Defense specialization and eyewitness reports.
One day after the event concluded.
The bulletin board begins to gather its usual participants.
542 Name: Nameless Great Shield User
The event is over.
There’s plenty to talk about.
543 Name: Nameless Great Sword User
It’s over.
It was long.
544 Name: Nameless Spear User
In reality, it was only two hours.
Feels strange.
545 Name: Nameless Great Shield User
Yeah.
546 Name: Nameless Great Sword User
Anyone who got ten medals?
I couldn’t manage it.
547 Name: Nameless Mage
Couldn’t.
The dungeon was quite tough.
More so, the seven days of continuous exploration were exhausting.
548 Name: Nameless Spear User
That’s true.
549 Name: Nameless Great Sword User
I climbed the highest mountain, but collapsed right where there was nothing.
550 Name: Nameless Great Shield User
Was the summit a circular peak?
Was there a shrine?
551 Name: Nameless Great Sword User
That it is.
Do you know something?
552 Name: Nameless Spearbearer
Something troubles me.
553 Name: The Nameless Mage
I wish to ask.
554 Name: Nameless Great Shieldbearer
Good.
It will take a moment to explain.
That mountain—I have climbed it myself.
There was a sigil before the shrine at the summit.
She was beaten to pieces by a large bird-like monster upon arrival.
Broken to pieces, utterly and completely.
One shard of ice struck the party member—she melted instantly.
The firepower is beyond ridiculous.
That there was nothing at the summit meant someone had destroyed it.
555 Name: Nameless Greatsword Wielder
Huh?
It's impossible.
If the enemy's HP is one, it barely makes sense.
556 Name: Nameless Spearman
If Crom cannot endure it, who else could...
No... she is here.
557 Name: The Nameless Mage
I too have someone in mind.
558 Name: The Nameless Shieldbearer
The conversation is not over yet.
At that moment, another party was already at the summit.
It was Maple and her friend—Sally, the player, as she was called.
Sally was dressed entirely in blue armor. Quite striking.
So if the magic circle had vanished,
it was highly likely they had cleared it.
They entered after us, after all.
559 Name: The Nameless Greatsword User
Ah, perhaps they defeated it.
Maple’s brute force.
Or perhaps that Sally girl? She looked monstrous.
Which one?
560 Name: The Nameless Archer
I arrived a little late.
But I brought two interesting pieces of information.
561 Name: The Nameless Shieldbearer
What kind of information?
562 Name: The Nameless Mage
Well then, come on.
Prepare yourself.
563 Name: The Nameless Archer
First.
There was a location where a tragedy occurred on the sixth day of the event.
A humanoid roaming monster wrapped in blue robes?
Or the player?
Regardless, she avoids every attack as if not using any skill, approaches, and is killed.
Said to vanish without warning, to dodge the blade—
There are quite a few casualties.
It became a mid-boss in a cave nearby.
There was also a post claiming a poisonous dragon had emerged from the cave.
564 Name: Nameless Great Shieldbearer
I see.
Hmm, a blue garment indeed.
Poison dragon, indeed.
I’ve heard something like this before.
565 Name: Nameless Greatsword User
The poison dragon is definitely like Maple-chan.
Two of those would be intolerable.
So that’s what it is?
Is the blue robe Sally's?
567 Name: The Nameless Mage
Sally's chances look promising.
Then Sally’s in trouble too.
Cutting through a descending sword is not something a person does.
568 Name: The Nameless Spearman
Not a medal skill, even during an event.
Then perhaps a skill with unknown acquisition conditions.
Or pure PS, possibly.
If the latter, truly inhuman.
569 Name: The Nameless Greatshield User
Recalled from the medal skill.
A skill resembling Maple-chan’s extraordinary defense appears among medal skills.
[Fortress]
Skill that multiplies VIT by 1.5
Likely possesses multiple such abilities.
That defense isn’t from a single source.
Judging from my VIT value, it’s more than 1.5 times.
570 Name: The Nameless Mage
Maple-chan might have taken it.
Or rather, Maple-chan would take it.
She already holds at least one medal.
Wait— is it still hardening?
580 Name: The Nameless Archer
Back to the topic— on to the second one.
After the event, I saw Maple and Sally in a desolate, forgotten desert.
It had been a long time since I last saw Maple.
She rode atop a massive flying turtle, darting through the sky, summoning a rain of poison.
581 Name: The Nameless Sorcerer
Wait— my mind cannot process this.
582 Name: The Nameless Great Shield User
I never had such a skill.
I shouldn’t have.
Did I?
I cannot comprehend.
583 Name: The Nameless Great Sword User
How many medals did you actually secure?
What happened to that phenomenon?
584 Name: The Nameless Archer
I don’t understand either.
What’s strange is—
the turtle.
It’s flying.
Poison rain.
Those three things.
Assuming the poison rain is normal, the other two are the problem.
What happened during the event?
585 Name: The Nameless Spear User
You can’t tame anything like that.
No.
Was there such an item hidden somewhere during the event?
586 Name: The Nameless Great Shield User
Maple has many nicknames, that's for certain.
The most common one is "Fortress."
That name needs changing, though.
"Floating Fortress" would be better.
587 Name: The Nameless Mage
She flies upward at an angle the moment you look away.
I want to check her skill and equipment slots.
She’s truly become a "Floating Fortress."
There might be a time limit, though.
588 Name: The Nameless Greatsword User
Sally needs close observation too.
People and things drawn to Maple tend to be strange.
589 Name: The Nameless Archer
I already don’t see Sally as an ordinary player.
I want to fight her once.
Her attack might be dodged automatically—some terrifying skill.
You won’t know the danger until you try.
590 Name: The Nameless Great Shield User
Then I’ll make contact soon.
I’m already friends with Maple.
I’ll see what Sally can do, if possible at that time.
591 Name: Nameless Spear User
I expect a good report.
592 Name: Nameless Great Sword User
I expect it.
Maple’s side will be next time.