But that’s when Maple’s HP suddenly dropped.
“Huh?”
“Waterway!”
Sally detected it immediately, attached her weapons, and yanked Maple up and above.
“Leap!”
She made a foothold in the air above, bounding even higher up above the purple mist, ensuring there was not so much as a mosquito around. Then she yanked her webs, pulling Maple into her arms.
“Heal.”
“Syrup, Awaken! Giganticize! Psychokinesis!”
Maple also handled this well. Catching on to Sally’s plan, she made her turtle large enough to sit on and had it float in the sky below them. They landed on its shell.
Now they were safe, but confused. Neither knew why Maple’s HP had dropped.
“Wh-why’d I take damage?”
“Don’t panic. I’ll heal you up; you check your status.”
Sally took out a potion, prompting Maple to investigate.
“Um…huh? I’m poisoned?”
Maple found a poison icon over her HP bar. She hadn’t seen one of those in so long, it left her slack-jawed.
“Poison, huh? Then let’s cure status effects.”
Maple drank the potion Sally handed her, and the poison icon vanished.
“Oh, this might be it! Reduced resistances!”
Not a status effect, but a debuff—weakening Poison Nullification for a few minutes.
“Interesting. That must be a side effect of the snake’s bite. Making you vulnerable to the poison mist.”
“Then I can’t get bit!”
“Right. Get your shield up or dodge? Monsters are getting pretty nasty.”
“You can’t even trust resistances now…”
“Iz has items that buff resistances, and there’s all kinds of skills out there.”
Like Maple, most players had resistances, and items were getting pretty good at handling these situations, too. Monsters with status effect–focused builds would logically come up with ways of getting around that.
“Best to keep it in mind, then. That’ll help avoid panic when the moment comes.”
“True!”
“It’s not all bad news.”
“……?”
“If monsters are using it, then somewhere out there is a resistance-reduction skill for players. If you get your hands on that…”
Maple still used poison a lot, but these days she was mostly going for the instant-death effect provided by Bug Urn Curse. Her poison and her powerful paralysis move were no longer really pulling their weight.
“Ooh!”
“Of course, someone might use it against us. Gotta be careful.”
“Right! Okay, then let’s go catch one of these snakes.”
“……?”
“I mean, if I eat one, I might get the skill!”
“Oh. Right. Snake meat… Fair enough. I’ll catch one alive.”
Some people did eat snakes. Sally managed to convince herself of this and waited for Maple’s debuff to expire; then, it was time to catch a snake.
✦ ✦ ✦
“One should do for now, right? We know we can heal the poison damage.”
“Um…but how do we snare one?”
“Might be a bit risky to try that inside the toxic mist. I’d like to pull one up to Syrup’s back…which should be doable. Hmm…”
Most monsters didn’t exactly slow down at low health. Even with one HP they’d be sprightly.
“Any ideas, Sally?”
“Um, some, just…”
“Lay ’em on me!” Maple leaned in excitedly, eager to hear what Sally suggested. Sally resigned herself to it and explained her plan. “I can do that!”
“That’s why I was reluctant… It’s risky!”
“It’ll be fine. If I’m in trouble, I’ll just attack.”
“……Fair. All right. Let’s give it a shot. Stand over there.”
Maple stood up, and Sally shot some webs at her, winding them around her waist.
“I’ll be waiting for your signal.”
“Aye-aye!”
Sally moved to Syrup’s edge and lowered Maple over. The prey: a snake. The bait: Maple. Fishing: start!
Since the ground was hidden beneath the purple fog, Sally had to wait for Maple’s sign.
After a moment…
“Sally! Now!”
At the cry from below, Sally reeled in her webs. On the other end, she could feel something heavy—a sign they’d hooked their prey.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
“Potion, please!”
“Mm-hmm.”
She tossed a few potions down and went back to pulling Maple up. At last, Maple came over the edge, and went rolling across Syrup’s back……totally trussed up in that snake and unable to move, its fangs buried deep in her neck.
“Can you get your mouth open?”
“B-barely!”
“I’ll keep healing you. And I’ll debuff its defense.”
“Thanks!”
“I’ve got a few seasonings, too.”
“Th-thanks?”
These snakes could reduce Maple’s resistances, but outside the poison fog, they weren’t exactly exploiting their full potential. Their native poison was weak enough that Sally’s healing could keep up.
Meanwhile, Maple started chowing down. This didn’t do a lot of damage, but the snake had no way to heal. And that was everything.
“Let’s try a different flavor.”
“Oh, that’s spicy!”
“……That’s probably the poison.”
“Ahh…”
Maple steadily munched away, and at long last, the snake’s HP hit zero.
Always good to enjoy what one fished up. The snake vanished with a shattering sound, and Maple was free of her bondage.
“Well? Any skills?”
“Um…sadly, no.”
“Well, them’s the breaks. There are lots of monsters! Might be worth trying if we find anything else with that skill.”
Resistance reduction would really expand Maple’s arsenal. They might find more promising monsters—or hidden events—while they were exploring the tenth stratum.
Best to call it one more thing to look forward to. For now, they had to avoid the ground, so they flew on toward the toxic depths.
“Think anything’ll stop us?”
“Not sure. Not at first anyway.”
If Syrup could take them all the way to the poison boss, great. Hoping the other monsters wouldn’t obstruct them, they enjoyed a pleasant flight.