Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense. Volume. 3.
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‘Chapter 6: Defense Build and Powering Up.’
When they reached the third-stratum Guild Home, Maple cheerily introduced Yui and Mai to the rest of the crew.
Then the two of them elected to log out for the day.
“You’ve both leveled up a little, but you’ll need a lot more… Hmm. Maple, when can the three of you play together next?”
The girls compared notes, aligning their schedules.
“Maple, lend me your ear.”
“Mm? What, what?”
Sally whispered something to her.
“………Okay!”
“I’ll take care of the prep.”
“Cool, got it.”
The twins looked puzzled, but for now, everyone was dismissed.
On the appointed day, the three of them were together once more.
Sally had gifts for the twins.
“Take these,” she said, handing them headgear that covered their heads completely, making it impossible to see their faces. “Use these and follow Maple’s instructions.”
Both girls nodded.
“All right! Follow me!”
““A-aye-aye!””
They trailed out of the Guild Home after Maple. Sally had some business of her own to take care of, so she wasn’t logging out just yet.
“You going, too, Chrome?”
He’d been heading out the door himself—but not to help Maple.
“Yeah…Kasumi’s already at it.”
It was currently summer. And all summer long, monsters had a low chance of dropping watermelons.
Collecting these would enhance the guild’s support effects.
That meant stat boosts. These watermelons could raise Strength, Agility, and Intelligence by a maximum of 10 points each. Just as gathering enough dirt makes a mountain, making sure to hit that quota every time would amount to a substantial permanent boost to all guild members.
“I’ve got Maple handling the twins’ power leveling, so securing the guild buffs is on us.”
“Lords knows what they’ll come back as… They’re not out hunting a unique series, are they?”
“Nah, just getting some levels for now. Somewhere on the first stratum, away from prying eyes…”
There was a reason they were trying to avoid attention.
When she explained this to Chrome, he made a face and nodded.
Meanwhile, Maple had brought the twins to a deserted corner of the first stratum.
They were outside the dungeon where she’d fought the hydra.
“Are we running this dungeon?”
“Yep, we are! Put those things on!”
The twins equipped their helmets.
With their faces covered like this, nobody could tell who they were.
“Martyr’s Devotion!”
Maple went right into angel form, hair glimmering gold in a glow of divine light.
They’d seen this before so were able to admire the beauty of it without reeling in surprise.
“Atrocity!”
But that feeling did not last long.
Maple swiftly transformed into a hideous beast. Only the effects of Martyr’s Devotion remained. Even her wings were gone.
“Hop on! Oh, make sure you get at least one hit in on the boss.”
These two girls were really strong…so they could easily hold on to the creature Maple had become.
“Oh, and if anyone sees us, I’m gonna pretend to be a monster, okay?”
Their heads were hidden, so nobody could match their faces to their guild and their guild to Maple; this whole rigamarole was purely to prevent anyone from realizing who monster-form-Maple really was.
They wanted to keep that ace up their sleeve until the guild event.
““Huh?””
“Grah! Grrrrr!” Maple said and flung herself down the cave.
There was no need to role-play now, but she felt like it.
She shredded every monster along the way, opened the door to the boss room, and charged right at the hydra waiting within.
The poor hydra fell once more to her voracious appetite.
Yui and Mai had each landed a blow before its demise, so they leveled up.
And then came the important step.
Unlike the last time, two magic circles appeared before them.
One led to town—the other to the dungeon entrance.
Sally had explained that after clearing a dungeon once, subsequent runs would offer up this second circle.
And Maple took the new circle back to the entrance.
If they left the dungeon, the boss would respawn.
Their reason for coming here was to farm the hydra boss.
This poison dragon was far and away the toughest foe on the first stratum.
And it took an awfully long trip from town to get here, so with the current boom in extreme builds, not many players were inclined to make the arduous hike.
Best of all, the dungeon itself was quite short.
They could clear the deserted dungeon in a flash, rip the rotting dragon to shreds, and then consume it piece by piece.
And as they repeated this process, the twins rapidly leveled up.
Maple knew the route by heart, so she never got lost, and there was nothing around that could challenge her onslaught.
Maple was looping the dungeon at astonishing speeds, averaging just over three minutes per run.
After checking her time a few runs in, she felt an urge.
Yes…
She wanted to crack the sub-three range.
There was no real meaning to this. All she had to do was be a few seconds faster.
Maple was beginning to discover the fun that could be had when repeating the same run over and over again.
Taking this corner a little tighter, slaughtering all the monsters at that spot with fire breath before they clashed, avoiding anything that might slow her down…
Opening the boss door with no wasted motion, hitting the boss itself as hard as she could.
A few attempts after she started consciously working at it, her time dipped below the three-minute mark.
She felt like there was still room for improvement.
She could beat that hydra faster.
If she had Yui and Mai go all out on it, they could make some real gains.
After several tries doing that…
Yui’s and Mai’s new levels were boosting their attack strength, and they actually shaved down their run time to under 2:30.
“Yesssss!” Maple roared, her voice all staticky.
There was no reward for this, but Maple felt a great sense of accomplishment.
““Maple! Maple!””
“Mm? What?”
““Look!””
The twins showed Maple their stat screens.
Her head had no eyes, but for some reason, she could still see just fine.
“Um…Annihilator? And Conqueror?”
“Let me see… Conqueror is for beating a boss a bunch under a certain time limit. Prereq is a lot of Strength. And we got Annihilator because of the dungeon speedrun. You need a lot of Strength for that, too.”
Maple’s Atrocity had boosted her stats, but those numbers weren’t real, so there was no way for her to get these skills.
The twins showed her the full skill listing, and Maple noticed something interesting.
Conqueror.
Doubles the user’s Strength. Costs 3x the points to raise Vitality, Agility, or Intelligence.
Condition.
Defeat a boss a set number of times under a set time limit. Requires Strength: 100+.
Specifically, this Conqueror skill was the Strength version of her Absolute Defense.
“Hmm… Don’t think Kasumi would need that. Or Chrome…and Sally would hate the downside…”
The guild members with DPS builds were all raising several stats, so they wouldn’t want a skill that stunted their growth in all but one area.
“And Annihilator…is really good.”
Annihilator.
Allows one-handed use of two-handed weapons.
Condition.
Clear a dungeon below a set time limit. Requires Strength: 100+.
In other words, they could now dual-wield giant hammers like Sally did daggers.
“How about we do a few more loops and then head home?”
““Okay!””
After countless loops of the hydra dungeon, they finally called it a day.
Yui and Mai climbed down off Maple’s back, and she reverted to her human form.
“Whew,” she said, stretching. “I’m all worn out! That was fun, though.”
“Oh, um. Maple, thank you so much! We gained so many levels!”
Yui turned and bowed. Mai followed suit, thanking her, too.
“Mm, great! But I hear there are some really high-level players out there. I’m still on the low end! Sally said the highest player is…sixty-one now?”
“S-sixty-one?! Th-that’s…mind-blowing.”
“What level are you now, Mai?”
Recovering quickly from their surprise, the twins turned to assessing the results of the day’s grind.
“Probably the same as you, Yui. Um…twenty.”
Mai was clearly still not used to opening her status menu, but she managed after a moment and showed it to her sister.
Yui opened her own for comparison and then had an idea.
“Oh! Should we let Maple look over our stats? Do you mind, Mai?”
“Hmm. I’d say…yeah, let’s do that.” Mai said, nodding.
They took a step toward Maple and showed her their stat blocks.
Mai.
level 20. HP 35/35. MP 20/20.
[Strength 160 <+25>]. [Vitality 0].
[Agility 0]. [Dexterity 0].
[Intelligence 0].
Equipment.
Head. [None]. Body. [None].
Right Hand. [Iron Hammer]. Left Hand. [Iron Hammer].
Legs. [None]. Feet. [None].
Accessories. [None].
[None].
[None].
Skills.
Conqueror, Annihilator.
Yui.
level 20. HP 35/35. MP 20/20.
[Strength 160 <+25>]. [Vitality 0].
[Agility 0]. [Dexterity 0].
[Intelligence 0].
Equipment.
Head. [None]. Body. [None].
Right Hand. [Iron Hammer]. Left Hand. [Iron Hammer].
Legs. [None]. Feet. [None].
Accessories. [None].
[None].
[None].
Skills.
Conqueror, Annihilator.
The two girls looked the same, and so did their stat blocks.
“Oh, so the reason you didn’t use any skills in combat is because you didn’t have any.”
“Yes… Everything we fought on our own just killed us before we could land any hits, so we couldn’t make enough money to buy any scrolls.”
“And it’s hard for us to learn skills from beating monsters. That’s why we were looking for a guild…”
Most monsters were on the agile side.
Unless you were Maple and just sprayed down the whole area with poison, you’d need to be able to handle a few incoming attacks at the very least.
Maple didn’t need to pay those any attention, so she welcomed incoming monsters, but the twins had found that approach didn’t work out so well.
“Even if we just head out to gather items, we can’t run from any monsters and would wind up dying that way, too…”
“That’s why we were thinking about starting over when you called out to us.”
They’d also upgraded their weapons before buying some other essentials, which had only dug them in deeper. Without anyone to help, they’d been out of options—but meeting Maple had changed all that.
They were now strong enough to make progress despite the serious drawbacks of their extreme builds.
“Now we just need to have Iz make you some gear. Oh, hang on…”
Maple popped up her screen and switched to the equipment menu.
Then she swapped out her gear for the white set Iz had made for her.
“I had her craft all of this for me recently! And there’s the shield she made before that. She’s great! You should try asking her for help.”
“Can we? I mean…we don’t have money,” Mai said, checking her cash and even the materials in her inventory.
They had a lot more materials than they’d ever had before, but even still, there seemed little chance they could afford anything as fancy as what Maple had equipped.
Yui looked downcast, clearly thinking the same thing.
But Maple just beamed back at them.
“Totally, totally! I had her make stuff for me when I was broke! And if you need anything, I can help you get it. Sally and I are happy to lend a hand!”
Generosity had been instrumental in getting White Snow made.
“Heh-heh-heh…there’s so much left to do! But for now, let’s head back to the third-stratum Guild Home. We gotta talk about your gear!”
Maple was acting like a real leader, and the twins were happy to follow.
“We need to tell the others about our new skills!”
“Those should make you instantly viable in any fight.”
“That…would be very nice.”
Chattering away, they headed home—careful to avoid crowds.
When they arrived back at the Guild Home, they found Kasumi and Sally chatting.
They broke off as Maple’s group approached.
“Welcome back. How’d it go? They get some levels?”
“You betcha! They’re still not super high level, but they’re a lot higher than before!”
“Well, we have time. Getting them third-stratum ready in a single go was always a long shot.”
Maple explained that the twins were level 20. now, and Kasumi and Sally were suitably impressed.
As Maple was asking what skills they should have the twins learn, Yui stepped up.
When everyone looked, she said, “U-um! We learned these two skills today.”
“Let’s see…”
“Can I have a look?”
Kasumi and Sally examined Yui’s skills. The ones Maple had accidentally earned them were powerful and would certainly have a huge impact on the direction their builds took.
“Ooo…kay. Right. Thanks for sharing.”
“Same here.”
They turned away from Yui and stared right at Maple.
“Huh? Wh-what?”
“I dunno if it’s what I expected or…worse.”
“You always surpass my wildest expectations.”
“At the very least, if they’ve both got those skills, we’ll have to rethink things.”
Sally had been assuming the twins wouldn’t really be much use in a fight for a while yet, but Maple had found a way to make them instantly combat capable.
“Okay, so…Annihilator? If nothing else, we’ve gotta prep gear that takes advantage of that.”
“Oh! Right, right. That’s what we came here to talk about!”
“Iz is in the back. I’ll go get her.”
Kasumi dashed off and returned a minute later, Iz in tow.
“Uh, hi. Yui and Mai, was it?”
““That’s right!””
“Um, can I have a look at these skills?”
They showed Iz their screens. Stat points all poured into more attack and two support skills designed to support that build.
Iz read the Annihilator description, nodding.
“Interesting. Well, to get you started— I mean, nobody in our guild can use ’em.”
Iz took four hammers out of her inventory and handed two to each twin.
“You can have these,” she said. “They’ll help for now. These hammers should make it easier for you to land hits, too.”
Yui and Mai scoped out their new weapons.
Crystal Hammer.
[Strength +25]. [Supersize].
Supersize.
Increase target size.
Effect lasts thirty seconds, with a one-minute cooldown.
In other words, this skill allowed them to supersize the hammer heads, making it harder to miss.
With their damage output, as long as they hit, the blows would be fatal for most enemies, so this skill was ideal.
“Um, a-are you sure?”
“I mean…these are really nice!”
“Not a problem. They’re good, but nobody else in our guild can use ’em, so they were just collecting dust. And…”
““And…?””
“I’ll make you something better. We should talk deets.”
Iz was being so generous, it clearly made the twins feel guilty, and they were already shooting each other anxious looks.
“Seriously, don’t worry about it. Consider it an investment. In return, just think about what you can do for us later.”
That finally clinched it for them, and they nodded.
““All right! I’m sure we can help out now!””
“Heh-heh. Then let’s figure out what designs you’d like. Come on in to the back, and we’ll get your gear sorted out.”
Iz headed toward her workshop.
“Er, thank you, everyone!”
“We’ll do our best!”
The twins bowed low.
Kasumi, Sally, and Maple all waved back.
And the twins turned to follow Iz.
“Whew… Okay, Maple. Seriously, how do you do it?”
“Yeah, how is that even possible?”
“I just used Atrocity and ran through the cave! Stomping all the monsters and trying to go as fast as I could!”
Maple’s idea of best practices was beyond the average player’s wildest imaginings.
Where others did things by the book, she took the book and threw it out the window.
“And, uh, how’d the fight go?” Sally asked.
Maple just looked puzzled.
“I mean, how’d they do with attacking, dodging, etcetera?” Sally clarified.
Maple thought about this, picturing their runs.
“Um…the dragon doesn’t actually move much, so they didn’t really do anything special. They did mention that they have trouble beating ordinary monsters. Dodging? Uh…they’re about the same as me?”
That was the best Maple could manage.
But it was more or less what Sally had been expecting.
“Yeah, you can’t really dodge with literally zero Agility. And they’ve got no shields… All right, my job’ll be to get them some sort of evasion, but they’re gonna be mostly attack focused.”
Maple had gotten them the levels, so Sally was gonna focus on refining their technique.
“They can probably survive without dodging in this guild, but…can’t hurt to learn a few tricks.”
Maple Tree had the two best great shielders in the game.
And Maple had just picked up Martyr’s Devotion, raising their defensive capabilities even further.
There were few forces as unfathomable as a durable Yui and Mai.
“Can’t wait to see how they grow!”
“I’d better get ready to train them.”
“I need to gain some levels myself… So much to do!”
“But that’s what keeps it fun!”
“Good point!”
The more she had on her plate, the bigger Maple’s smiles.
While they were talking, Yui and Mai had just reached the outside of Iz’s workshop.
“In here,” Iz said, opening the door for them.
Inside, it was quite roomy.
On one side was a desk Iz likely used when sketching new designs. On the walls were an array of weapons and armor, smithing tools, and the fruits of her labors.
In another corner was a set of flasks for making potions, wooden boxes filled with gems and crystals, planters growing all variety of things, and a sewing machine—clearly the tools required to craft anything this game allowed.
Iz found two extra chairs and sat down at her desk, turning to face the twins.
“Come in—have a seat. Let’s decide what I’m making for you.”
“Okay!”
“Please.”
“Hmm, let’s start simple—equipment stats.”
“What do you think, Mai?”
“Good question… With the skills we have, do we keep boosting Strength?”
Not long ago, they’d been considering abandoning the build concept entirely, but meeting Maple had allowed them to see a future down that path.
So they were at a crossroads.
How could they best support their guildmates? That would be the basis for this decision.
“When you’re stuck and can’t be sure what choice to make, just do what feels right. That’s how Maple does it.”
Iz had seen plenty of evidence that gut feelings could lead to dividends.
“Then…”
“Yes. Stay the course!”
Their minds made up, they spoke as one.
““Pure Strength boost!””
Iz grinned, jotted that down, and it was time for the next step.
“Then let’s decide what kind of equipment and what it should look like. I think you’ll be using this gear for a while, so let’s make sure we get it right.”
As they talked things over, Iz rummaged through her boxes, showing them different pieces. They took their time settling on the right design.
Eventually she put down her pen, seemingly satisfied.
“Okay, we’ll go with that. Wait right here. I’ll craft them and be right back.”
The gleam in her eye made it clear she couldn’t wait to get cracking.
“Um, you’re sure we don’t have to pay?”
“You’re good. But if it bugs you, I’ll be happy to take any unwanted materials off your hands.”
“We can do that!”
“We’ll get lots!”
“Mm, good luck! There’s plenty of good stuff on the second and third stratums. Well worth seeing for yourselves! Anyway, like I was saying, I’ll have these done in a jiffy, so just wait outside.”
““Okay!””
Once the two of them had left, Iz quickly went through her stock of materials, piling them up and getting ready to craft.
“The other guild members rarely stop by my workshop, so…good! I can go full tilt.”
Iz set to work, never pausing, clearly having the time of her life. Maybe that’s why their gear was finished far faster than she’d expected.
Outside the workshop, the twins had been waiting as instructed. Surprised by Iz’s crafting speed, they happily received their new equipment. The outfits matched their hair—one set was black and green, the other white and pink. They were both quite cute, with several sets of frills and ribbon embellishments. Iz would be making them custom hammers, too, but currently she was out of materials, so those would come later.
Wondering what to do next, Yui and Mai headed back to the guild entrance but found no sign of the others.
“Where’d they go…?”
“Not sure… Whoa! We were talking for two whole hours!”
That was a lot longer than they’d thought.
“Should we call it a day?”
“Hmm… Mai, do you mind if we do one more thing?”
“…? Tour the second or third stratum?”
“No. I mean, we’ve got two new weapons. I wanna try them out!”
“Oh…right. Sure, let’s do that.”
“Thank you, Mai!”
They headed back to the first stratum to try out the very battles that had given them so much trouble before.
Back on familiar terrain once more, they began looking for a good place to fight.
“It’s gotta be somewhere people won’t see us.”
“Mm…probably a good idea.”
Outside of town, they quickly left the main path, heading toward the less popular mountains.
Avoiding areas where monsters might lay in ambush, they slowly traveled away from civilization.
“Careful, Yui.”
“Got it, Mai.”
Keeping their eyes peeled, each time they spotted monsters, they backed off before they were noticed. They did this again and again until they were certain there were no other players around.
They were in a zone of tall rock pillars near the base of the mountain.
They had not been aware this area existed, but it was perfect for what they were attempting.
“Nobody’s here, right?”
“Not that I can see!”
Certain they were alone, they opened their inventories and hesitantly equipped the hammers Iz had given them.
“Wow. W-we truly can equip both…”
“It feels really weird having one in each hand.”
Dual wielding their new hammers, they wove between the rocks, searching for monsters.
“…! Yui, there!”
Mai pointed—there was a two-yard-tall golem up ahead, basically a heap of rocks stuck together and imbued with life.
Monsters like this generally boasted high defense, but after coming all this way, it seemed worth the attempt.
“Okay. Let’s do this, Mai!”
Yui’s gaze was on it, too, and she was ready to go.
Mai nodded back—looking a bit nervous.
“Ready!”
“Okay!”
They dashed out from behind the rock, closing in on the golem.
It saw them coming and turned to face them, footsteps thudding.
““Supersize!””
Extra-large hammers swung at the golem, but the golem jumped back, causing the swings to sail through nothing but air.
And the golem was already charging back in, fist raised for a mighty attack.
“Yui!”
“I know!”
Not the most graceful attacks, but both of them brought their second hammer in for a sideswipe.
Their hammers pulverized the golem’s bulky arms—and kept going, shattering the main body, too.
“Huh…?”
“Seriously?!”
With just a few blows, the golem turned to light—and vanished.
It was far too easy. Both girls stood there flabbergasted.
“W-we really do a lot more damage…”
“Yeah. Even if we did land a hit, nothing’s ever died that easily!”
Having two weapons equipped provided a serious offensive boost. And Maple had power leveled them—but Conqueror was definitely the biggest change.
That skill doubled their Strength value. It was safe to say their DPS was at least three times what it had been before they joined Maple Tree.
“Wow! Just…wow. Augh!”
Yui had been jumping with delight but was too happy to notice the snake sneaking up behind her—until it bit her. Before she could even react, she had no HP.
There were a lot of monsters out in the field.
And with little experience, their ability to detect enemies was still rather poor.
“Yui!” Mai yelled, watching her sister disappear in a burst of light. She swung her hammers, but the snake easily darted around them and tackled her. She went flying.
She landed some distance away, skidding across the ground and raising a dust cloud.
“Ugh…”
The blow was more than her HP could handle, and she vanished in a puff of light just as Yui had. When she opened her eyes, she was back in the first-stratum town. She looked around and found Yui next to her—already down to a single hammer.
“Mai, you okay? Better put that away.”
“Oh yeah. Right. Sorry.”
Mai brought up her menu and put the extra hammer back in her inventory.
“The golem was slow enough for us to hit.”
“Mm. But against something fast like a snake…we’re still helpless.”
They had plenty more challenges to overcome. They couldn’t dodge at all, and their finesse with attacks left a lot to be desired.
“But if we do hit, we win. That’s wild.”
“I know, right? That’s something!”
It might have been only one step forward, but that was progress nonetheless.
They could dominate any fight where their blows actually connected.
Previously, the only monsters they’d ever managed to hit were the bugs found just outside of town.
That golem had been way stronger. And from the looks of it, had a lot more defense. So one-shotting it had given them some much-needed confidence.
“And Iz said she’d make us some hammers that raise attack even more!”
“Right…great! That’ll make fighting even easier!”
Hammers were definitely the way to go.
The road to true power had seemed impassible, but they felt certain that same road now lay open and waiting for them.
Like Maple earlier, they now had a ton of goals—and the busier you were, the more fun you had.
This was the most fun they’d had playing the game yet.
“Oh, right! Mai! We should sell the hydra drops and buy ourselves some skill scrolls.”
“……!”
Mai’s eyes went wide, and she nodded enthusiastically.
They’d never had money before, but that was no longer a problem.
“If we can attack with a skill…”
“That’ll make our attacks even stronger!”
Eyes gleaming, they raced off toward the scroll shop.
They’d really never properly visited this store before—and now they had a whole wall of scrolls to choose from.
“First, let’s sell this stuff.”
“Yeah, I wonder how much we’ll get?”
They sold half of what they had and came back to the scroll wall with five thousand gold.
“Um…we want attack skills, right?”
“Mm. I think so? But which one is strongest?”
They’d already made up their minds to learn the same skill, so that five thousand gold would have to cover two copies of the skill scroll.
“Well…how about this one?”
“Yeah, that looks good. We’ll have to ask Sally and Maple about what else we should get.”
They wound up picking an attack skill they could learn without breaking the bank.
“So Double Impact, then?”
“Let’s go for it!”
Their minds made up, they each made a purchase.
Outside the shop, they quickly used the scrolls, learning Double Impact.
Double Impact.
Two hammer strikes.
The resulting blows create small shock waves, dealing extra damage.
Usually, most players would be limited to just one hammer—but they could wield two. If they both used this skill together, it would unleash eight blows—each of which would one-shot the average monster.
And with their Strength, those “small” shock waves would likely do considerable damage.
“Wanna try it out?”
“Yes! Right away!”
They headed back into the field.
When they reached a suitably deserted area, they tried their newly acquired skill.
The shock wave alone proved capable of taking down monsters, and the whole “as long as something hits” style was definitely working for them.
But after taking out a number of monsters, another surprise attack took them both down.
“Whew, still…that was fun! Wanna go again?”
“Sure! …Uh?”
They were about to head back out, but a thought made Mai pull up her menu.
And the color drained from her face.
“Er, uh…what’s wrong, Mai?” Yui said, looking worried.
“Yui! W-we’ve gotta go! Or else…”
Mai’s trembling finger was pointing at the time.
“Augh!”
Yui screwed up her eyes, wishing she hadn’t seen that.
With all the time they’d spent in town and heading way out into the field, it was very late.
Way past the time they usually stopped playing. There was a strong chance their parents would be ready to give them a tongue-lashing the moment they left the game. Their post-log-out fate might be dire.
“We should probably hurry…and get it over with, right?”
“Y-yeah…”
They logged out and woke up in their own rooms.
The twins’ rooms were across the hall from each other, and they opened their doors as one. They poked their heads out—and immediately found themselves face-to-face with their serenely smiling mother.
““Eep!””
“Good morning, girls. We need to talk. Come downstairs.”
She turned her back and headed to the living room.
“It wasn’t…”
“…all good.”
Regretting their carelessness, they hung their heads and obediently followed their mother. Yui was racking her brain for a good excuse, while Mai had already given up.
The day after the hydra grind, Yui and Mai were with Sally in the third-stratum Guild Home—this time, paying slightly more attention to the hour.
They were in a rather large room—specifically, the training room. This was a new Guild Home feature added with the implementation of the third stratum, and it was accessible only via a magic circle.
Here, your HP would never run out. You could use all your skills, but not learn new ones.
Since Iz had yet to craft hammers she deemed acceptable, the twins were still using the temporary ones. Both of them stood ready, a hammer in each hand.
“In this training room, you can practice fighting all you like without anyone seeing.”
“Practice how?”
“You want to get better at wielding those hammers, right?”
““Yes…””
They were much stronger now, but the few fights they’d gotten stuck in (on the secluded outskirts of the first stratum) had taught them firsthand that their low Agility made avoiding attacks hard, and their fighting style was still less than ideal.
They had the strength to one-shot most monsters now, but their own HP was so low, they were in constant danger of being instantly knocked out by those same monsters.
“I’m gonna teach you how to dodge. And how to properly dual wield. For the good of the guild, we at least need you to be capable of dodging piercing attacks.”
As long as they could handle those, they’d be able to hold their own in any fight with Maple around.
“B-but we’re not as fast as you, Sally.”
This was the heart of the problem. Sally’s Agility gave her a huge advantage.
On the other hand, Yui and Mai were both extremely slow.
“Yeah, if you don’t know where the attack is coming from, neither of you will have any chance of dodging. But skills always follow a preset motion. Which means you can dodge those by a hairbreadth with a bit of training.”
““W-we can?””
Both twins thought the same thing.
That was easier said than done, of course.
Otherwise, everyone in-game would be evading every skill attack.
“Well, I don’t expect you to dodge everything. But piercing skills are another matter.”
“Er…how so?”
“As far as I can tell, every piercing skill has a tiny lag between activation and execution.”
Sally explained that most skills activated instantly after you said the name, but skills that did piercing damage had a slight but noticeable delay—something no other skills had.
Once they grasped the concept, Sally pulled two sheets of paper out of her inventory.
“These lists have the names of every piercing skill I’m aware of. Make sure you get those memorized before the month is out.”
““W-will do!””
If they knew the skill names, they could take advantage of that brief lag and start dodging before the skill activated.
“But…that still won’t be enough.”
“I-it won’t?” Mai asked, getting worried.
Sally had a bunch of wooden items in her inventory, and she took out one of these.
“I had Iz make us some spear-shaped poles. I’m gonna be swinging these around, so…it oughtta be good practice.”
“Er…but I thought you could only use dagger skills?”
“Right. That’s why I memorized the movements and speed for the ones I’ll be using today. Then I just practiced until I could reproduce them.”
““Uhhh…?””
That did not sound even remotely possible. An outlandish, impossible claim—that also happened to be entirely true.
“You both said you’d do whatever it takes to make yourselves useful, right? So we’re gonna practice until you can dodge these. Ya dig?”
Yui and Mai’s first tutor was Maple, and she’d left them with a legacy of the strange and unorthodox.
And now their second tutor, Sally, was trying to bequeath a portion of her flair for evasion.
Meanwhile, Maple was pacing around the guild interior.
“Kasumi! Have you seen Sally?”
“She’s in the training room with the twins. You need her for something?”
Chrome and Kasumi were talking at the table.
“Hmm. I was thinking about checking around the third stratum with her, but…I guess I shouldn’t interrupt.”
Maple headed into town alone.
The others watched her go, then started whispering.
“I’ve got a sinking feeling she’s gonna come back with yet another power-up.”
“Do your hunches often come true?”
“Who knows…but you take your eyes off her for a minute, and she instantly gets stronger. Just like with Yui and Mai!”
“Fair. On that subject…have you seen Kanade lately?”
They’d both noticed he was spending very little time in the guild these days.
“Hmm… Supposedly, he’s been hitting up the library on the second stratum. He went there a lot when we were based on that level, too.”
Iz had said he often read books there.
“No telling where our members will wind up finding power-ups…,” Kasumi said. She gave Chrome a meaningful look.
Or rather, his equipment.
He was another person who had a tendency to get stronger when people weren’t looking.
She didn’t say a word but was clearly a little jealous.
“Say a prayer to Maple, and you might get stronger, too,” Chrome said. “I’m only half kidding.”
“…I might seriously consider it.”
While Chrome and Kasumi were talking, Kanade was in the very back room of a library many players had never once entered, flipping through the pages of a book.
The writing was not in Japanese—yet Kanade had just finished reading it, and he snapped the volume closed.
“Hmm,” he said. “Very interesting.”
He picked up the Rubik’s Cube from the desk and gazed at it for a while, then put the book back on the shelf.
“So there are two more out there,” he muttered.
He left the library, heading back into the wider second stratum.
Kanade arrived at the stratum’s edge.
While he’d spent the bulk of his efforts on honing his support magic for the imminent guild-based battles, he’d also picked up several attacks spells to train so he could hold his own in a fight.
And Akashic Records could boost his offensive capabilities—though that very much depended on luck of the draw.
As a result, he had no trouble exploring solo.
“Plus, I drew good skills today.”
Akashic Records had given him some particularly powerful magic.
He was busy excavating a stone dais, clearing away the sand so the surface was visible.
The information he’d found in the library had led him to this location.
“Hokay.”
When he touched the dais, it vanished, revealing a staircase leading into the ground.
Kanade headed down it.
At the base of the narrow staircase, he found an old, decrepit door.
Behind that…was a library.
It was a lot like the library on the floating island—the one thing Kanade had cleared in the second event.
“Now, if I’m right, then back here should be… Yup, there it is.”
Puzzle pieces scattered on an old table.
All white.
Kanade pulled them toward him, gathering them all into a pile.
There was a frame to put them in and letters written along the edge.
A divine trial.
Just like the floating island trial that had given him Akashic Records.
“Looks like…three thousand pieces. Way less than last time!”
He settled down on a chair, spread out the pieces, studying them… Then he began putting them together.
“Hmm, this goes here…and then that…and there.”
White piece after white piece slotted into place.
It was like he already knew the answer.
After going at it for half an hour, he leaned back against his seat, pausing.
“Whew… This is exhausting. I might be getting a headache…”
Kanade was good at remembering things.
He had an excellent memory—perhaps too good.
Anyone else would have glanced at the pieces and thought they looked the same—but to Kanade, each one looked entirely different.
And he knew right away how the pieces were supposed to fit together.
The shapes of the connections and where each went.
Kanade remembered all of it.
But while recalling all that information was easy enough, actually retrieving those memories required extreme concentration.
And he could normally keep that up for maybe ten minutes at a time.
Under normal circumstances, he had a better memory than most—but this puzzle couldn’t be solved without his absolute full focus.
He would just have to wait and rest.
“Can’t take the books out of the library… If anyone else made it here, that would suck.”
The lack of time compression was a big difference.
It would be a long while before he finished the puzzle, and he couldn’t exactly spend the night here.
“I think I can get it done in time…but if I can’t, I’ll just have to come back tomorrow.”
After a half hour of rest, Kanade started working the puzzle once more.
After alternating periods of intense focus and complete relaxation, he had the puzzle near completion.
Finally, the moment arrived… Kanade placed the last piece.
As he did, the white frame began to glow, and a Rubik’s Cube rose up from within, twisting in the air.
“Oh-ho.”
Kanade reached up, and it turned to streams of light, which flowed into his pocket.
“Ah… Since I have this already, they merged.”
Kanade examined his equipment.
There was a new skill on his Rubik’s Cube.
Sorcerer’s Stacks.
Allows magic or skills that require MP to be stashed as grimoires on a specialized bookshelf.
Any magic or skills stashed this way are unavailable until the grimoire itself is used.
Creating the grimoire requires twice the standard MP cost.
“Interesting… I’ll have to try it when I get back. Wait…no, maybe not today. I’m awfully tired.”
He went back up the stairs, pondering the books he’d read.
“The other one…wasn’t on the second stratum. Maybe the third? Or the first…or not even implemented yet?”
Either way, Kanade was hell-bent on being the one who found it.
The real-world admins were well aware that Kanade had learned this skill.
They were keeping close tabs on every member of Maple Tree, with a second set of markers reserved for anyone who’d done well in the first two events.
“Kanade cleared Our Bad Joke 20?!”
“Yeah…he did the same thing on the floating island.”
“Why are we calling this a joke?! I designed it! It’s a legitimate test of skill!”
“Maple Tree’s apparently just stacked with people who can clear the toughest challenges one right after the other.”
Chrome and Sally both had a unique series.
Kanade was taking on the libraries.
Even the newbie twins had grabbed Strength-focused skills.
And Maple was everything.
Nearly all her skills were bad jokes.
“Uh…what else?”
“The first event top ten are…doing the same thing across the board. Maple especially. And a few who were close on their heels… But the new players are mostly acting the way we expected.”
“Depending on the event, are we gonna need to partition off the top twenty?”
“That’s a serious possibility at this point.”
With that, he went back to staring glumly at his screen.
Kanade had made up his mind to try out his new skill at a later date, but…curiosity got the better of him.
After emerging from the library, he headed away from the more populated areas.
“I happened to have Calamity Cannon today, so…Sorcerer’s Stacks!”
Calamity Cannon.
MP cost: 100.
High-powered frontal magic attack.
Ten-minute cooldown.
As Kanade evoked the skill name, light appeared in midair, coalescing into five cube-shaped bookcases.
The phantom sets of shelves floated around, phasing in and out of other objects.
A blue screen appeared in front of him, featuring a list of available MP-based skills.
“So for something like Fire Magic, which has several spells, I can choose on a per-spell basis, but for skills with no sub-skills, it’s just the main skill name.”
He went ahead and chose Calamity Cannon, at which point a thirty-minute timer appeared on his screen. Grimoire creation had begun.
Kanade used an item to recover his MP, then made a grimoire out of Fire Ball as well.
That would also take thirty minutes.
And each of these skills would be temporarily unusable in the meantime.
“So the half-hour creation time is a flat rate… Definitely something I’d have to pre-prep.”
He spent half an hour reading a book.
When time was up, threads of light gathered above the screen, forming two books.
When he tapped them, they floated into place on the bookshelves.
“Hmm… Fire Ball!”
At his command, the red grimoire flew off the shelf, opened up, and shot a Fire Ball.
And the grimoire vanished.
“So you have to pay up front but can attack at no cost during combat. Now I’ll just have to see if I can preserve this Akashic Records skill…and then find out if there’s a limit to how many I can have stashed?”
Having investigated everything he wanted for the day, Kanade finally logged out.
The next day, he headed out to the field and checked Sorcerer’s Stacks…and sure enough, there was still a single volume there. Proof he could keep an Akashic Records skill on hand.
Kanade was now capable of keeping any MP-based skill on file.
“Hmm. I’ll have to regularly stock up, then. This oughtta let me throw out big spells nobody’ll see coming.”
With that in mind, he did his daily Akashic Records activation.
“I’ve always had good luck on the draw… Heh-heh-heh.”
Half an hour later, he’d added a pitch-black grimoire to his shelves.
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Diamond. Diamond. Diamond.
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