Defense Build and the Seventh Event

A few days after Maple explored the trap-infested manor, she still hadn't managed to

achieve her original goal—the acquisition of Iron Body and Heavy Body.

She was now perched on a chair in her Guild Home, legs swinging, lost in thought.

"Hngg… where could they be? They must be out there somewhere… Is this one of those

specific-time-of-day things?"

But as her mind wandered further into the woods, her chain of thoughts was

interrupted by the bleat of a notification.

"Hmm? Oh! The next event. Um… this time we're clearing dungeons?"

Maple read the announcement over.

This event involved clearing a tower that contained ten relatively small floors. The

number of medals awarded depended on the difficulty you selected.

Time was not sped up, but you could teleport to the highest floor you'd cleared—there

was no need to complete the entire tower in one run. The event itself was active for a

relatively long time, so you just had to pace yourself to finish before it was over.

"Should we all team up and hit the highest difficulty? Oh, but if you clear it solo, you

get better rewards."

Clearing the top difficulty in a party would net each participant five medals. But

anyone who succeeded solo would get ten.

"But there's no fighting other players this time, good."

That meant Maple could relax and enjoy herself.

The event would start at the beginning of April.

Maple's eyes locked on that date—and she gasped.

"Gosh! It's been a whole year! I almost never stick with anything this long."

Maple thought back on all she'd done, and every memory was delightful. Just

reminiscing put a smile on her face—even thinking about those scant few tough

battles, all the more memorable for the challenges they'd posed.

And that motivated her to go out exploring once more.

"Right, then! Let's get these skills before the next event begins!"

Maple hopped down from her chair and headed out to paint the sixth stratum red.

But her enthusiasm did not improve her outlook.

Maple still had no clue where these skills could be.

"What now…? Oh! I haven't checked the boards in a while."

Feeling proud of herself for even thinking of that, she headed toward the center of

town.

Maple wormed her way through the crowd to the boards and found info on both skills

so fast she felt like an idiot for worrying about it so long.

"Oh, oh, oh. Looks like they only just figured it out! Lessee…"

She read over the intel.

But the descriptions filled her with dismay.

Neither skill was purely VIT based. Both involved MP and STR.

Iron Body

Doubles fire and lightning damage but reduces nonmagic damage by 30%.

MP cost: 50. Effect lasts two minutes.

Five-minute cooldown.

Prereq: MP: 50, VIT: 80

Heavy Body

Prevents knockback.

If STR is lower than VIT, you can't move.

MP cost: 10. Effect lasts one minute.

Three-minute cooldown.

Maple couldn't even acquire the first one, and neither seemed particularly good.

She barely took damage to begin with, so reducing it did not seem worth the MP.

And the latter skill would simply leave her stuck in place for a full minute, which

seemed irredeemably bad.

"But where do you get them…? Oh! Well, might as well write it down. Hmm, well, I at

least meet the requirements for the second one… but is it worth it?"

Maple just didn't really see herself making much use of Heavy Body.

She left the board behind, wandering down the main road, trying to make up her mind.

"It wouldn't hurt to have it… and I spent all this time trying to figure it out… so let's at

least pick up Heavy Body. First…"

Maple sent a message to several Maple Tree members and headed out to the field to

find Heavy Body.

With proper info, she had no trouble felling the monsters in her path.

And it did not take her long to learn the skill.

Time passed. Maple raised her levels a bit and smashed her black armor a few times.

Once again, she'd logged in and arrived at her Guild Home.

The one on the fifth stratum.

Sally was already waiting for her.

"Oh, Maple! The event starts today! What are you thinking? Solo run? All eight of us?"

There was no one else with Maple, so Sally figured the former.

"Neither!" Maple said.

"...?"

"I wanna run this event with you, Sally."

The message she'd sent the other guild members?

It had said she wanted to pair up with Sally this time.

And nobody in Maple Tree was going to argue with that.

"It's been too long since we played together."

Sally looked rather surprised, but then she smiled.

"I like it! In which case…"

"Let's try and win without taking damage!"

"I've been honing my dodge skills on the fifth stratum. They're still alive and well!"

"And I'm fully set to keep you safe!"

With that settled, they headed for the event tower.

Both of them looked ready to dance.