Chapter 64

Defense Specialization and Assistance
Stories focusing on Maple alone will come some other time.
Though, it will probably be after the eventual third level.
The day after Maple showed the other guild members her angel-like appearance and overwhelming power.
Chrome and Izu were talking in the hall right in front of the entrance to the guild home.

Maple just keeps getting stronger, huh.


Really. I never get bored watching her.


But…you know…


Hmm?


I’m an inferior version of Maple, right!?


…Well, I suppose so.

It was true that Chrome was below Maple in terms of both firepower and defense.
The only thing that he could say that he bested her with was PS.

I need to find the meaning for my existence in this guild…!


Well, I can’t blame you for feeling that way.

As the two of them talked, the doors of the guild home opened and Maple walked in.

Speak of the devil.


Were you talking about something?


Yes, kind of.


I want to acquire some powerful skills like you, Maple.

Chrome added that he wanted to have different skills than the ones Maple had. Maple smiled and cheered him on.
Chrome asked Maple for some advice on gaining powerful skills, but Maple just replied that she got most of them from randomly looking around. So her advice was not of much use.

Hmmm… I can’t really help you today, but… That’s it! You can borrow Syrup! I’m sure it will be of some help…

Maple said as she controlled the blue panel and removed the ring. She took the ring from her inventory and handed it over to Chrome.

Are…you sure? This is your important gear. What if I never return it?


Are you not going to return it?


No, I would never do such a thing.

Chrome denied strongly.
Chrome had no intention of doing such a thing.

Then it’s fine!

Maple said with a big smile.
Chrome then repeated to Maple that she shouldn’t lend important things so easily, even to guild members.
But Maple said that she just really wanted to help Chrome out, so Chrome carefully accepted the ring and left the guild home.
As Chrome walked in the field, he thought of what Maple had done a moment ago.

Maybe I should ask Sally to warn her again later…

Chrome was very happy that she put so much trust in him, but felt like it was a little too much trust. And so he decided to ask Maple’s friend, Sally, to repeat the same thing to her.

…You have to be careful so you don’t get tricked by bad people.

Maple was enjoying the game, but she still lacked experience.
She still did not know that much about happiness or sadness.
She hasn’t truly felt the presence of bad players yet.
Keeping away players that would try to exploit Maple’s lack of experience was one of the few things that Chrome could do, that Maple could not.

And I want her to be able to enjoy the game.

Chrome continued to move westward in the field.

Well, as long as I’m borrowing it, I might as well use it. It would be rude to Maple if I didn’t.

Chrome called for Syrup, but instead of making it bigger, he had it walk alongside him.
This was because he could not make it fly like Maple, so he felt there was no use for it to be so big.
The only players that were allowed inside of this dungeon were players like Chrome, who had died and resurrected over 1,000 times.
Chrome is so overprotective.

Oh…another monster.

Chrome unsheathed his shortsword and held his great shield in front of him.
Three boar-type monsters had appeared.
And Chrome only had one great shield to go against them.
Of course, this meant that he would be directly hit if they all attacked at once.

Grr…Maple would have gotten through this without taking any damage!

He slashed at the monster who rammed into him and moved out of the way with a backstep.
A red effect flew through the air.
The boars attacked him, but they bounced off his great shield.

‘Pierce’!


Chrome activated the skill and released a sharp thrust.
His short sword hit the boar that had bounced off his shield, taking away its HP.
Furthermore, Chrome’s own HP was recovering as this happened.
Chrome used a great shield which was not the greatest for an offensive stance, but it was not by chance that he ranked number 9 in the first event.
Chrome had one skill that the average player did not have.
‘Battle Healing.’

While in combat, his HP would recover 1% every 10 seconds.
With this skill, high defensive capabilities and his persistence to fight, Chrome was able to place 9th.
Chrome looked weak if you viewed Maple as the standard, but if the average player was the standard, then Chrome was still quite formidable.
All the players who made it into the top 10 at the event had some kind of strong skill.
But Maple’s skill was especially strong among them, which made her stick out the most.
Chrome allowed Syrup to attack as well so they could share the experience points. Then they continued on to the west.
Chrome arrived at a western wasteland.

I haven’t explored this area yet, so let’s start from here.

As Chrome continued to search the wasteland, he found a small, old-looking tombstone.
Any player would have inspected further if they found something this special, and Chrome was no different.
And so Chrome walked towards the tombstone. He was not able to do anything when the ground disappeared beneath his feet while he was one step in front of the tombstone, and so he fell into the pit.
Chrome picked himself off of the ground.
There was an endless tunnel leading out in front of him.

Huh…? Is this a hidden dungeon?

Chrome looked around and saw that Syrup had followed him down here.

Really… I think some spirit could be haunting Maple?

Chrome started to feel like anything that involved Maple had a tendency to turn very strange.
However, it was very much Chrome’s actions that got him in this pit, not any mysterious influence of Maple.
Sally, Maple, Kasumi, Kaede, even Izu, they all had something that no one else had.
Even Chrome had something that no one else did.
That was his overwhelming number of deaths.
He had died so many times trying to master the great shield. Because of his low firepower, he could not deal with the monsters quickly enough and would become surrounded.
It took him a long time to become adept with the great shield.
And that meant that his death count increased.
Even then, Chrome continued to train.
He made up for his lack of talent with time and effort.
‘Battle Healing’
 was something he just happened to acquire during his many deaths.
All his skills, all his techniques were earned through death.
This dungeon’s name was ‘Grave of Ghosts.’
Maple and Sally would not have been allowed to enter this dungeon.