They opened the door and scanned the room for traps. Three monsters were roaming, lit by a torch on the wall.
They were covered by the same black murk as the soldiers outside, but these had big hats and long staves, so they were clearly wizards.
“Expect magic attacks.”
“Ranged, then. Think they’re corporeal?”
“I can’t see through them.”
“Mai, Yui, can you take them?”
““Sure!””
Solid enemies were theirs. This was an unobstructed hall—since the twins lacked range and couldn’t take a hit, they’d normally be in trouble. But not when Maple was around.
With their iron spheres, they didn’t need to beat around the bush.
To up their mobility, they each put two hammers away and got on their bears. Maple mounted behind one twin to keep them under her protection, and they charged on in.
The wizards saw them coming and generated black magic circles. Equally black flames spurted out, hitting all three girls—but they paid no heed. Tsukimi and Yukimi plunged through the inferno.
“Yup, we’re good! I’m tanking it!”
““Great!””
No damage, no worries. They closed in on the fire wizards and swung their hammers.
““Huh?!””
Their eyes went wide. They hadn’t felt the enemies shatter.
The reason was that the wizards had simply vanished, reappearing not far away. They had a short-range warp that let them dodge the hammers.
And not just that—they followed it with a spell, swinging their staves up high.
“““What?!”””
Maple and the twins were all warped away—to different locations.
They could still see each other, but the surprise formation change had put the twins outside of Martyr’s Devotion.
“Cover Move. Multi-Cover!”
““Chrome!””
He’d made it in time to block the fires. His skill let him cover multiple players at once, and no flames reached the twins.
“Blood Blade!”
Kasumi’s whiplike liquid blade made the enemies flinch, stopping the fires—and Chrome’s autoheal kicked in.
“These things aren’t pushovers!”
“Kanade!”
“On it.”
“Water Ball!”
“Tornado!”
If direct damage failed, they’d try magic.
Wind and water shot forward, caught the wizards…and took a chunk from their HP.
“They can’t dodge everything! In which case…”
Iz took out some crystals and set up miniature cannons. With a boom, they fired several crystals that burst a few moments later, sending sparks across the darkened corridor.
This inflicted a powerful paralysis, preventing the wizards from moving. Now they couldn’t warp away.
“Tidal Wave!”
Kanade used magic to counter their fires—a spell gained by leveling up basic magic skills. Though it was orthodox, it was very powerful, sweeping down the hall and swallowing up all the monsters.
The sound of the monsters shattering echoed over the roiling currents, and when the waters vanished, only Maple Tree remained.
“Yeah, that was strong enough.”
“It’s on the high end of water spells. Good AOE. Nice to have a mage around.”
“I’ve got no grimoires at the moment, so for a while I’ll be fighting with the core repertoire.”
“That’s plenty.”
Kanade had gone all out in the event, so he was only just starting to fill his book stacks back up. He had a few genuinely powerful moves available, but that made him no different from a typical mage.
And that was good enough. Plus, Sou could assist in a pinch.
“They dodge everything but magic, then? Kasumi’s Blood Blade made them warp, too.”
“We can test that theory as we go. But if you can handle them all, go for it, Kanade.”
“Sorry! Mai, Yui, you all right?”
“We are!”
“Chrome kept us safe and sound.”
“Well, if I can’t handle these surprises, what good am I? I make a point of being ready to leap in when things go wrong.”
“Nice, Chrome.”
“An extra layer of defense makes it hard for anything to get through.”
“Right. Okay, Kanade’s our main on those foes; always good to have monsters that don’t require the use of grimoires.”
They’d save up where they could to win as efficiently as possible. There were eight of them, and each had a role to play. If they covered for each other, few things could topple them.
Confident they were up for the castle’s challenges, they headed down the dark corridor.
✦ ✦ ✦
Maple Tree swapped their offense around to match the foes they faced. Sally and Kasumi took the faster ones, Mai and Yui the tanky ones; Maple, Kanade, and Sally handled anything ranged. Iz kept everyone buffed, and Chrome covered for Maple if the enemies teleported them around.
Once they knew what the monsters could do, Maple Tree could handle anything.
✦ ✦ ✦
Deep into the castle, they were opening one of many treasure chests they’d found.
“Taking the long way around is paying off!”
“Materials, equipment…we may find a skill scroll soon.”
“Equipment is one thing, but skills will often work for any of us.”
The materials they’d found were rare, and the equipment was pretty quality—if not quite unique-series level.
Maple Tree wasn’t a party that often had to change gear, so scrolls that taught new skills were their main goal.
“Seems worth fully mapping the other side, too.”
“Yeah, now we know it’ll pay off, so we’ve gotta keep going.”
“I’ve got plenty of skills left!”
Maple had basically only used Martyr’s Devotion; she had all her limited-use skills and plenty of Machine God ammo.
Since Mai and Yui were at the front, taking foes down with regular attacks, there’d been no reason to resort to using anything valuable.
Naturally, normal attacks had no use limits. The twins’ DPS remained the same no matter how long they fought.
“There’s still more rooms to go, so let’s check them all out!”
“If this is a dead end, we can keep on fighting!”
“Sounds great. I’ll do my part!”
They’d likely not even struggle with a boss—given this party’s might, they rarely did.
Still, it was best to stay cautious. This was a ninth-stratum hidden area, so the enemies’ attacks were commensurate to the difficulty. Mai and Yui could easily be KO’d in one shot, and so could backline players like Iz and Kanade.
If something landed a piercing attack on Maple, it could really do some serious damage.
“If we see anything we don’t recognize, play it safe.”
“I don’t mind taking the lead in that case. I can probably withstand one blow, even a surprising one.”
“I can probably take a few. When we need to scout in force, I’m your man.”
With everyone on the same page, they checked the walls and furniture carefully, making sure they weren’t missing any chests.
✦ ✦ ✦
That corridor was a dead end, so they had to find another path.
If they were just there to beat the boss, this was the wrong way to go, but in Maple’s mind, that was how things should be. She was starting to figure that out.
“So treasure chests are more common on the side paths?”
“I think that’s very likely. From the outside, we could see structures that hinted at a boss room farther back in the center.”
Not many dungeons dropped a boss in a remote corner. With a castle this imposing, the developers would have made a suitably imposing battlefield.
“Maple, can you sniff out any treasures? The way you always come back with unusual skills?”
“Ah-ha-ha, I just get lucky.”
“Hunches do seem to mesh well with weird events.”
“Well…then when we get back to the entrance hall, do we wanna try the second floor?”
“Hmm, why not?”
Sally and the others were on board with Maple’s suggestion.
They’d found no tracks or weird gimmicks. Perhaps there was a special item that would help with the boss. That was common enough.
None of them wanted to miss the key to the boss room, so they decided to see what all the doors had to offer.