Defense specialization and the inner city.
With the event's details now clear, the players' actions shifted. The need to examine monsters and terrain increased beyond before. More players wandered the fields. Fewer focused on quests.
The deadline for the event was set. Once it became clear what needed preparation, the urgency of quests available after the event diminished. Priority dropped.
Fewer people now walked through the Town. Choosing which nation to support remained undecided until the final moment. For now, the guild focused on exploring poorly mapped areas, moving to ensure nothing was missed.
Yet Maple's strategy remained unchanged since entering the ninth layer. Today, as always, free exploration continued.
Maple had come to the castle this time without regard to the quest.
"Must see it—can't afford to miss anything, not if we're to attack or defend here."
No quest involved actions within the castle's interior. Without purpose, one might simply pass through and never return. Yet, as Maple understood, this event would turn the town—and even the castle itself—into a battlefield. Knowing where each area connected, mapping vast spaces against narrow ones, identifying dead ends—this was essential.
That said, the simple desire to walk through the castle's halls was also true.
The town and castle were constructed identically. Exploring one side was sufficient.
Maple remained in the Land of Flame and Wastes. She walked through the castle's interior, its walls and floors all in shades of black.
"Spacious—almost like a dungeon, really..."
The royal castle, designed with the event in mind, features a labyrinth of branching hallways and multiple staircases—so intricate that it rivals any dungeon in complexity. The throne room lies at its deepest recess. It is expected that defenders will pursue players until they are defeated, forcing the latter to advance toward the throne room. To avoid being overtaken while lost, one must memorize the shortest route at the very least.
The path the soldier guided her along is the shortest route to the throne room. Maple asked the soldier to guide her once more, recorded the route, then walked through the castle’s interior.
What is this place? — Intruding, I suppose...
Upon inspection, the chamber proved to be a kitchen. An NPC in a chef’s hat prepared food.
Shouldn’t enter…?
Yet this remained a game. The cooks did not react to Maple in particular, continuing to prepare food.
As Maple observed the room, a blue panel appeared before her eyes.
“W-wait! Um… so, if you hand over materials, you get meals that restore health or boost stats?”
A place with a purpose had clear explanations prepared for each room. This reassured Maple.
She entered the room and approached the marked spot. She decided to try taking one meal. A blue panel hovered in a corner of the kitchen. It seemed she needed to interact with it.
Maple selected a dish she could make from surplus materials in her inventory. She took it and left the kitchen.
“Let me take a look…?”
Maple pulled the newly acquired meal from her inventory. It was a large bone, thoroughly roasted, with meat still attached.
“Ooh! Big!”
The effect increases all stats. For Maple, it only affects 【VIT】, but it is a convenient meal that can be made simply by handing over monster meat.
Maple placed the wild-looking item back into her inventory, setting it aside with quiet anticipation, and resumed her exploration of the palace.
"This king over here seemed like the sort who would eat such meat... he was a dragon, after all."
Walking through the castle, she discovered, to her surprise, a variety of items. Individual rooms, several workshops like the one Iz had used as a base, and even storage rooms filled with cannonballs, weapons, and provisions.
Among them, she found the item mentioned in the announcement.
"Ah! This is it! 'Mass of Mana'... I wonder what it's made of?"
In the room, a squishy blue orb-like object was stored. The description read that, during the event, certain monsters could be commanded—limited to a single use.
"Only ten can be held. If they run out, they must be replenished!"
Sally shared that these were also stored in warehouses scattered across the Town. Replenishment could be faster from there than traveling all the way to the Royal Castle.
The key point was clear: supplies could be obtained in the field, in the town, or within the Castle itself. Even if surrounded and forced into a confined space, basic resupply remained possible.
Even under siege, if a player strong in fortification—like Iz or Mark—remained, every incoming force might be repelled. Even the odds could be balanced. Waiting in ambush held such strength.
If enough supplies are packed into the inventory beforehand, items will not run out within a span of three days—no longer than that.
Yet Maple herself had not considered this far. What comes next is simply to relay what she has seen directly to the guild members.
As long as the information is brought back, Sally and the others—more experienced in the game—will sort it and incorporate it into their strategy.
“What else is there…?”
Maple opens another large door and peers inside. Shelves packed tight with books stretch all the way to the back. A staircase runs along the edge. There appears to be a second floor.
“Wow… could Kanade read them all?”
Even if every book were readable, it would still take Maple years to read them all.
Regardless, the library is clearly vast. Shelves stretch too high for Maple to reach, even when she stretches up, and they line both the first and second floors in great numbers.
Usually, Maple would simply glance inside and turn back. But since Kanade once said, if the chance arises, she should also look through the library, she decides to walk deeper.
"Maybe there are some interesting books here."
A central aisle runs between rows of shelves, branching into multiple corridors on either side. Maple glances left and right as she walks, but even at a glance, the shelves are packed with thick books, each one appearing dauntingly dense.
"Just one of these would take ages..."
Without some clear difference, to Maple all would appear the same. Yet after walking for a time, she passes through something lukewarm across her body.
?
She wipes her face, as if something clung there, but finds nothing. Looking back, only the same aisle of shelves, flanked by books, remains.
Perhaps a trick of the mind?
Maple hesitates. She felt something distinct. Yet nothing around her suggests it. She concludes it must have been her imagination.
Let’s go to the back and return. Wait—
She turns forward again and notices a staircase just before the wall, descending into the floor.
No decoration. Simply dug into the floor, continuing straight down. From afar, it might easily have gone unnoticed.
It was three stories deep! Mmm, truly vast... I’ll have Kanade come see this next time!
Deciding to inspect the second floor after this was finished, Maple descended the stairs.