As they were wrapping up, Chrome and Kasumi came along.
“Oh, you’re still here?”
“Well? How are things going?”
“Yep! Mai and Yui were insane!”
Maple told them how many drops they’d farmed—a number that made their eyes as big as saucers.
“I know I always say this…but having eight of those things is just ridiculous.”
“We’re still working on the fine control…”
“But moving them all together is easy-peasy!”
“That’s more than enough.”
Even a scratch made things explode. Fine control wasn’t necessary. The hammers were big, and if they were all flung at an enemy—few things could dodge them.
“You grinding here? We were just about to take off.”
“No, just passing by. Haku made it a short detour. And we found something neat, so we figured we’d let you know.”
It was rare for Kasumi to report things like this. Finding neat things was all too often Maple’s specialty.
But it wasn’t like she actually meant to find them.
“You found Dark Rebirth past a portal, right? We found a similar transfer point.”
“But the zone beyond it looked pretty lengthy, so we turned back.”
“What was it like?”
Kasumi said it had been covered in gloomy vegetation. An ominous area, with murk a lot like Dark Rebirth’s hanging around.
“That sounds promising!”
“Yeah, very.”
A new area, bound to hold secrets, had the twins’ eyes sparkling.
Chrome and Kasumi had just been following ninth-stratum quests while waiting for the new map when they stumbled across the portal. Since the hidden area looked pretty big, they’d decided it best to return with the whole guild.
“Well? Wanna have a big adventure before the tenth stratum gets here?”
“I’m in!”
“Let’s send word to Iz and Kanade. If there’s a trick to the place, we may need their help.”
“Yeah. So first, we’ll need to align our schedules.”
“Mai, what kind of monsters do you suppose it’ll have?” Yui asked.
“I hope they’re not too speedy…,” Mai said worriedly in response.
“We’ll take care of that. You’re our main attackers! We’ll keep you busy.”
““Great!””
They now had a goal beyond the new update. Mai and Yui had made it so they didn’t need to grind for drops anymore—so Maple Tree were free to focus on the hidden area they’d discovered.
✦ ✦ ✦
Later, all the Maple Tree members had gathered to explore the vast, dark forest before them.
“Really? Here?”
“We checked this area before the event and didn’t see any transfer circles.”
Maple and Sally looked baffled for a reason. The event map had been identical to the ninth stratum’s, so their guild had spent a lot of time scouting terrain, and they were quite familiar with it.
“Heh-heh-heh…for once, it isn’t Maple who stumbled across a secret.”
“There’s a specific path involved, and it was pure luck we discovered it.”
If even Sally had missed it, then this was not an area that typical play would get players to.
They’d need luck on their side.
“Kasumi and I triple-checked it, so we’re confident. Let’s get started. Maple—Martyr’s Devotion, please. There’s quite a few monsters here. Gonna be hard for me to protect all four of you at once.”
“You got it! Martyr’s Devotion!”
Light spread out around her, illuminating the forest gloom.
The skill doubled as a light source.
“No need for a lantern, huh?”
“And we don’t have to worry about giving away our position.”
Iz had taken out a lantern, but she put it back in her inventory.
She needed prep time to go on the offensive, while Kanade had burned through his stock of good grimoires in the event. They’d be on support duty on the way in.
This party had enough DPS to function without them.
Mai and Yui took the lead, with Kasumi and Sally right behind. Chrome could do solid damage while wearing Necro; and like always, they had Maple laying down cover fire.
One step, and they were inside the monsters’ den. All sorts of mobs came flocking to stop their incursion.
“Armored Arms.”
“Wind Cutter!”
““Double Stamp!””
Inbound wolves got sliced down; buzzing insects were cut in half. Anything else was crushed by hammers.
“Yeah, having you two makes it so much easier. This won’t take any time at all.”
There were no signs to speak of, but Chrome led them on a weaving path through the trees. Black murk was building up around him.
“Here we go! It worked!”
“This is proof we’re on the right path. We’ve just gotta stay on it, not letting the murk dissipate.”
“A lot like how Sally and I got Glow of Deliverance!”
“Like how we had to track the brightness? True, but I feel like this is way harder.”
They were going in circles in a dimly lit forest—while fending off constant monster attacks—so it wasn’t easy to stay on the right path.
With the full Maple Tree team, they had autodefenses, and safety was guaranteed. With twelve iron monster killers spinning around them, they didn’t have to care about attacks.
Monsters were jumping at them even as they chatted.
“Then let’s press onward! Time does seem to be a factor.”
Time, party size, stats—rare events could be triggered by all sorts of things.
Chrome was speculating, but it didn’t feel off base.
He and Kasumi had tried several runs and mostly had come up empty; odds were high they had to be there at a certain time of day to find it.
And ever since the ninth stratum came online, all players had been primarily focused on PvP planning instead.