Defense Specialization and Third Day of the Event

They took turns sleeping in the tree and came down from it just as the sun was beginning to
rise.
They had come quite deep into the forest and it was going to be hard to find the next place to
search.

「Maple. Which way do you want to go?」

「Well… let’s just go straight ahead and out of the forest!」

「Got it! Let’s go with that then.」

The two continued on through the forest in the opposite direction of the ruins.
30 minutes in, Sally whispered quietly to Maple.

「Maple. Behind us, in the bushes to your right, there are players targeting us.」
Apart from 【Sensing Presence】, Sally also used the sounds generated by the
bushes and the metallic sounds produced by armor to detect the location of
monsters and players.
The two continued their conversation in a whisper as they walked, so as not to be suspected.

「They are probably not that strong… but they are looking for an opening on us.」

「Should we capture them right now?」

「Can you do it?」

「Yep.」
After this concise reply, she pulled New Moon out of its sheath by just a few centimeters.

「【Paralyze Shout】」
A clear shinnk of sheathing echoed through the quiet forest.
A groan could be heard from the bushes behind them.

「Well?」
「Perfect. As expected!」
The two approached the bushes in question.
They found two players lying there, both of whom had been hit with powerful paralysis.

「Please come back whenever you are ready to be killed trying to take revenge on
us!」
Sally’s attack easily took down the two players.
There weren’t any medals.

「I think it’d be reckless to go after Maple, though… if it were me, I’d never target
her…」
This was the fourth time they encountered players since the event had started.
Two of those times were battles, but the opponents weren’t that big of a deal, so they didn’t
have any issues. The only one who would have been a strong opponent was Chrome with his
party, who they never had to fight, so they have yet to struggle against players.

「Five days left, including today… maybe we’ll meet a strong player at some point.」
If they had encountered them four times in about two days, then by simple calculation, they
would encounter them ten more times in the future.

One of them could be a top ranked player from the last event.
It wouldn’t be surprising if they were attacked at some point if they didn’t stay on their guard.
So yeah. These players were just as capable as the two.

Another hour of walking through the forest.

When the sun was starting to shine through the gaps in the trees.
They could finally see the scenery outside the forest.

「Oh…」

「Amazing…」
In front of them stretched a valley.
The place where the two were standing was at the top of the highest cliff there.
The grass and trees were thick and they could hear birds singing.
The bottom of the valley was shrouded in deep fog, making it impossible to grasp the full
picture.
If they were going to explore this place, they would have to get down there somehow.

「Do you think someone has already explored this place?」

「I don’t know… but with the size of the place, maybe there are parts of it they’ve
forgotten to explore?」
As Maple said, this valley was quite large.
It was definitely more than a hundred meters from where the two were now to the bottom.
On top of that, it was also wide.
It looked like it was easily over a hundred meters wide.

「I guess so. Then let’s try to get down there somehow.」

Sally checked the cliff in front of her for a while, looking for possible footholds and descending
slowly.

「Hmmm… I don’t see any footholds that you could stand on, Maple…」
The reach of 【Cover Move】 was limited. Maple couldn’t go down the cliff on her
own, so Sally was looking for a larger ledge nearby, but there didn’t seem to be any
such thing.

「Mmmm… for now, if you see a place where it looks like I can land, give me a
signal! If there’s nothing, then go down to the bottom, I won’t mind!」
Maple said, looking at the blue panel to check the time.

「What? …G-got it!」

Sally scampered down, but there was no foothold anywhere that Maple could stand on.
It took Sally nearly two hours to get all the way down the cliff.

「I ended up going down… and now I have to send Maple a message again…」
Sally would occasionally tell Maple where she was while she was on the way down.
This time she sent a message to report that she had made it down all the way.
Within a minute of Sally sending the message, a reply came from Maple.
【Keep away for a moment!】

「W-what is she planning…」

After Sally replied that she had understood, she moved away a bit as she had been told and
decided to watch Maple’s movements from the top of a tree.

「Wow… what is that…」

What Sally saw on the cliff was a purple ball about ten meters in diameter.

Under Sally’s watchful eye this thing…

Rolled forward slowly and fell off the cliff.
This thing gradually reduced in size as it fell, and the part of the cliff that it collided with could be
seen turning into an atrocious molten state.
And when this thing made it to the ground, the impact of the fall made a part of it pop, spraying
a sticky purple liquid all around it.

「M-my head is spinni-innngg…」

Maple wobbled out of the center of the mangled sphere.
Sally climbed down from the tree and approached Maple.
That said, she couldn’t get close enough to be right next to her as she was trying to avoid
touching the poisonous liquid.

「So? What was that?」

「That’s, well… it’s a skill called 【Venom Capsule】… it locks the target up in a poison
capsule… and prevents them from coming out.」
She said “locks up”, so its durability must have been considerable.
Although Maple’s manner of speaking wasn’t exactly lively, perhaps because of her head
spinning, Sally could understand that this wasn’t how it was supposed to be used.

「If you don’t have 【Poison Immunity】, your HP will decrease little by little and you’ll
be steadily damaged, so Sally has to be careful when using it, okay?」

「No, I’m not using that.」

As Maple, slowly regaining her energy, was finally able to walk properly, they started walking
towards the bottom of the valley.
The slope still continued on, and there were large drops in places. The dense fog was making it
difficult to see what was ahead, so such drops were very dangerous.

「I can’t see ahead at all…」

「Well, if it’s like this… there might be some missed medals. Watch out for surprise
attacks and, also, the drops, Maple.」

「Yup! Got it.」

However, there wouldn’t be many drops that could reduce Maple’s HP.
For that to happen, she’d have to have a cliff in front of her.
They proceeded cautiously through the dense fog where it was impossible to see even a few
meters ahead.

「Hmm? Are those water sounds…?」

「Huh? …They are! Is there a watering place nearby?」

The two proceeded in the direction of the water sounds.
The bat-type monsters that appeared on the way were clearly small fry.
The level of the enemies in this area did not seem to be that high.

「There it is!」
There was a small river in front of them.
The water seemed to be making the sound as it flowed down from the slightest of elevations
into that crystal-clear river.

「Look, there!」
Maple pointed to the spot. They could barely make out a crack in the rock surface, which turned
out to be a cave.
The two approached and entered it, thinking it might be a dungeon, but found that it was just a
large crevice that wasn’t very deep and had no signs of monsters.

「…Let’s use this place as a base. It’s going to take some time to explore the
valley.」
Even though it was just a crevice, just as Sally said, it was good enough for a base. At least it
would be far better than the top of a tree.

「Yeah. That’s right! And… we should check on the eggs, too.」

「Ah, I see. We need to warm them up, right?」

The two decided to use the cave as their base of operations and get some rest.
And also, they decided to check on the eggs.