Defense Specialization and Connections
Management had been correct in assuming that it was all over.
There was no fighting at all from the fourth day on, and the time went by peacefully.
The rankings didn’t see any shifts and the 5th day ended, and so Maple and the others were teleported back to the normal field.
A few seconds later, a blue panel appeared in front of each player’s face, and it displayed the final rankings.
“3rd again!”
“Oh yeah, you were 3rd during the first event as well.”
The reward was the same for everyone in the top 10, so they had not been targeting the top spot, but the fact that they had taken so many orbs from larger guilds had kept their position high.
After that, the display showed what the reward would be.
5 silver medals and one wooden tag. As a guild master, Maple was also gifted an item that raised all of her stats by 5%.
After putting all of it into her inventory, Maple took out the wooden tag again and looked at it.
“‘Permit to Enter. 5.’ …Hmm.”
And under that, was Maple’s own name in small letters.
It was so that you could not allow other people to borrow it.
“It looks like it will be useful on the next layer. Well, that won’t be for a while.”
Sally said as she put away her own tag.
“In any case…that was good work, Maple.”
“You too! Sally!”
They both praised each other for putting up a good fight, and then returned to the guild with the other members.
Everyone agreed that they should celebrate being in the top 10 with a party, and so it was decided that it would be held in a few days.
Izu had maxed out the level on her ‘Cooking’ skill, so her food was delicious.
However, when they all gathered together, Maple was the only one who had not arrived.
“She went out, saying that she was going to buy something…I should have gone with her…”
“Yeah…She tends to wander off when she is by herself.”
Just as Sally was about to leave to go and find Maple, the doors of the guild swung open, and Maple returned.
And as always, she had brought something unexpected with her.
“I’m back!”
“Hey, welcome back, Maple. Who are those people that are behind you?”
The people that Sally was looking at, were the 4 from Assembly of Holy Blades, and the 4 from Ifrit’s Kingdom.
When she asked this, Maple replied in a cheerful voice.
“I just met them outside and we started talking, and they added me as a friend, so I invited them? You know…uh, so we can connect as players who are strong? Because I’m a strong person now!”
“Ah…uh, yeah…”
Maple showed them her friends list, which now displayed the members of Maple Tree, Assembly of Holy Blades, and Ifrit’s Kingdom.
As Sally knew Maple quite well, she looked at it as if was something completely different from a friends list.
She thought that even a demon lord would turn pale and run.
Izu was quickly making more food in order to accommodate the sudden guests.
As Maple Tree only had 8 members, it wasn’t hard to fit more people into seats if anyone came.
As they all enjoyed the food and their time together, a notice suddenly arrived from management.
It contained one video.
“Let’s put it up on the guild monitor. It looks like everyone got the same video after all.”
Maple stood up and started to push buttons on the guildhouse monitor in order to play the video.
What appeared on the screen, was this event highlight reel.
However, most of it involved the actions of the people that were in the room.
One moment it was Pain, then Mi, then it would change to Sally.
“Ahh…this is that night…my failure!”
Frederica shrieked.
“I would have gotten Frederica too if I was feeling a little better.
Sally said. Frederica gave her a contemptuous look.
“It would not have gone so easily for you.”
“Then why don’t you fight me?”
“Sure!? I’ll hit you this time! I will!”
As they talked like this, Maple appeared on the screen next.
“She’s still in human form.”
“She multiplies into seven right? I know about that.”
Dread and Drag looked on with vacant eyes.
“It’s painful just remembering it.”
The male members all looked at the monitor. All of them except for Chrome had been killed once, so it was not a happy memory.
Except for Kanade, who blended in with the girls as they looked at the monitor.
It looked like Marx would take the longest to recover.
In the end, the footage of Chrome using ‘Cover Move’ to protect Yui, Mai, Izu, and Kanade, with his abnormal healing ability, was played. The others seemed to look at him as if to say, ‘But, I thought that you were supposed to be relatively normal?’
“I need to catch up with Maple too. I don’t want to be weaker forever.”
“How can you catch up with Maple, when she turns into a ball of wool or a monster the second you look away…hahhh.”
Chrome said to the all too eager Pain.
Maple was on a far away level that surpassed mere ability.
He didn’t know if it was even possible to catch up.
A new layer would be added in a month and a half.
It was clear that their actions there would be the real decisive factor.