Chapter 204

Itai no Wa 204

Defense Specialization and the Tower’s First Floor

Maple and Sally go to the Magic Circle in the center of the town’s plaza .

With this Magic Circle, they can teleport to the tower’s front door .

“Umm… Isn’t this going to be really hard?”

“Of course! I’m all fired up!”

Seeing Maple in such high spirits about it makes Sally start to walk with a little more excitement .

“He he… Well, here we are! Let’s clear the first floor quickly, okay?”

“Yeah, let’s do this!”

Maple replies with enthusiasm after Sally says that with a confident expression on her face .

The two of them step on the Magic Circle leading to the most difficult tower and disappear in a flash of white light .

As the light fades, they find themselves in front of a tower so tall that it seems to pierce through the heavens .

The top part of the floor cannot be seen as it is above the clouds .

“Looks like this is going to take some time . ”

“Right . Judging by its looks, it’s about one-fourth of a usual field… maybe? But there might be transitions and stuff like that along the way . ”

“Uh… Ah! Let’s do our best!”

“Yeah, but let’s not overdo it . ”

The two of them go straight towards the tower’s huge door, open it, and walk inside .

Inside the tower, they see four passages that could fit one person each, and each passage appears to branch off along their ways .

The ceiling is about four meters high .

“Well then…”

“Yeah, it looks like a maze . We need to be careful not to get lost . ”

“Umm… Okay then, ‘Dedicated Affection’!”

Maple activates her ’Dedicated Affection’ so that she can protect Sally in the unlikely event that they do stray away from each other .

White wings spread out of Maple’s black armor’s back .

After they’re done with their preparations, they begin walking inside the dungeon .

“By the way, Maple . Aren’t you going to equip those two shields?”

“Huh? I’m still practicing that . I think it’ll still take some time before I’m able to do many things at once like that . Don’t you like it like this, Sally?”

“Um… well, no, it’s fine… I guess?”

Aside from Sally, Maple has to take care of many other things, like using ‘Poltergeist’, so she had decided not to equip those for now .

She believes that if and when she needs to change her equipment, she can change one piece at a time without a problem .

It’s not like she can’t buy some time doing things like that .

“I have to get used to it too… Ah!? Hey, Maple! Look out!”

“Huh?”

As Maple replies, she steps on a section of the ground with a slightly different color than the rest .

The spot where Maple stepped on opens with a crack, and she falls down .

Sally quickly shoots some webbing against the walls down below, preventing Maple from reaching the bottom of the hole .

“Maple! Are you okay?”

“I’m all right! It’s just a poisonous bog down here!”

Hearing Sally’s voice, Maple replies from below the dark pitfall she had fallen into .

Shortly after that, a white hand reaches out to Maple and she emerges to the surface, surrounded by two shields .

“He he! If you have the right equipment, pitfalls are not scary at all!”

“I wish it was safer around here… Let’s be more careful when walking around here . ”

Sally narrows her frown and turns away from Maple .

“… Oh, right! ‘Hair Growth’!”

Maple turns into a hairball . Her face and angel wings stick out of her white spherical shape .

“Maple?”

“We don’t have to worry about traps with this, and you don’t have to be afraid, Sally! It’s like killing two birds with one stone! Let’s continue our search like this . ”

Maple moves towards Sally, and then Sally enters the hairball .

“Ready to take off?”

“Ah? Can we really search around the dungeon like this…?”

Maple and a confused Sally softly bounce around the maze-like passages .

“Oh, Maple! There’s a monster there!”

A bird with red wings, about two meters tall, appears as Maple and Sally turn around a corner .

“He he he… come right at me! ‘Deploy All Weapons’! ‘Commence Attack’!”

Black guns and cannons of all sorts sprout from the hairball .

Maple starts to attack the bird, but even as it gets hit it, it quickly makes its way towards her . The bird changes its shape into a flame and tackles Maple at full force .

“Maple!”

“Hey! You can’t do that!”

Since the hairball is in midair, it cannot dodge the attack . The bird darts right through it, burning hair away as it goes .

Since ‘Dedicated Affection’ is still active, Sally took no damage, but she can’t go back inside the hairball anymore .

“Ugh…”

“I’ll fight! Please protect me!”

“Okay! ‘Provoke’!”

Maple takes up her shield and uses her skill, attracting the attention of the firebird .

Then, as she takes a blow to her body thanks to her ‘Bizarre Eater’, Sally gets a direct hit on the bird with a Water spell .

After that, the bird displays a large red damage effect, and falls to the ground .

Its fire blows away, and becomes a regular red bird once again .

“I knew it! Water did the trick!”

Sally then continues to attack with her daggers, further damaging the bird .

“Maple!”

Sally gives a signal to Maple .

“Here’s payback! ‘Hydra’!”

A purple stream swallows the red bird whole .

The insta-kill effect of ‘Venom Incantation’ activates, and the bird disappears without a trace .

After the battle ends…

“You can stop using ‘Helping Hand’… Phew…”

“Okay, we did great! It might not have been quite the impressive monster, but I’m still glad it’s over . ”

“I can’t use ‘Hair Growth’ anymore…”

“You can’t do that anymore? Oh well, we’re going to have to get good at seeing through traps then . ”

“Yeah . Let’s give that a shot, shall we?”

And so, Maple steps over several traps as they make their way through the inner part of the floor .