activated Oceanic.
Just before she did, Maple yelled, “Hydra!”
Poison was technically a liquid.
And the Hydra had three heads.
She had each of them point at a different smaller fountain and swallow it up.
Maple’s plan was a total shot in the dark, but it turned out that fortune was on their side.
“Whoa!”
“That’s really bright!”
The three smaller fountains each shot a beam of light at the main one.
The big fountain’s glow grew brighter and brighter, and the red crystal levitated.
The crystal began gathering moonlight, becoming even brighter, bathing the whole area in red…and then it shattered.
“Um.”
“Wh-what now?”
They looked around nervously…and then there was a rumble behind them.
It echoed through the quiet ruins—and both girls spun around.
“What…the…?”
“Whoa…!”
What had once been the main street sprang up at the fountain steps…
…and ran all the way to the cliff-top prominence.
To the pedestal and the standing stones.
Even from this distance, they could see a glowing white light.
The rumble had been the sound of the pedestal and standing stones…crumbling.
They moved closer to examine the new glow. It was a magic circle—they’d seen plenty of those by now.
Careful not to step on it, they moved around, inspecting where the standing stones had been.
And found…
“Yikes.”
“S-spooky…”
The sea below them had parted. There was now a dark pit, so deep that they could not see the bottom.
“I bet there’s something down there…”
“Yeah, basically guaranteed. Maple, wanna jump?”
“N-nope, nope, can’t, won’t. Too scary!”
It was the middle of the night.
The ocean at night was always sinister, and jumping into the creepiest part of it took more courage than Maple had, even if she might be able to soak up the damage.
“Then…guess we’d better take the magic circle. It probably connects to the bottom.”
“Somewhere nobody else has explored.”
“Yup.”
On the count of three, both girls hopped onto the circle.
And once again, their bodies turned to light.
“So dark!”
“Sally? I can’t even see you!”
“Hang on a second.”
Sally took a lamp out of her inventory and lit it.
“Are we…underwater?”
“Oh! Look up!”
Sally did and saw stars above.
“We’re definitely at the bottom of that pit.”
“There’s a path going that way!”
The passage was a perfect half circle.
The walls were made entirely of water.
Some mysterious power was keeping the ocean at bay, forming a path.
“Let’s hurry through. Don’t want this collapsing on us.”
“Yeah! That would be bad.”
They made haste through the darkened underwater tunnel.
By the light of day, this might well be genuinely beautiful—but since this could happen only at night, no one would ever know.
The lamp’s feeble light was not enough to keep their fears at bay. Before they knew it, the girls were holding hands.
“Oh! There’s light up ahead!”
“Wh-whew!”
They ran even faster. The light grew bigger, and by the time they reached it—it was taller than either of them.
The light came from the ocean.
It was like time flowed differently here—this space was as bright as day.
They could hear bubbles rising as fish happily swam about.
It pushed back the darkness, banishing their fears.
And there was a single staircase, made of coral, stretching through the daylit sea.
At the top was a door, also coral. They’d seen doors like this before. That led…to a boss room.
“‘Dispel evil…’ Ready for a fight?”
“Yup! Anytime.”
Maple raised her shield, showing how ready she was.
Sally took a deep breath…and opened the door.
“Maple, it’s a domed room, well lit. Kinda the same as this one.”
“Aha!”
“And, uh…it’s big. Like, over fifty yards across. Ceiling’s pretty high, too.”
“Then…the boss is big, too?”
Big bosses usually came in big boss rooms.
“Floor’s dry stone…for now. Don’t see any traps.”
“Got it. On your mark?”
“Go!”
“Here we go!”
They leaped through the door.
Not wanting to waste Devour, Maple didn’t hold up her shield.
Like Sally said, there were no traps. No physical attacks that would deplete her stock of Devour.
“……………! Here it comes!”
“Yup!”
There was a splash, and several tentacles emerged from the ceiling above.
These were clearly squid arms.
“Is it that dungeon?!”
“But this one isn’t underwater!”
As they gaped, the giant squid attacked.
Tentacles as big as the girls swung at Maple.
“Fine…not fine?!”
Her great shield swallowed up a squid tentacle, but the HP bar above didn’t budge.
Not because it had a lot of health.
She simply hadn’t done any damage.
“We might have to attack the main body to do anything!”
“Whaaaat?!”
“This…is gonna suck,” Sally muttered, glancing up at the squid swimming above.
The squid didn’t care what she thought. It just kept attacking from the comfort and safety of the sea outside.
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Diamond. Diamond. Diamond.
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