Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense. Volume. 3.
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‘Chapter 8: Defense Build and the Crafter’s Role.
“Now, as for this…upcoming guild battle—there are two guilds we’ll need to keep an eye on. First, the Flame Empire—in the first event, their members took fourth, seventh, eighth, and tenth. Second, while small, Maple Tree has the third-, sixth-, and ninth-place players from that event.”
These two guilds contained most of the players capable of transforming a battlefield on their own.
“Maple Tree also has the blue girl who caused a stir in the second event, right?” Frederica asked. “She sounds like bad news, too.”
Their spotty intel on Maple Tree left a lot to be desired.
They had next to no details on Sally and Kanade.
“Depends on the specifics of the event format, but we could just crush ’em with numbers. Worse comes to worst, we send you in, Pain.”
Dread had a point. Maple Tree was quite small, but their guild was massive in comparison.
Numbers alone meant they’d always have the advantage.
“Our guild has solid strength across the board,” Drag said. “And we’ve had ’em all get Poison Resist; those who had the time picked up Paralyze Resist, too. That means Flame Empire is the real threat.”
“And we’ve got our crafters running that dungeon and making gear for everyone, right?” Frederica was talking about the second dungeon found on the third stratum. Only crafting classes could enter, and the materials found within allowed—for the first time—crafting of gear with skills attached.
They had parties running through the place around the clock, churning out gear with status-effect-resisting skills.
“This Maple girl’s all about status effects and her shield, right? Plus that turtle? They say she’s a full Vitality build, which sounds crazy, but…odds are we can shut her down completely.”
“Hmm… Well, Frederica, any information you can gather will help. Especially on Maple Tree.”
“You worry too much, Pain! I got this.”
Frederica picked up her staff and left the room.
Dread and Drag followed.
Left on his own, Pain muttered, “There’s nothing more frightening than what you don’t know. We know too little about Maple Tree.”
He did not know about Chrome’s new gear.
Or Kanade’s magic.
He’d yet to face Sally’s evasion.
They didn’t even know Yui and Mai existed, let alone the level of destruction they were becoming capable of.
And worst of all…
Nearly all members were convinced Maple could attack only with poison and her shield.
They did not know about her angel form, monster form, Machine God form, or Syrup’s laser death beams.
Pain alone had a hunch there was more to her—but he lacked evidence to back that up.
While Pain was fretting over Maple Tree, Iz was fidgeting on a chair in their Guild Home, her waist-length blue hair swaying.
She had just heard the breaking news about the crafter dungeon.
While she spent most of her time indoors, this lead was very tempting.
“Urgh… If I could get Maple or Sally to help…”
She meant borrowing Syrup and Oboro.
With the two of them, there was little risk of dying mid-dungeon.
Dying meant a loss of gold, some items—and worst of all, a temporary stat drain.
She would rather avoid that.
But of course, neither girl was anywhere to be seen.
Iz managed to wait all of five minutes.
Hitting the limits of her patience in no time at all, she stuffed her inventory full of combat equipment and gathering items, then flew the coop.
A five-minute machine-wing flight later…
She was in the new dungeon.
“Okay…let’s do some mining.”
Iz quickly found ores and crystals to hammer away at.
Crafters were unable to learn any weapon skills or magic, but a whole range of skills exclusive to their class made up for that restriction.
These included Smithing and Synthesizing.
However, these could be used only in workshops.
Synthesizing was an exception; anything craft-able below level V could be made anywhere, but the necessary ingredients still had to be assembled, and some items had carry limits.
For instance, bombs were an invaluable offensive tool for any crafter, but they could be made only in a workshop, and each player could carry only five.
Even with healing potions, crafting in the field was limited to the two weakest kinds.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, there was a permanent reduction to all weapon damage.
To make up for it, crafters got experience each time they completed anything made with skills like Smithing.
But they were undeniably lousy at fighting.
Crafters were, by and large, people who didn’t mind that. They just focused on making items instead.
Iz was no exception.
And she was a top-tier crafter.
Since the day the game launched, she’d been mining, smithing, sewing, gathering, and synthesizing, raising every crafting skill available, sometimes getting so engrossed, she played all night long.
Time turned to strength, and it wasn’t long before no one could match her in sheer crafting prowess.
But the flip side of that was that she’d barely leveled Throw—one of the few attack skills crafters had.
Throw was a skill that amplified damage done by literally throwing knives or other items.
Iz had focused so heavily on gathering items that her Throw skill had remained worryingly low.
“Ooh, there’s a fishing spot over here.”
Iz took out her rod and started fishing.
She was catching fish that dropped materials she’d never seen.
Her eyes lit up like an excited child’s.
Iz had made this rod herself.
This dungeon’s materials allowed players to craft equipment with skills attached, but that was very specifically equipment.
It had already been possible to attach skills to other certain items.
For example, Iz was carrying a pickax and fishing rod that both had a boost to rare item drops, a very high endurance, an increase in the overall drop quantity, and a boost to gathering speed—an impressive lineup, to say the least.
She’d spent a great deal of time and materials crafting it, and items like that had helped keep her ahead of her competition.
When she was done fishing, Iz headed farther in.
“No monsters around, huh? Lucky for me, but…”
It made sense that a crafter-only dungeon wouldn’t be filled with foes no crafter could beat.
As a result, monsters spawned only in specific sections of the dungeon.
It was entirely possible to avoid fighting anything but the boss.
In one room, she encountered a monster with crystals on its back but avoided engaging.
Iz already had intel on the dungeon boss.
She knew that when she entered the boss room, a magic circle would already be there—allowing you escape without defeating the boss. And she knew that the crystals covering the boss were great materials, and you could harvest them with a pickax.
She could probably take out the other dungeon monsters with that same pickax, but she didn’t want to lower the durability without good reason.
Avoiding all monsters and gathering whatever she could, Iz reached the boss room door and pushed it open.
The room was covered in beautiful, glittering white crystals.
And in the back was a huge lizard, uncurling—its back covered in crystals of the same hue.
“I’m gonna help myself to those. Sound good?”
Iz hefted her pickax menacingly.
“Ho…kaaay!”
Iz easily avoided the lizard’s charge, swung her pickax, and leaped away again.
Maple was basically the only player completely ignoring the concept of dodging; even crafters like Iz were making judicious point investments into Agility.
And this lizard was slow enough for her to easily evade its attacks.
When she turned back toward it, she noted the dent she’d made in its HP.
“Good intel, then. And I think my pickax should be durable enough!”
Her pickax was a masterpiece born from time and luck.
And by her calculations, she should be able to smash all the lizard’s crystals with it.
Unfortunately…the fewer crystals it had, the faster the lizard got.
Whether it would get too fast for her to handle…
“If I could dodge like Sally does, it would be so easy!”
Dodge a charge, whack a crystal, rinse and repeat.
After a while, the lizard’s movement pattern changed. It started running across walls or climbing onto the ceiling and trying to drop on her, crystals first.
“Oh, got yourself stuck? Perfect!”
The ceiling drop left the jagged crystals embedded in the floor, and it took the lizard a minute to free itself.
And that gave her ample time to swing her pickax.
She even tossed a bomb on its exposed belly—unfortunately, this didn’t deal any damage.
“Shame. Just because it looks soft doesn’t mean it’s actually a weak point.”
The info has said attacks were ineffective, but she hadn’t been sure how far they’d experimented. The faster she could wrap up the battle, the better—but not every long shot paid off.
Iz went back to mining.
A cheaper pickax would have fallen apart by now, but Iz’s still had three-quarters of its durability remaining.
She was now keeping her distance, mining only when it was stuck in the ground.
Just standard evasion tactics.
Sally’s thing where she dodged at the last second and landed a counter was, frankly, freaky.
“Would be nice if I could make Maple some gear with autoheal on it… Hmph!”
There was a crack, and another crystal shattered, adding itself to Iz’s stash.
She kept at this, the lizard getting steadily faster—until she was unable to dodge in time and got knocked aside.
“Oof. Can’t tank a second one of those…”
Iz’s accessory slots were entirely filled with Item Pouches.
An Item Pouch could hold specific types of items for two hours, and Iz had stuffed all the pouches with potions.
But as the name implied, they didn’t have an amazing capacity—only five items per pouch.
Still, they sped up the recovery process, which was huge.
“Whew… Gonna have to use Quick Fix once…no, twice.”
She was carefully comparing her pickax durability and the lizard’s HP.
Quick Fix was a skill that restored item durability—but not by a lot.
But Iz’s pickax was much more durable than your average one, so using Quick Fix on it was the equivalent of a major repair to a normal pickax.
“I’ll have to do it while it’s stuck.”
Each time she took damage, she chugged the best potion she had on hand.
And swung her pickax every opening she got.
A few minutes later, it did the ceiling drop again.
“Quick Fix.”
With the pickax’s durability topped up, Iz attacked…
And the next time it got stuck, she looped through the same motions. Certain she could hold out, she focused on attacking, chipping away at the lizard’s HP.
Her math proved accurate.
The lizard’s HP was now low enough that a visual comparison of its health bar and her pickax’s durability made it clear which would give out first.
“Just a few more hits… Don’t blow it, now.”
Iz focused on not dying.
No use being stingy with potions—and no use worrying about a few injuries here and there.
And at long last, the lizard went down.
“Haah…haah…! Never soloed a boss before… I’m never gonna be a fighter. I made the right choice focusing on crafting…”
Her pickax was about to break, but she’d done the math right—so not a problem.
“Whew… Well, I’ve definitely got enough for our guild. Time to go… Oh?”
When she turned toward the magic circle, she found a treasure chest waiting.
She approached with caution, knelt down, and tapped the surface.
“The intel didn’t mention any chests…but I guess I’ll just have to open it!”
She popped the lid and found an antique-looking long coat, a big pair of goggles, and a set of boots inside.
Iz put them in her inventory and read the descriptions.
“Ohhh…so that’s why none of them ever ask for repairs.”
Alchemist Goggles.
[Dexterity +30]. [Indestructible].
Skill: Faustian Alchemy.
Alchemist Long Coat.
[Dexterity +20]. [Agility +20]. [Indestructible].
Skill: Magic Workshop.
Alchemist Boots.
[Dexterity +10]. [Agility +15]. [Indestructible].
Skill: New Frontier.
Faustian Alchemy.
Allows the exchange of gold for select materials.
Magic Workshop.
Allows workshop use in any location.
New Frontier.
Allows the creation of new items.
Iz immediately equipped the new gear and took the magic circle to the exit.
Someone in her position could rake in gold hand over fist, and she could use that to generate gunpowder or herbs at will.
And she could now use high-level crafting anywhere.
That meant she could craft and Throw as many bombs as she liked, allowing her to fight like no other crafter in the game.
While Iz was pickaxing the lizard, Maple arrived back at the Guild Home.
“Hmm… Well, I’m back…but there’s nothing to do here. Guess I’ll go for a walk?”
While she was plotting her next move, Sally came in the door behind her, and Yui and Mai emerged from in back.
“Oh! Would the three of you like to join me for a nice midair stroll?”
“A wha—? No, you know what? Sure, why not?”
““We’d love to!””
They all readily agreed, so the four girls headed out together.
Yui and Mai elected to ride on Syrup’s back, so Sally joined them. The twins liked Syrup better than the machines.
Sally idly mused that anyone who’d do an extreme build probably thought alike.
“Everyone on board? Then here we go!”
Maple made Syrup levitate, and they flew off.
“What have you been up to, Maple?”
“Oh…I met a god.”
“““What…?!”””
They had been expecting something slightly more earthbound.
Sally was the first to reconnect her jaw.
“So…what’d you pick up this time?”
She figured it would be best to be in the know.
“Well, if I go full-bore, it’ll be a bit much, so…just a peek! Deploy Left Arm!”
Destroying her gear could give her much more powerful weaponry a set number of times.
A whole slew of guns appeared around her left arm.
“Whoa… Holy crap…”
“I can shoot them! I won’t, though.”
“Th-that’s really something…”
Maple dismissed the armaments before any other players saw.
“Save that for the guild fight.”
“You betcha! I’ll make up for that third event! You’re both in, right?” Maple smiled at the twins.
““W-we are!””
“Yeah, they’ll be sticking to you like glue. Gotta keep that Martyr’s Devotion on ’em.”
“Yes! We’re practicing dual wielding, too!”
They both looked delighted. They’d escaped the doldrums of being completely helpless and were now literally doling out instant death to their enemies as long as their blows connected.
And with two hammers each, all they had to do was wave them around in a general direction and watch as monsters went down like dominoes.
Post-leveling, they could play without dying nearly as much, and they were having a lot more fun.
“Hmm, Maple, there’s a lake below.”
“Oh? Wanna check it out?”
The twins nodded, so Maple set them down by the shore.
They all bent over, dipping their hands in the water. Yui and Mai set their insane hammers on the ground and sprawled out next to them. This sight made a very different impression whether the focus was the girls or their weapons. The soft lapping of the water would have been just as refreshing in the real world.
“What’ll this event be like?”
“If they’re doing the time-compression thing, it’ll definitely be longer than a day… Huh.”
Sally trailed off, then slowly rose to her feet.
“What’s up?”
“Is there something coming?”
“Yeah—just a player. Following us.”
Sally peered around the edge of a nearby boulder.
And found a player with a blond side ponytail. Frederica.
“Whoops…you caught me.”
“Why are you following us?” Maple asked, puzzled.
The twins looked equally baffled.
“Probably recon for the guild battle,” Sally said. “Our guild has so few members, we don’t leak easily.”
The more people you had, the harder it was to keep secrets. Big guilds tended to leak all over.
“Well, since you followed us, I’ve got a proposition.”
“Oh? What?”
Sally leaned in, whispering conspiratorially.
“Care to give us some info on The Order of the Holy Sword? Or Flame Empire?”
The former was Pain’s guild—in other words, the same one Frederica was in.
Frederica started warily backing away.
“Wh-why would I wanna do that?”
“Hook me up, and I’ll be willing to Duel you. You need intel on me, right? Tease it out of me in combat or…if you win, I’ll answer any single question.”
Frederica had to think about that one.
A Duel was a PVP fight with formal, binding rules.
Moreover, Sally had a point—they didn’t have much concrete info on her.
Fighting someone was a good way to glean a lot of firsthand information about them, so this was too good an opportunity to pass up.
And if she leaked info on Flame Empire to them, that made it more likely Maple Tree and Flame Empire would thin each other out.
She could weaken both their major foes at once.
And all for the price of a little information.
Even if Sally refused the Duel and ran off, Frederica still came out ahead.
“Okay, you’re on. I’ve only got info on Flame Empire, but here goes…”
Frederica told Sally everything she had on the other guild. No embellishments or distortions.
That would make it easier for Maple Tree to hurt them.
And some of that info was especially valuable.
“Really, a trapper? First I’ve heard of that class.”
“Ready to keep your end of the bargain?” Frederica said, figuring Sally would back out.
Clearly, it was in her best interests to take the info and run.
“Okay, offer’s up.”
“Huh? O-oh, right.”
Blinking, Frederica accepted the Duel.
The rules transported the two of them to a battle zone. A simple death match—they’d fight till one of them ran out of HP.
Magic circles appeared before them, and both girls vanished.
Maple and the twins were left behind gaping.
“Wh-where’d they go?”
“Maple! I think this is a Duel! I read you can have fights like that!”
“Y-you can?!”
Yui explained that they’d be back once the fight ended, so the three of them settled down to fish awhile as they waited.
Of course, all three had extreme builds and were terrible at fishing.
Meanwhile, the duelists found themselves in an arena.
On their arrival, Frederica said, “If I win, you’ll answer any one question?”
“Of course. Cross my heart!”
Frederica looked her dead in the eye. She didn’t detect any hint of a lie.
Still unsure what Sally’s goal was, she decided to feel out Sally’s abilities while hiding her own.
And if she saw a chance to win, she’d take it.
“On ten?”
“Sounds good.”
Ten seconds later, their Duel began.
One minute into the fight…
Frederica was chain casting, watching Sally closely all the while.
“Hmm… She’s definitely hard to hit.”
In fact, Frederica had yet to land a single spell.
But it didn’t seem like she never would.
Sally was performing big, flashy dodges, but these were risky moves, and it didn’t look like she could parlay those maneuvers into attacks.
“…I’ll give her another minute, then take her out.”
Frederica did just that and was suitably impressed by Sally’s evasive capabilities.
She’d thrown some skills into the mix between a few spells but once again failed to land a single hit.
But this was hardly Frederica’s full power.
“Multi-Firebolt!”
At her cry, an array of magic circles appeared around her, each shooting missiles made of fire.
Frederica had assumed this would be more than enough to finish Sally off.
“Attack Lure!” Sally said, just loud enough for Frederica to hear it.
And no sooner had the words left her mouth than her movements changed completely. It was enough to make her think the firebolts were the ones avoiding Sally.
Like something was protecting her, leading them astray—every bullet missed by a fraction of an inch.
The riskiness of her earlier moves vanished, and before Frederica knew it, those daggers were swinging right at her.
“Multi-Barrier!”
Dozens of gold magic circles appeared right in front of the mage, barring the daggers.
One barrier went down, then another—Sally made it through five.
Then she jumped back, wary of possible counters.
“Didn’t plan on using that, but…I guess I can live with revealing Multi-Barrier.”
Frederica was definitely strong.
Strength gave her confidence.
And her experience told her Sally’s Attack Lure must be a skill.
And a good one—but the best skills always had a long cooldown.
Those daggers were awfully strong, too. Another valuable piece of intel.
But Frederica was unaware…
That the Attack Lure skill did not exist.
Sally had faked it.
She’d actually simply observed the attacks and avoided them naturally.
Nothing more.
“Multi-Waterbolt!”
Frederica’s next spell summoned water projectiles.
Sally was forced to run, even resorting to Superspeed to dodge the volley just in the nick of time.
Frederica even saw her go into a roll to avoid the last few.
And she took that as proof that Attack Lure’s cooldown was several minutes long.
Sally’s deception was worming its way deep into the mage’s mind.
“Multi-Stonebolt!”
Frederica’s thoughts had already turned to what she should ask once she won.
Sally was out of breath. She lost her balance—there was no way she could avoid the stone bullets now.
“Got her!” Frederica breathed a sigh of relief…
And she heard Sally yell, “Waterflow!”
Before the mage’s eyes, Sally started batting all the rocks aside with her daggers.
A different approach from the waterbolts…suggesting that this skill worked only on solid objects.
This interpretation…was also meaningless.
As Sally batted the last stonebolt aside, she shot forward only to have her attack cut short.
“Right. I’m gonna surrender.”
“What? Oh. Okay…”
The words YOU WIN! suddenly appeared in front of Sally—and they were just as quickly sent back to where they’d started.
“Bye!” Frederica said. She waved and walked away.
A safe distance from her opponent, she started muttering under her breath.
“Ugh, she forced me to use Multi-Barrier! If I kept fighting, I was bound to let more slip… Yeah, best to quit while I was ahead.”
Frederica remained convinced she’d learned a lot about Sally.
At the least, she believed she’d learned far more than she revealed.
She never realized which of them was caught in the bigger mousetrap.
Sally watched Frederica go, whispering, “The better you are, the easier it is to fake a disadvantage. Heh-heh-heh.”
She’s seen the mage twitch when she said “The Order of the Holy Sword” and immediately suspected where her loyalties lay.
And when Frederica had started blabbing info on the Flame Empire, Sally took that as proof she was with The Order.
What the mage did would work to her guild’s advantage.
Playing other guilds against each other was also in Sally’s playbook, so it wasn’t hard to figure out Frederica’s plan.
“And ‘knowing’ false info is worse than knowing nothing.”
Sally now knew about Frederica’s offensive spells, her impressive MP pool, and her significant defensive abilities.
And Frederica had learned about Attack Lure and Waterflow—two fearsome skills with exploitable weaknesses.
Or rather—Sally had successfully planted the seed of false intelligence about these nonexistent skills.
The mage was so confident in her own strength that the sight of Sally’s desperate evasion rolls had pulled the wool over her eyes—and she’d left without learning a single real thing.
Frederica was good—but Sally was far better.
“Pride blinds us all… Gotta look out!”
Sally turned and headed over to her friends.
“I’m back.”
“Oh, there you are! All done?”
“Yup. Pulled off what I wanted, then sent her packing. Think I’ll fish with you guys for a bit.”
She joined them at the water’s edge.
Sally’s rod alone was pulling in fish like crazy.
“You know, Maple, you haven’t seen Yui and Mai fight since they got stronger. Oh, got a bite!”
“No, but I hear you’ve been getting them good and ready.”
In Sally’s opinion, if the twins got a little more experience with dual wielding, they’d be perfect.
Right now, their abilities were like a weaksauce blend of Maple’s and Sally’s hellfire, and in extremely specific situations, they could unleash a downright unreasonable level of force.
“Wanna see them in combat? We could find a place without prying eyes.”
““Let us show off!””
“Then maybe the forest? Not many people there. Especially if we head away from dungeons.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
The four of them hopped on Syrup’s back and wafted off to the deserted forest depths.
“Here we are!”
They landed in a forest clearing.
It was big enough for the twins to swing their hammers freely. They each took out their second hammers and stood ready.
“We’ll be keeping our distance.”
“Good idea.”
Monsters were already approaching through the underbrush.
Yui and Mai started swinging—not even using any skills.
Any successful strike spelled instant death, and the hammer blows were raining down mercilessly on any and all monsters.
A monster darted sideways, avoiding Yui’s blow, but Mai spotted it instantly, and her follow-up made it explode.
If Mai left an opening, Yui covered it. The hammers had impressive range, and the girls took full advantage of that. Sally had shown them a few tricks, and they thought alike to begin with—so their teamwork was now genuinely impressive.
And there were no monsters around that could tank one of their blows and keep coming.
All they had to do was hit once. That took a lot of the stress out of fighting.
Slaughtering all before anything could get to them.
“Those attacks are so good!”
“This is what everyone thinks when they see your defense, Maple.”
“Oh…huh.”
Even as they spoke, more monsters joined the carnage.
And when the dust finally settled, they hopped back on Syrup and flew away.
In the air, all four got a message—simultaneously.
It was from the admins, detailing the next event.
They read through it.
“Time compression—once again, no way to join in late.”
“Five days this time, huh? A bit shorter.”
And then the meat of the message…
At last they learned what this guild event would actually involve.
First, guild sizes: Less than twenty members were classified as “small.” Twenty-one to fifty as “midsize.” And fifty-one or more as “large.”
Each guild was given an orb to defend, and other guilds would attempt to steal these.
When defending your guild’s orb, each six-hour stretch earned one point.
Small guilds would earn two points.
When in possession of another guild’s orb, each three-hour stretch earned two points. And the guild robbed of their orb would lose one point.
If the orb was stolen by a small guild, the orbless guild would lose three points.
If the orb was stolen by a midsize guild, the orbless guild would lose two points.
Once points were awarded, the stolen orb would automatically return to its original location.
If the orb was recovered within the three-hour limit, no points were awarded or lost.
It was possible to check the locations (and status) of guild members and your guild’s orb on the map screen.
Stolen orbs were automatically placed in the pilferer’s item list.
Smaller guilds would be positioned in easy-to-defend locations.
Several temporary guilds had been created, and players not in guilds could apply to these, allowing them to join the event.
Next, the death penalty.
First death: 5 percent stat reduction.
Second: another 10 percent drop.
Third: another 15 percent penalty.
Fourth: 20 percent on top of that.
Fifth: retired!
If all players were eliminated, the guild’s orb would no longer spawn.
You could steal the same guild’s orb only once a day.
That was the gist of the rules.
“Hmm, so five deaths and you’re done, and frankly, starting from three onward, you’re pretty hosed. At four deaths, your stats are halved…”
Given Maple Tree’s numbers, they couldn’t afford to use any strategies that involved sacrificing themselves.
Large guilds might have little to fear from death, but they didn’t have that luxury.
“That means we’ll want to leave some of us on defense, but…this is gonna be rough. Still, if we’re smart about our offensive moves…”
“What’s so rough about it?”
“First, we don’t have enough people to mount an offense. Or man the fort. Also—and this is the biggest problem—we’re all gonna get real tired. We’ll be facing constant attacks. Even at night. Without numbers, it’ll be hard to even get any shut-eye.”
They’d be badly nerfed every time Maple took a nap.
But as long as Maple was around, they could pin their hopes on defending stolen orbs.
“I see… Last time they compressed time, there weren’t too many people who focused on attacking other players, but this time, it’ll be constant fighting.”
And the longer players were stuck in combat, the more mistakes they’d make. In Sally’s case, that directly impacted her evasion capabilities—and that could be dire.
And there was bad news for Maple, too.
“Before the event is up, they’ll have figured out about the Devour nerf. Once you run out of skill uses…if they realize most of your skills are limited, then we could be in trouble.”
If Maple was on the front lines all day, she’d definitely run out of big skills.
Peak danger would visit them at the end of each day.
“Right…”
“How long we can keep your deal a secret might be the key to the whole event.”
Many of Maple’s skills could serve as the ace up their sleeve—especially since nobody knew about them yet.
Their strategies would have to revolve around keeping these under wraps as long as possible. Delaying tactics, running where necessary—whatever it took.
“Maple, Yui, and Mai—you’ll all be on defense. None of you are exactly covering a lot of ground in the field…and we could probably stick Kanade with you, too.”
“We’ll have to discuss the details once we’re back home.”
The twins nodded.
Since neither of them had done a time-compression event, Sally and Maple filled them in on the concept as they headed back.
The news of the new event sure gave them a lot to talk about.
And of course, Maple Tree’s members were not the only ones talking. Every guild was trading information about the top players. The three guilds studded with the stars of the first event dominated the chatter.
The Order of the Holy Sword. Flame Empire. Maple Tree. Everyone was worried about those three guild masters.
“Flame Empire’s guild master—Mii. Her DPS is insane. She doesn’t even count as a mage anymore!”
“When Misery is with her, she never runs out of MP. Gotta split ’em up somehow…”
“And The Order has tons of high-level players, so they can dominate with numbers alone. Just gotta avoid coming in contact with ’em.”
“Then there’s Maple… She’s, uh…in a league of her own, you know?”
“Yeah. At the very least, we gotta get Poison Resist… I’m hearing her big attacks are limited. If you can’t beat her, you can always run away. She’s slow.”
Everyone nodded. No need to face Maple head-on. Coax out her biggest attacks and run if you were in trouble. Let sleeping dogs lie.
“…What if she’s on the offensive?”
“That’s like asking what if the Demon Lord shows up in the starting village.”
“…Fair.”
Those talking had no idea that the Demon Lord from their hilarious metaphor had assembled a council of formidable minions whose powers compensated for her weaknesses.
Maple might be in another league, but she was far from alone.
Unaware they were already a huge topic of conversation throughout the server, Maple Tree wrapped up their own event-planning session and single-mindedly threw themselves into the necessary preparations.
Fortunately, all members were able to play that day, so they’d divvied up roles accordingly.
Maple, Yui, Mai, and Iz would be guarding their base.
Sally, Chrome, and Kasumi were on the offense.
And Kanade was a switch-hitter.
Chrome and Kasumi were out hunting monsters, gathering drops.
This was both keeping their senses honed and helping ensure Iz had a solid reserve of cash on hand.
Sally had left the Guild Home, saying she was off to do some evasion training.
Yui and Mai were in a deserted corner of the second stratum, practicing their coordination.
Iz had asked Kanade to gather ingredients for top-tier MP potions, so he’d headed out into the field in search of those.
Everyone had told Maple to explore as she saw fit, so she was aimlessly wandering the third stratum, gathering drops as she went.
Sally was alone in a high-encounter area of the second stratum.
All she was doing was dodging attack after attack. The blue aura around her was at full strength, never once fading.
Trying to extend the length of time she could stay focused, she was moving with unerring precision.
Fortunately, she was still in school, and this was summer vacation, so she could play as long as she liked.
“…………Whew!”
She claimed the life of a monster with a strike so powerful, it was hard to believe it came from a dagger. A new foe swiftly took its place.
Sally kept moving. Trying to reach her self-imposed goal.
“…Mm, let’s see if I can go all night.”
Certain this was the right choice, she kept on pushing herself.
Yui and Mai were also fighting on the second stratum.
Their plan required keeping Maple in reserve, and they’d play a key part in ensuring that was possible. They were super fired up about how crucial their performance was to the whole plan.
Iz had finished the hammers to go with their new gear—each of them now had two massive hammers that matched the color of their hair and were decked out in pure-white and pitch-black gear, respectively. This equipment looked like adorable clothing—the white set had pink ribbons, and the black had green. A pleasing mismatch with the dual hammers of destruction.
In their accessory slots were two rings and a ribbon.
Each of these was raising Strength, making their build even more attack-centered.
Right now, they were focused on protecting one another, but with Maple supporting them, they could abandon all defense and unleash a brutal amount of force.
Unaware of their stats, there would likely be players who tried to block their attacks with shields.
Depending on the shield’s qualities, that might well make the shield explode.
That ought to induce panic in any opponent.
Although they’d likely be dead before they figured out what hit them.
“Double Impact!”
The pounding refrain of their skill was total overkill.
They’d also learned several new skills recently.
One of these…was Throw.
Their inventories were filled with basketball-size iron balls, courtesy of Iz.
But those were for a later occasion.
Told to entertain herself, Maple was busy leveling Syrup and having Hydra destroy her equipment.
Once it had all been destroyed, she’d be able to activate Machine God again.
And that would raise her defense.
This had become her daily routine in the run-up to the event.
“Oh! Syrup, you leveled up!”
She gave it a pat on the head and a smile.
“Another new skill! Rampart?”
This skill generated indestructible walls around whoever had Bonding Bridge equipped. These would last thirty seconds.
Maple tried it out. Instantly, towering walls appeared all around Maple—about two yards from her.
Didn’t seem like she could attack easily with those up, but neither could her foes.
From the enemy’s perspective, it was like an egg—
And whatever hatched from it was bad news.
“I wonder what skills Oboro’s learning… How awesome is it now?!”
Once Maple had Hydra smash her equipment, she went off to buy a skill scroll she’d been eyeing for a while.
The skill in question: Pierce Guard.
This was a countermeasure against piercing attacks that hit her great shield.
This skill allowed her to null the piercing damage.
She’d been too busy to pick it up before, but she hadn’t forgotten about it.
They were done strengthening the guild itself, and Kanade had been stocking up on grimoires.
Iz had a satisfactory heap of gold and had crafted a solid number of the items New Frontier provided.
Sally had pushed through her exhaustion and completed final adjustments.
Chrome and Kasumi had gathered all the watermelons they needed to raise the guild Strength, Agility, and Intelligence boosts to the current max.
Maple had become tankier than ever, while Yui and Mai had learned how to hit even harder.
Just as everyone had done everything they could to prepare, the day of the event finally arrived.
All eight of them would be participating.
“Let’s try and win this thing!”
“You got it!”
This was their first team event since they’d founded the guild.
They were ready to prove what a small team of elites could accomplish.
Light surrounded the eight of them…and they were swept off to the battlefield.
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Diamond. Diamond. Diamond.
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