Defense specialization and return.

Time passed after Sally acquired one skill. It became February, when the event would begin.

Sally, Crom, and Kasumi are, of course, the fastest to participate.

Maple, who had rested quietly until now, finally regained her motivation for exploration and logged in immediately after the event began.

Maple enters the guild home. Like a shift in weight, Crom and Kasumi burst out.

Maple stares after the two retreating figures. Sally approaches from behind and taps her shoulder with a sharp, sudden touch.

Maple has come as well. Starting the exploration today?

Yes, I’ll try my best—after so long.

"Then, let me explain the event more clearly."

Sally begins to speak about the overview of this event.

The event, Sally explained to Maple, would first require gathering items in the field, then using those items to move to a different field.

Moreover, the location of arrival in the new field would be random.

"So the destination is the jungle. According to the operators, rare materials are the main focus... and there are skills involved too?"

"Ah, I see."

"Then there's this. In the jungle, HP recovery items and HP recovery skills cannot be used. Maple, you can't use 【Meditation】 for now."

One returns to the town square upon death, or by pressing the 【Leave Field】 button appearing beneath the status display.

"Should we avoid using 【Love That Offers the Body】 recklessly?"

Sally nodded.

To expend HP voluntarily was a high-risk action.

Piercing attacks should also be avoided whenever possible. Even so, Maple requires no concern for ordinary strikes, making combat vastly easier than for the other players.

"Then I'll go collect items."

"Have a safe trip."

Sally stepped out of the guild home, like Crom and Kasumi, and entered the field directly.

Maple, left behind, walked at her own pace and stepped into the field.

"Right then, let me review the information again..."

Sally’s rough explanation had already settled clearly in Maple’s mind.

No specific monsters needed to be defeated. Tickets for the jungle could be obtained from any monster across all layers.

Maple set out to slay monsters, her first journey through the fifth layer underway.

Maple pressed her feet into the soft ground, stepping forward while glancing left and right.

"Sally said cloud monsters are common here."

Maple moved across the uneven field, climbing over walls of cloud and descending slopes.

"Phew... no monsters. Maybe I should return to the fourth layer?"

Maple rested a hand on her chin, thinking. Then she spotted a cumulus cloud forming ahead—something clicked.

The cumulus cloud she’d heard about from Sally’s exploration tales—monsters appeared along that path.

She had used up all the soap bubble ingredients Sally had given her. This might be a good chance to collect one.

"Right then—let’s go! Whoa—hey!?"

Maple slipped and tumbled down the slope, rolling head over heels. She crashed face-first into the ground with a splash.

“Ugh… not painful, but… must be careful.”

Maple rose to her feet and began walking, eyes on her feet.

Maple entered the towering cumulus cloud and encountered a thunderhead.

“Been a while since I fought—!”

Weapons extended from Maple’s body with a clatter, all aiming at the small cloud.

Before she could strike, a small cloud detached from the thunderhead and floated toward her, drifting softly.

“…cute.”

Maple touched the small cloud gently with her weapon, not attacking. A bolt of lightning struck her, crackling sharply—but did nothing more.

“Can’t afford to linger. Sorry.”

Maple approached the main cloud and swiftly struck it down with her left shield.

“Drop… none this time.”

Maple failed to obtain the event item this time.

She had obtained only a single bubble essence here.

Maple enjoyed the rare exploration, and did not concern herself with the lack of notable results.

It would be two days from now before Maple secured the items needed to enter the jungle.

The novel writer had seemingly hit a restriction, though it was unclear why.