✦ ✦ ✦
That night, after she and Kaede finished grinding, Risa logged out and stretched.
“Hmm…it’s starting to get cold out.”
It had only just been summer, yet here was winter, knocking on the door.
Would there be another Christmas event? Or a New Year’s theme?
Risa spared no further thought for the future.
“Better get in the bath.”
She wanted to warm herself up before bed. With that in mind, she went downstairs.
✦ ✦ ✦
Time passed, and the days grew colder. Changes hit NewWorld Online, too.
“Snow!”
“That it is.”
Maple and Sally were looking up, watching the flakes fall.
December had brought snow to each area.
This wasn’t a big event—the developers hadn’t numbered it—but it was common for the game to add seasonal monsters with drops that players could gather to trade for something better.
Snow was falling on all nine layers.
“It’ll keep snowing until Christmas. Parts of the eighth stratum’s water have frozen over.”
“Does that make it easier to explore?”
“But that also means you can’t dive in those places. Pros and cons.”
“Makes sense.”
That aside, their goal was to chill out and grind for some drops. It was worth it. If they logged in daily and killed a few monsters, they’d easily have enough to exchange seasonal items for something good.
Naturally, no medals were available among the prizes. But there were potions and materials, gold, and limited costumes. Last but not least, guilds could obtain items that boosted the stats of all members. Playing was a must.
✦ ✦ ✦
For that reason, Maple and Sally were heading out on the ninth stratum’s fields.
The snow event drops were on every floor, which meant the monsters weren’t especially tricky; they’d deemed it best to tackle them on the ninth stratum, where the fields were easily navigated and the XP was plentiful for leveling up.
They met up at the town exit and found the twins there waving at them.
“Maple!”
“Over here!”
“Mai, Yui! Ready to go?”
“Yep! Tsukimi!”
“Yukimi!”
“All aboard!”
The twins had their bears use Giganticize, and Sally and Maple climbed on. Then they raced out across the field.
“You know our destination, right?”
“We’re headed there now!”
The twins made sure the bears knew where to go. Their pets could only carry two players each, but this was still much faster than using Syrup—a pet that was never actually meant to fly. Running was intended bear behavior, so this was as it should be.
The four of them soon reached a dangerous zone. Unpredictable plumes of fire meant the ground and air could both hurt players.
“This place has high spawn rates…but is not without its drawbacks. If I use water magic, I can tame the fires momentarily, but…”
Everyone knew what Sally meant.
“This is a job for me!”
Maple activated Martyr’s Devotion, keeping everyone safe.
The ground might be on fire, and fire might fall from above, but Maple’s defense was stronger.
“Mm-hmm, we’re good!”
“Thank you!”
“Now we can plunge in!”
“If you take fixed damage, turn right back.”
Fires were one thing; lava was another. Molten rock had proven to be Maple’s Achilles’ heel in the past.
All three stepped forward—and the fires responded, popping up all around. Some fireballs had red eyes and were headed their way.
“We’ll bait them—you two do the rest.”
““Okay!””
Mai and Yui put the bears back in their rings and equipped themselves with eight hammers each.
“Oceanic!”
“Taunt!”
Water spread out, dousing the fires, and all the monsters rushed toward Sally, trying to stop her.
Maple’s Taunt drew monsters from the other direction. They closed in, trying to take her out.
✦ ✦ ✦
But they were all vaporized instantly by the twins’ hammers, which were glowing red and orbiting the party.
The glow came from Destroy Mode, which expanded the hammers’ hit boxes—they became an impenetrable death wall, preventing any monsters from drawing near.
Nothing even managed to land an attack. Where did the hammers hit? What type of monster? It didn’t matter! One hit meant death.
“Um, looks like we’re fine.”
“Keep them spinning as we advance!”
“We’ll draw in more monsters!”
“I’ve got more water skills, so you two continue clobbering. This zone’s not well known, and few people would come here without a defense like Maple, so we shouldn’t run into anyone—but keep an eye out.”
A tap from the spinning hammers might not count as friendly fire—and the knockback was prodigious.
There was no telling how far they’d fly, but it would not be a pleasant flight.
“Oh, there’s some drops!”
Items were hitting the ground beneath the pulverizing hammers.
Bright-red Santa hats.
The event-specific drop.
“We’ll grab those! You keep hammering!”
“Don’t worry about defense!”
“Okay!”
“Keep it going!”
Mai, Yui, and Maple—
Unless a monster could strike their weakness, these three were preternaturally powerful fighters. If they could make the monsters come to them, then they could chew through foes like nobody’s business. It was safe to say no players in the game could kill things faster than the twins. All they needed was defense, someone to bait the monsters into coming toward them, and nobody to get in their way.
With all those conditions met, they were in their element. Sally went around scooping up the drops, one eye on the swirling hammer vortex.
“I’m getting used to it.”
“To the hammers or the hands?”
“Both.”
Helping Hands had been a source of fear for Sally, but seeing them so often had made their presence routine. She would never venture back to the sixth layer, but these spectral hands no longer bothered her at all.
“You want one, Sally? I bet you’d make great use of it!”
“Er, um…I’ll bear it in mind.”
“Ready to help anytime!”
“Heh-heh, thanks.”
They were on track to gather all the needed drops in one day. A deluge of Santa hats was falling from these shattering monsters.
They watched the twins’ slaughter, impressed again by what a force they were.
✦ ✦ ✦
The swirling hammers pulverized the flame-spurting monsters awhile longer, and when they had enough drop items, the four girls left the flame-belching danger zone behind.
“Such a crazy attack! You made short work of them.”
“Only because you two were with us!”
“You got all the monsters running our way!”
No trash mobs could survive the twins’ DPS. The developers couldn’t exactly craft monsters with HP built for their attack.
As a result, grinding was a breeze, and they’d all gained a level. The Maple/Mai/Yui combo play was merciless.
Nothing could stop their devastation—unless hell froze over, and they ran into a creature that could break through Maple’s defense and withstand the twins’ attack.
“Should we call it a day?”
“Yeah. We’ve been taking breaks, but I’m pretty worn out.”
“We didn’t have to move much, which made it easy…”
“But we were there awhile.”
Sally’s entire Water Wielding skill tree had lured monsters to them, so she’d kept that coming.
Halfway through, she and Maple had pulled out chairs and settled down, leaving the hammers spinning.
With Maple on their side, there could be no nasty surprises.