Defense specialization and dungeon conquest.
Adjustments to combat scenes.
"Dungeon exploration? I finally feel like I'm going on an adventure!"
Spending her meager three thousand gold on a potion for precaution.
HP is only forty, so even the lowest-grade potion is sufficient.
And besides the ring of the giant bee, she also has 【Meditation】.
Ready, she heads toward the dungeon. Her target is the 【Poison Dragon's Labyrinth】, written on the information board.
"【Medium Poison Resistance】—I'll be fine!"
With determination, she leaps from the Town.
She walks slowly in the opposite direction of the forest. Outside the game, if Maple were not carrying her great shield and dagger, she would look no different from a schoolchild on a field trip.
She is attacked by monsters several times along the way, but takes no damage, so she passes them without stopping.
The monsters here seem smarter than those in the forest. Once they realize their attacks do not land, they leave.
No witnesses were present. Maple’s extraordinary defense went unnoticed.
As Maple walked on, she began to notice the trees around her withering. The landscape grew barren.
Patches of mud, bubbling with soft splashes, appeared across the ground.
She walked for another ten minutes.
A section of the ground rose, opening like a mouth.
“That must be it.”
Inside, the ceiling was higher than expected. She could properly hold her great shield.
Deeper within, slimy, sickly-colored slimes and lizards crawled from walls and ground, charging forward.
“Ei! Yah!”
Maple drives her blade into the slime, but cannot catch the nucleus drifting within its translucent body; no damage results. The slime’s charge likewise fails to inflict damage.
—Mm… then, so be it. Take this! Great Shield Play!
She falls forward, shield and all, crushing the slime’s entire form. No skill, no special power—just a reckless attack, vulnerable and exposed in enemy territory.
Yet for Maple, who withstands all attacks and poison unharmed, it matters not.
The shield strike inflicts little damage, but seems enough to crush the slime’s nucleus.
—Yosh! Deeper in we go!
Maple advances steadily deeper, now that she understands how to deal with slimes. She has abandoned the idea of defeating the lizard. Her AGI was too low—before she could strike, it slithered away and evaded her attack.
How many times now, collapsing to the ground with a shield in hand. At that moment.
Skill acquired: Shield Attack
Maple reads the description of the skill without delay. She already grasped its general meaning from the name, but she checks anyway.
Shield Attack
Attack with a shield. Power depends on STR. Small knockback effect.
Obtainable Conditions
Pierce the monster ten times with a strike from the shield.
Not very useful, perhaps… but the knockback looks strong!
Deeper within, flowers emitted purple mist, thick with poison. Some exhaled toxins.
A fish swam through the poisoned marsh.
The innermost chamber, reached at last after threading through the passage.
Before her, a door stood three times the height of Maple.
Force the double doors open with steady pressure.
The door groaned open with a grating, oilless sound, revealing the full extent of the room within.
Toxic swamps sprawl in every direction, filled with a faintly purple gas.
Maple entered the room with cautious steps.
The door behind slammed shut.
"Yan!?"
The dragon emerged from the toxic mire, its body partially melted, as if to drown out the brief cry.
“C-This is the poison dragon!?”
The thick purple bracelet struck against Maple without regard for her agitation.
Maple herself was nearly unharmed, but her gear was not.
Oh, a great shield and a short dagger...
The shattered remnants crumbling away could no longer serve as equipment. Fortunately, the ring beneath the glove remained intact.
And at this moment.
Maple’s VIT, amplified fourfold by the great shield’s 【VIT 28】 and the effects of 【Absolute Defense】 and 【Big-Thing Eating (Giant Killer)】—a total of 112 points—dropped.
The poison dragon’s breath damage now passed through unimpeded.
Each hit dealt 3 damage. Maple’s health had already dropped by 1 after the first breath.
Thirteen more hits would be certain death.
“Fuu…… Focus! 【Meditation】!”
Maple closed her eyes, heightening her concentration.
This time, 【Meditation】 would be performed amid the pain of damage. 【Meditation】 required sustained focus to maintain its effect.
Ring, 【Meditation】, and the meager potion purchased with scant coin. All used. Aimed at a higher 【Poison Resistance】. The only chance.
While 【Meditation】 is active, pain fades. Fear dulls. As if Maple’s body were dissolving. Nothing remains.
Endure. When HP drops below twenty percent, drink the potion.
Repeat.
Healing does not catch up. Either the potion runs out, or resistance is gained.
Which comes first.
After a time, a voice echoes in the mind.
『Skill 【Poison Resistance Medium】 has evolved into 【Poison Resistance High】』
The long-awaited sound. Yet Maple cannot rejoice.
The burning pain across her skin remains.
Resistance is still insufficient.
This skill, whose growth is uncertain, is all she can bet on.
When the last potion bottle had emptied.
"Haha... did it..."
The notification of acquiring the skill 【Poison Immunity】 echoed within Maple's mind.
Now even the downpour of breath feels pleasant.
Yet she cannot rest. As her stamina returns, Maple thinks.
Yes. With her weapon shattered. How is she to defeat this dragon? The dragon's attacks do no damage. Her own attacks do no damage.
No solution.
And she must either die or defeat it to leave this room. This outcome, even developers could not have foreseen.
"Guh... well, I'll try everything! Tomorrow's a holiday too, after all!"
Indeed, fortunately, school remains closed tomorrow. She has time to spare.
After pondering, trying, discarding, reconsidering, Maple finally takes a certain action.
Dragon meat, crumbly and soft-looking... if poison-resistant, might be edible!
Approaching the poison dragon’s body, breathing in its toxic breath.
Then. Maple brings her hands together.
...I shall eat.
She bites into its back.