Chapter 1: Defense Build and the Fourth Event

As the light faded, the eight members of Maple Tree found themselves before a pedestal. An orb giving off a green glow lay atop it. This location would serve as their base—they would be defending their orb in the depths of a cave.

Much like the second event, the map contained a multitude of biomes. This particular spot was much easier to defend than, say, the middle of a grassy field.

Three paths branched off from the large main cavern.

Sally and Kasumi each investigated one of the paths behind the pedestal. They weren’t gone for long.

“This one leads to a dead end with a spring. Good place to rest.”

“Mine had nothing of note. I suppose it’s a decent place to lie down.”

“Then the last path must be the way to the surface. That definitely makes defending easier.”

No risk of being attacked from behind.

“Sounds like we’ll be on the offense.”

“Yep, just like we planned it.”

No use wasting time; Sally, Chrome, and Kasumi—the attack squad—swiftly set out from their base.

Sally and Kasumi were the fastest members of the guild, and Chrome could adapt on the fly to any situation. These three would handle the snatch-and-grab missions while Maple held down the fort. Kanade and Iz would be supporting Mai and Yui, who were also playing defense. This event was all about guarding the orbs they stole, so it was important to make sure their base was well defended.

The home team donned the robes Iz provided. She put one on herself and took a seat near the orb. These robes provided no extra defense. They were just cloth, designed to hide everyone’s faces. Keeping Maple’s presence secret would be critical. Maple Tree’s defensive strategy involved convincing people they were a small, weak no-name guild by having Mai and Yui clobber anyone who came after them—with the other three discreetly providing backup as needed.

This would weaken the guilds around them and make things easier for the attack team.

Maple herself was famously dangerous, with a notorious array of insane skills. Any guilds that spotted her were liable to run away.

“If anyone comes in, Mai, Yui, it’s your chance to shine! I’ve got your back!” Maple flourished her shield confidently.

“Okay! I hope we can do this. We did practice a lot…”

“You know we can, Mai! Not…that I don’t have butterflies myself…”

They were feeding off each other’s anxiety.

“Maple will protect you both,” Kanade assured them. “Just focus on attacking and you’ll be fine.”

“That’s right! Leave all defending to me!”

This seemed to help. The twins grinned and pumped their fists.

“Any minute now, the others will start ferrying orbs back here.”

They kept a close watch on the entrance, conserving energy and getting ready.

Meanwhile, the attack squad members were moving quietly through the brush deep in a forest.

“We see the enemy, we kill without hesitation—everyone good with that?”

“Fine by me. Let’s start by scouting the area around us. We’ll eliminate any threats nearby.”

Not long after, Sally heard players talking up ahead.

“I’ll take point and start thinning their ranks, leading them back to you two; when you see an opening, take it.”

“Got it.”

“We’ll be waiting in this brush.”

After they got in position, Sally leaped up into a tree and began bounding from limb to limb, headed toward the voices.

The group they overheard talking contained five people—another guild’s attack party, on the prowl for orbs.

“There oughtta be at least one nearby…”

“I’m sure there will be. Stay loose and keep looking.”

But just as the last of them passed beneath a tree—

—Sally swung down, her legs hooked over a limb, and sank a dagger into the throat of the one bringing up the rear.

“Aughhhhhhh?!”

Before they could even grasp what was happening, Sally struck again, showing no mercy.

Her victim was still screaming in confusion as their HP hit zero, and they vanished in a burst of light. The other four spun around, only to get hit by a sharp-edged wind.

The shocking loss of their companion left them badly shaken.

“…………”

Sally was already running away.

“H-hey! Come back here!”

They were so rattled, they made the fatal error of giving chase. Never realizing Sally was leading them straight into a trap.

Just as they thought they’d caught up—

—a katana and a cleaver came whistling out of the underbrush, instantly killing the leader.

“Oh…crap!”

They realized it was a trap—too late.

Kasumi was already cutting down a third foe.

“Retreat…augh!”

One girl turned to run, but Sally’s Fire Ball caught her in the back, knocking her off balance.

“Hmph!”

Which left her no way to dodge Chrome’s cleaver.

“…Looking good.”

“Yup. C’mon.”

They’d intentionally let one go.

All alone now, there was no way to challenge another guild. It was obvious the lone survivor would head back to camp. But that player probably should have chosen death instead—

—because this was like inviting the devil back home.

Kasumi and Chrome opened their maps, checking Sally’s position. There was a red triangle with her name on it, and it was still on the move.

Sally could tail the survivor undetected; they only had to follow the marker on their maps.

“Thataway. Shall we?”

“Yeah. I’ll take lead,” Chrome said. “Just in case.”

They set out, maintaining a safe distance.

“Oh, there you are,” Sally called from the tree above.

“Is that the cave?” Kasumi asked.

Sally nodded.

Up ahead was a cave entrance, hidden by the trees—easy to miss.

“Probably a small guild, like us. Maybe just big enough to qualify as midsize. Can’t tell how many are in there, exactly.”

“Then we stick to the plan. I’ll go first. Nothing to worry about.”

He had the highest defense and loads of survival skills, so Chrome was their designated base forerunner.

Not far in, he found the orb pedestal.

He also stumbled upon thirty-odd players listening to the survivor’s harrowing tale.

All of them were facing the entrance and saw him coming.

“Brace yourselves!” the guild master roared.

Swords were drawn, shields raised, and weapons brandished.

“Here we go.” Chrome lunged forward, Sally and Kasumi hot on his heels.

They slammed into the enemy’s front line, and Chrome started carving his way in.

He was certainly taking damage—but against this many foes, he was constantly hitting someone and always blocking someone else.

A close examination made it plain to see that the HP bar over his head was refilling completely as soon as it dropped even slightly. Realizing this, the front-liners tried to back off—and that’s when Sally and Kasumi hit them.

The ones in the rear flung a stream of spells, but Sally was slipping through the hail of magic like she could read their minds. And Kasumi was firmly within range of Chrome’s Cover.

“You’ll have to try harder if you wanna hit me!”

“As elusive a target as ever… If only I could do the same!”

But even as she grumbled, Kasumi was downing foes faster than Sally. While their kill counts were neck and neck, Chrome did his part—and all the more effectively thanks to the girls drawing attention away from him.

The enemy’s healing couldn’t keep up with their focused assault, and one foe after another disappeared in bursts of scattering light.

“Wh-what do we do?!”

“Their tank’s paralyzed! We’ve gotta take at least one out!”

The last-ditch effort paid off, and the status effect took hold—Chrome couldn’t move a muscle. Chrome’s ability to hold the line depended on his positioning—and the fact that he healed both when attacking and guarding. With those skills out of commission, the damage he was taking outpaced his healing.

“Tch…sure is rough fighting this many!”

Seeing Chrome immobilized, eight players surrounded him and used every skill and spell at their disposal to take him down.

They got close but not close enough.

A red skeleton appeared behind him, and his HP stopped falling—with one point left.

Chrome should have died. But when his HP hit zero, his equipment skill, Dead or Alive, gave him a 50 percent chance of surviving with a single point remaining.

And there were no limits. There was a chance the same thing could happen every time he dropped to zero.

“Ha, luck’s with me today!”

“Heal!”

Sally’s spell topped his health bar up, and the status effect timed out.

As that desperate final attack lost steam, Chrome started hacking into the crowd again, every bit as brutal as before.

“With my old gear, I would’ve been forced to use Indomitable Guardian. Only Maple could survive being surrounded like that…”

Chrome was a top player himself, but paralyzed, with foes on all sides pounding away? It was a wonder he’d made it out alive. Escaping by the skin of his teeth was the best he could manage.

Kasumi slew the most players. She had the highest DPS in the party and was no slouch in the agility department, either.

As the one party member with heavy armor and a shield, Chrome was an obvious tank, which meant he’d drawn the bulk of attacks and been knocking at death’s door. Even so, he wanted to keep his limited use skills in reserve, and taking a few risks was worth it.

The day was only just getting started, and he had already decided which skills not to use.

Since he had Indomitable Guardian, he could cheat death once without fail. That was why he’d chosen to not waste any skills that could have helped him avoid death earlier.

“All right, here’s the orb. Kasumi, wanna run this home for us? I’m gonna go scout the surroundings. Feels like the guilds might have spawned closer together than I expected.”

This event was all about defending and stealing orbs, so Sally retrieved it carefully, making absolutely sure there wasn’t someone lying in wait to ambush her.

Leaving her in charge of investigating how densely packed the guilds might be, Chrome and Kasumi escorted their prize back to base. The enemies they’d slain would revive near their base but in random locations, so there was little point trying to camp the respawn points.

While Kasumi and Chrome were heading back home, the other Maple Tree members were fending off an assault.

“Only five defenders! We’ve got this!”

Eight attackers charged the Maple Tree positions, only to come face-to-face with metal spheres hurled with wild abandon like snowballs. Mai and Yui had given no thought to durability or speed, only raising their STR stat as high as they could—and with Conqueror boosting that even higher, their attack power defied rhyme or reason.

““Hyah!””

Those cute shouts were followed closely by the terrifying whoosh of incoming high-speed projectiles.

The enemy tried to take cover behind their shields, but the spheres knocked them and their shields down.

They tried to parry some with their blades, but the swords snapped—and the players splattered.

“Here, keep going.”

Iz kept placing more spheres at the twins’ feet. There was no end in sight.

“…I don’t think they need my protection.”

“Yeah. I’m pretty much useless, too.”

Maple and Kanade simply continued to watch the attacking guild suffer under the withering barrage.

The stragglers soon realized this was hopeless and tried to run—but they’d advanced too far, and not a single one made it back to the tunnel entrance. The crunch of a ball connecting with their backs was the last thing they felt.

When the eight players made it back to their base after being battered to death, all they could do was warn the rest of the guild never to go into that cave. That alone was valuable intel.

On her own, Sally was swiftly moving from branch to bush to boulder, constantly staying out of view while she searched for more guilds.

She’d made a wide loop and had already found five. It would still be quite some time before she could grasp the whole event map, but she’d detected a pattern—wherever there were ruins, forests, lakes, or other distinctive landmarks, there was likely a guild nearby.

The five she’d found weren’t all small, either. Some were midsize and had as many as fifty-odd players.

Sally made a note of each on her map, then slipped away before anyone saw her.

“Midsize guild, in the ruins—roof over the orb but no walls.”

She closed her map and leaned back against the tree trunk, thinking it over.

That last fight had gone just as planned. They’d managed to pull off a win without any losses, but it had been close—and the next one might not go as well.

This scouting run had led Sally to another important discovery: There were not many items around. She’d only found a few scattered materials and pieces of equipment…

And the only thing she was finding with any regularity was the equipment durability repair item—unique to this map.

If they ran out of the materials for potion crafting, there was little chance they could make more.

“If all our fights are that hard…we’ll be out of MP potions by day five.”

MP potions generally ran out before HP ones. The kind of spells or skills that could turn the tide of battle generally consumed a lot of MP, and in a battle-focused event like this, they’d be blowing through potions like there was no tomorrow.

And being unable to cast support spells could hurt them on the fifth and final day.

“Hmm…but if we don’t rack up points fast, the big guilds’ll leave us in the dust. Against anyone that size, I’d want Maple with us…which means we’d have to…”

If they weren’t constantly nabbing and keeping orbs, they wouldn’t be able to compete with the big guilds.

Sally pondered the issue awhile, and once she’d made up her mind, she pulled a cloak on to disguise herself and dashed off through the trees, hunting for other players.

It didn’t take her long to find a party of three. They were sticking to the shadows and undergrowth, like Sally herself had been when she was with Chrome and Kasumi.

From the tree above, Sally listened in for a minute and soon learned they were a scout party.

She checked their weapons—a staff, a greatsword, and a one-handed sword with a shield. Then she moved a short ways out, dropped down to ground level, and headed past them, letting the brush rustle as she moved through it.

She clicked her tongue, feigning irritation at the encounter.

“……! She’s solo! Get her!”

“Right! We’ve got this!”

Three against one.

Sally’s look of dismay ensured they wouldn’t pass up a fight.

As Sally repeatedly glanced over her shoulder, a spell flew at her. A greatsword charge wasn’t far behind.

She dodged the spell, then performed an evasive maneuver, avoiding the charge as well at the cost of balance.

The sword and shield wielder had been waiting for that moment, but she deflected the prepared attack with her dagger and rolled out of the way of the wind blades that followed.

“Leap!”

She used a skill to gain distance, scrambled to her feet, and raised her daggers, edging backward.

Her opponents interpreted that as a signal she was about to flee, and they closed in.

“Leap!”

“Heavy Charge!”

The greatsworder rushed in, and the one-handed sword fighter leaped to her rear, cutting off her escape route. The support spells they were receiving kept up the pressure.

From their perspective, they had her on the ropes.

Just one step away from finishing Sally off.

Then, before they picked up on the fact that she was still evading everything they threw at her, she took a tumble through the dirt and broke into a dead run off into the woods.

And in this terrain, they quickly gave up on following her trail.

“Come on, forget about her.”

“Yeah, no use searching.”

“Good. That went well.”

Once she was sure she’d lost her pursuers, Sally set out to find another party and deliberately let herself get seen once more.

This all might seem crazy—but Sally had a clear goal in mind. She was maxing out her Sword Dance effect, which would eventually double her STR.

Twenty minutes later…

Sally had achieved her goal. Sword Dance was giving her the maximum boost to STR.

“I’m ready. Oboro, come on.”

She summoned her white fox and stuck it around her neck. Oboro wrapped its tail around her like a scarf, nuzzling her cheek. Focusing on the task ahead, Sally made her way toward one of the guilds she’d found.

“…All right, orbs confirmed.”

There were two midsize guilds, and in both cases, she could see the orb from a distance. But there were plenty of obstacles between her and them, plus a lot of defenders. A frontal assault would be tough. Both bases were set up inside ruins, with a scattering of stone buildings and the orbs placed in the central clearing.

Sally was steadily closing in on the less evenly guarded one.

But they were a midsize guild and had no shortage of players to cover a lot of ground.

“Phew… You got this, Sally!”

She slapped her cheeks, focused her mind, and plunged into the weakest section of the guild’s defensive perimeter.

“Enemy! There’s just one!”

A lookout spotted her and alerted the orb’s defenders.

“Leap!”

She used a skill to quickly swing left.

“Surround her!”

A portion of the defenders moved to do exactly that—and succeeded. Attacks rained down upon her—

—then she melted into the air, like mist.

The defenders were shocked, but orders to locate her again went out—and Sally was quickly discovered once more, this time on the right.

A second wave rushed to respond. They made swift work of the intruder, pounding away.

And she dissolved just like before.

Working together, Sally and Oboro had used Mirage to gather everyone’s attention and create gaps in the guild’s defenses. In reality, she’d just walked straight on in, giving her unhindered access to their orb.

“Superspeed!”

By the time the guards noticed, it was too late.

Her skill had allowed her to cover the last bit of ground in a flash and snatch the orb without needing to fight anyone.

Still, escaping would be no easy task. She was surrounded and would have to break through their lines.

“Slash!”

The extra attacks that Chaser Blade gave her combined with the dual daggers buffed by Sword Dance made short work of her opponents, who were still dazed by her initial sprint through their lines.

When the Sword Dance buff was maxed out, Sally’s daggers hurt.

While Superspeed was still active, Sally struck at everyone within reach, prying a path open.

And her DPS was so high that anyone who stood in her way crumbled.

After scouting out the place, she knew the odds would be against her in a frontal assault. That was why she’d decided an unorthodox approach would probably be her best shot at grabbing their orb.

Her skill set was what made it possible. Flawless evasion and agility were prerequisites to pulling off this strategy.

And it was a plan that worked because it was the first day—no one had any real information, and their defenses had yet to be tested.

“Water Wall!”

Throwing up a barrier to keep enemy spells at bay, Sally found the softest point in their now-weakened defense and punched through.

“That definitely won’t work twice… Oh, good, here they come!”

No defender would stand idly by when their orb was stolen.

This guild had a fair number out on the attack, but there were still forty of them to deal with.

And now they had no orb to defend. They were all on Sally’s heels.

She ran.

Right toward the other midsize guild.

Never letting them catch up but never letting them lose sight of her, she ran until the other guild was in sight. This guild had standardized their gear, and all of them were dressed in blue—just like Sally. She figured she could pass as one of them easily enough.

They saw Sally leading an army their way and braced for a fight.

Her pursuers naturally thought this was her guild and got ready to launch an all-out attack.

Both were wrong, but the fight was now a foregone conclusion.

Sally’s goal was to use the chaos of battle to steal a second orb. That’s why she’d led the army here.

“Oboro, Fleeting Shadow!”

As the fight began, they quickly lost track of Sally.

Oboro’s skill made her invisible for a single second. That was long enough for her to reach some thickets and hide.

The two guilds seemed evenly matched. The army she’d led was hell-bent on getting their orb back, and they were making headway.

The battle was far too furious for anyone to spare a thought for where Sally had gone.

Since the players hounding Sally had all come from the same direction, the defenders were forced to meet them on that side—meaning if she sneaked around the back of their camp, few guards were left to stand in her way.

She carefully threaded through the ruins and took aim.

“…Leap! Double Slash!”

Sally picked an angle with only five defenders and caught them by surprise, cutting them down before they could recover. The Sword Dance buff helped tremendously.

“Got it!”

With the orb in hand, she used her patented evade-and-counter technique to make short work of the survivors before hurrying back to the guaranteed safety of the Maple Tree base.

“If I make it home, Maple’s there! Once these orbs are in our base—they aren’t going anywhere.”

The furious battle would last a while.

It would take some time for them to realize the orb was gone and try to give chase.

More than enough for her to make a clean getaway.

While she ran, Sally sent a message to her guild.

It simply said she’d grabbed some orbs and wanted to hand them off at the entrance.

The idea was to get them safely under Maple’s protection as soon as possible, freeing up Sally to hunt for the next one.

This first day was critical.

If they wanted to win, they couldn’t afford to waste a second.

“There it is!”

Sally had been careful, making sure there was no one on her tail. She peered out of the underbrush—checking for ambushes—and spotted Chrome waiting for her.

She slipped over to him and deposited the two orbs into his hands.

“Wow…already?”

“…I’m gonna spend the day racking up points. You make sure we hold on to ’em.”

“You got it!”

Three guilds had lost their orbs to Maple Tree now. And the location of a guild’s own orb was always shown on every member’s map.

All three orbs were in the same place.

Would they work together? Or would they give up on recovering their original orbs and gang up on other guilds now that there was no need to devote anyone to defense? Either way, having an orb stolen this early was undoubtedly a wrench in whatever plans they might’ve had.

“It’s go time!”

Not even taking a moment to rest, Sally plunged back into the fray. If she stopped, the large guilds would build up an insurmountable lead.

She’d located more guilds, and she wanted their orbs, too.

Chrome took the orbs from Sally back to the others and placed them on their pedestal.

“Wow, Sally’s amazing!”

“Yeah, she made snatching them sound easy, but…nobody else could pull that off.”

After a moment of deep admiration, the topic turned toward their security.

They decided Kanade, Mai, Yui, and Maple would be on guard.

“We’ll be in the back,” Chrome said.

“If you’re ever in trouble… Well, you won’t be.”

“Once things die down, we’ll head out to check our surroundings and thin the enemy numbers.”

Iz was combat ready and could be included in scouting parties.

“I’d better change up my shield so I can use Crystal Wall.”

Maple had no plans to use her attack skills, so she’d be focusing on defense alone—Crystal Wall was great for that. With the relevant shield equipped, she could instantly generate a crystalline barrier, blocking any advance.

“We’re sticking to one hammer each.”

It was important to hide their true capabilities for as long as possible.

Fifteen minutes later…

Furious players started pouring in. The entire midsize guild, faces like demons, charged forward like an avalanche—and found only four players standing in their way.

No need to close with a party that small. They could just have their mages attack from afar.

But when the spellfire cleared, the defenders were advancing toward them, clearly unharmed. And one of them sported glittering angel wings.

None of them knew what that meant. Most assumed the other team’s great shielder had used some skill to block the damage, so they simply moved in to finish the job. No one paid much attention to the two hammer wielders at all, which was perfectly normal.

“Crystal Wall!”

As the intruders raced between the twins, Maple raised a wall. They ran headlong into it and staggered backward—that was their undoing.

““Double Stamp!””

The deafening noise of hammer meeting armor rang out. It took only a single blow to fell each player.

Seeing so many of their front-liners downed in one shot amid a spray of red damage sparks, the rest of the attacking guild was forced to reassess the situation.

These formidable foes were tiny. Cutesy clothes peeked out from beneath their robes. A complete mismatch with the giant hammers and ludicrous damage output.

The attackers froze.

Double Stamp was a normal skill. It only hit twice. Most players should be able to tank both hits just fine.

The mages cast a second round of spells—but once again, their attacks did nothing. And any player who didn’t dodge fast enough shattered like glass.

But they still had numbers on their side.

They couldn’t retreat yet.

These hammerers weren’t exactly fast. Nor were they stepping outside the glowing zone generated by the angel skill. Given the size of the room itself, a flanking maneuver was definitely an option.

“Circle around them! Take out the one with wings!”

No sooner did they hear this order than a new voice barked, “Girls, do the thing!”

““Okay!””

The assaulting guild obviously had no idea what to expect.

But the hammer girls ran straight forward, evenly spaced.

“Cover Move! Cover Move!”

And Maple kept pace with them—

—bringing her AOE defense field with her.

“Well, that was dumb. Hit those wings! We’ll do extra damage now!”

The attacking guild’s great shielder was very familiar with the downsides to Cover Move.

But this approach was perfect for Maple. It meant she could move her glow zone to the enemy back line.

That meant the twins were still under her protection.

“Wait, that’s… P-pull back!”

The one who shouted the order earlier had been keeping his distance from the hammer threat—meaning he could see over their shoulders to the back of the room, where the final defender stood…with multiple bookshelves floating around him.

“Shadow Stitch,” Kanade whispered.

And for the next three seconds, none of the attackers could move.

“Wha…?! I-I’m stuck…!”

As realization sank in, doom swept toward them.

Two hammers smashed through Magic Barrier unhindered, pulverizing the players beyond.

When the longest three seconds of their lives were over, the back line was in shambles, their commander downed, and the front line was completely penned in.

In mere minutes, four players had wiped them out.

They really should have given up on the orb and gone after some other guild.

And thus, Maple Tree convinced their opponents they were better off fighting one another. It was still early on the first day, but they’d achieved two important goals—securing their own safety and chipping away at the ranks of their foes.

As these fights took place, people were spectating all the action in a town created specifically for the event, also under the same time compression.

Screens had been set up everywhere, letting players watch the event unfold. And it had everything the main stratum towns had—including item shops and training rooms like the one in Maple Tree’s guild home.

Event participants were unable to contact anyone outside the combat map, so there was no way for an observer to relay information to those inside.

There was also a unique bracelet item that could be used in this zone that allowed players to step out and come back, with the time differential calculated automatically. Of course, by the time they got back, the event standings might have changed dramatically. Players invested in spectating were unlikely to leave in the first place.

Any event participants who reached the five-death limit would also be sent here.

“Woo, they’re going at it!”

“Well worth the watch. Glad we came.”

“I figure the big guilds have this in the bag. No way for the little ones to compete.”

“Yeah…looks like the crowds here are people like us, who aren’t even in guilds. That or guilds who decided it wasn’t even worth trying.”

“No point if you don’t have the numbers. No exceptions.”

“Who’s gonna come in first? The Order of the Holy Sword or Flame Empire?”

“Those two sucked up all the top rankers. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to see them duke it out—find out who’s strongest!”

Virtually everyone agreed nobody could compete with those two guilds.

“Oh, wait, speaking of small guilds…what about Maple Tree?”

“Yeah…hmm. Hard to say. Too many unknowns. Right?”

Everyone made a face, and then someone said, “Well, they can’t beat the big dogs anyway.”

“…Yeah. I mean, those guilds have anti-Maple schemes in place. It’s hopeless!”

Just then, Maple Tree showed up on-screen. They were fighting groups with far greater numbers and winning without even breaking a sweat. Everyone watching froze.

“…Or not?”

“Still. There’s no way…right?”

“…Where’d these crazy hammer girls come from? How the—?”

They were only on-screen long enough to freak the audience out—and then the feed cut away.

The orb thief who’d engineered that whole spectacle was currently studying a small guild at the base of a cliff.

“They’re pretty small,” Sally observed, peering around a rock.

Currently, she could only see five.

And unless they had a Maple, nobody could defend a base with so few people.

That meant most guilds would be putting the bulk of their members on defense. A team this small made it likely their total head count was similar to Maple Tree.

“I can take ’em.”

She slipped out from behind that outcropping, staying hidden as she moved from perch to perch.

A large party would be spotted before long, but a careful solo player could creep surprisingly close.

“Oboro, Fleeting Shadow.”

When she ran out of cover, Sally made herself invisible for a single second, using that brief moment to reach the thickets by the base itself.

She listened closely; it didn’t sound like anyone had noticed.

She’d scouted the place from above and knew they weren’t all constantly looking up—they had one player focused on the cliffs above, while the others watched the narrow trails leading in.

“All right, game time.”

Sally quietly stepped out of the bushes and headed for the one keeping an eye on the cliffs above.

She could easily have killed the guard before there was even a chance to make a sound, but she chose to take it slow.

“E-enemy!” went up the yell—and then Sally swooped in for the kill.

And because the call had come from the one who’d been on cliff duty, the other players all looked up and broke into a run—right past the bushes where Sally was hiding.

With their attention all drawn upward, they were slow to react as Sally rushed past, low to the ground, daggers slashing all the while.

She held the advantage in levels and gear, and only the last of them even managed to take a swing.

“No chance to let ’em see a skill. Nice. They won’t pose a problem even if they do come after me. Let’s hit another.”

She grabbed their orb and picked a path back up the cliff.

As she moved, she checked her map, thinking fast while keeping one eye on her surroundings. While she had their orb, her latest victims would know exactly where she was, so stopping to think would be too risky.

“Another small crew… No, wait, that one might be rough. Hmm. Maybe I should scout farther? I really wanna find out where the big guilds are.”

Her mind made up, she ran off, heading for unexplored realms.

Back at base, the rest of Maple Tree had defense locked down.

The only skill Maple had shown was Martyr’s Devotion, and nobody had realized yet that this skill was vulnerable to piercing damage.

Having annihilated all the invaders, Mai and Yui had settled down next to Maple.

“Hah…hah… This is hard work!”

“Mm. Phew… It does take a lot out of you.”

The twins had handled virtually all the actual combat and were visibly tired.

“I think it’ll be a while before anyone else comes,” Kanade said. “Given the beating we just handed them, they won’t be back for more.”

Indeed, the blue guild had already abandoned the idea of recovering their orb.

It was still the first day, so nobody wanted to rack up a second death so soon.

“The others left to hunt down scouting parties, and Sally’s…way out there, huh?” Maple said, inspecting her map.

Sally’s marker was moving steadily away from the guild base.

Maple closed her map and sighed. “Let’s take a rest, then. It’s not like anyone will have an easy time sneaking up on us. We’ll leave the rest to our friends outside for now.”

Maple Tree’s grown-up/voice-of-reason squad was currently picking off enemy reconnaissance teams.

“These are good, Iz.”

“Right! Doping Seeds are pretty powerful.”

They were craftable thanks to the New Frontier skill (itself provided by Iz’s unique series gear). Doping Seeds raised one stat by 10 percent, at the cost of 10 percent reduction in a different stat.

Up to five could be used at once, and the effect lasted ten minutes, which was quite long.

However, there was no telling what stats would be affected until crafting was complete. To get the seeds she wanted, a mountain of materials had been required.

But her other skill, Faustian Alchemy, allowed her to trade gold for materials. She’d exchanged a lot of money for Doping Seed materials, prepping all the seeds her guild would need.

Iz had given Sally ten seeds that lowered VIT and raised AGI.

Chrome got VIT and STR buffs that lowered DEX.

Kasumi got STR buffs that lowered INT.

Kanade got INT buffs that lowered STR.

For Maple, Mai, and Yui, it didn’t matter what got lowered, so Iz was able to dump a lot of the extras on them.

The gold she’d spent making all those seeds had been enough to found her own guild—twice.

“Heh-heh… Just make sure all that money doesn’t go to waste.”

“Absolutely.”

Kasumi used Keen Sight to locate more players, prompting her team to circle around and ambush them.