Defense Specialization and Progress
Maple and Sally returned to the guild home just as Chrome and the others had come back to rest. It was perfect timing, and Maple ran up to them excitedly.
"Oh, are you guys finished for the day too?"
"Yes! We can barely use any of our skills now, so we're taking a break."
"How far were you two able to go?"
"We just finished the 7th floor!"
They accepted drinks from Izu and then sat down on the chairs.
Chrome and the others had apparently cleared the 9th floor.
"Woah! That's amazing!'
"Yes, we need to hurry up and catch up with you guys."
"I won't say anything and ruin the fun for you two, but the boss on the 10th floor is really strong."
"We came back because we lost to it. As I'm sure you'll meet it soon, be careful."
They looked very surprised when they heard this. This boss must be incredibly powerful if it beat all six of them together.
"Best of luck…to you two!"
"We'll do our best to defeat it as well!"
"Well, we were still mostly observing it, so I didn't even use my magic books. But yes, it is definitely strong."
They said that there were still items and tactics that they hadn't used yet. But that didn't change the fact that it was a very powerful enemy.
"…Th-that sounds amazing. I'm getting nervous."
"Maple, it's way too early for that. We still have to clear the 8th and 9th floors."
"That's right! We best be prepared before leaving."
"Let me know if you've run out of any items. By the way, I made some new items out of materials from the tower, so come take a look when you have time."
"Thank you!"
"Yes, that will help. We have to use a lot of items to raise our firepower when it's just the two of us…"
Because Maple's firepower was usually the same, she could deal damage without relying on STR, but that also meant it was hard to deal more damage than she was already doing.
This meant that Sally's firepower became more important the stronger the bosses became.
"We have three attackers in comparison. However, I'm really starting to appreciate getting healed."
"You're used to having Maple around."
"At least boss fights are quite easy, thanks to Mai and Yui being with us."
"I'm glad to be of help!"
"We were able to do pretty well this time…"
They smiled and seemed to be very happy about their achievements. Maple saw this and was once again very happy that she invited them into the guild.
After that, they talked about the bosses that gave them the most trouble while coming here.
"The book boss was really bad."
"Yeah. It took away my sword skill and Chrome's revive skill…"
"And Yui and Mai's attack power went way down."
Aside from Maple, there were others in the guild who had very powerful skills. And sometimes, when they were taken away, their strategies would crumble.
"Ahh. It was so terrible… It took away almost all of my skills."
"Still, you won by blocking all of the attacks, and forcing 'Dedicated Affection' on it to widen the target, right?"
"You're as crazy ever, aren't you?"
Maple seemed like she had a thing or two to say in answer to Kanade. And she waved her arms as she said,
"But Sally was amazing too! When I was being bitten by 'Predator,' she avoided the attacks from 'Machine God' and defeated it!"
"It had been a while since I had to fight a boss without 'Dedicated Affection,' and it was pretty fun."
"So you can even dodge the 'Machine God' bullets…"
"That is one thing that no one can copy."
The conversation slowly moved to the fact that there were not many floors that Maple and Sally cleared through normal means. Of course, Maple and Sally argued by saying it wasn't normal that the group of six were able to defeat those bosses so easily.
"I hope we can all explore together again once this event is over!"
"Yes, that will be nice. We better finish this 10th floor in order to do that."
"We'll figure out a better plan so we can clear it too. In fact, we'll be waiting for you outside of the tower."
"Don't be so sure! We'll try really hard so we can catch up to you!"
After promising to go exploring together when the event was finished, they continued to talk excitedly about all of the things that had happened during it.