The four of them entered the first layer guild home and sat down facing each other so they could talk.
Sally had run back to erase her posting on the message board before coming to the guild home, so they would not be taking in anyone else.
These kinds of talks were usually handled by Sally. She would ask them questions and receive information about them.
The white-haired player’s name was Yui and the black-haired player’s name was Mai.
They were both level 4 and neither had a single skill.
Their weapons were giant sledgehammers that were at least 1.5 x their height.
“So… you two put all your points into one place?”
Maple asked them.
“Yes. Both I and my sister put them into ‘STR.’”
The reason that these two put everything into ‘STR’ was that they were physically weak and lacked muscles in reality. And so they wanted to move around as much as they could inside of the game.
“Hmm… That’s kind of similar to you, isn’t it Maple?”
“Ahaha…I guess.”
Just like these two, Maple was not fixated on what would be advantageous within the game.
That was why they did not recognize Maple, they had not put all their points into one place because they wanted to be like her.
“So Maple… You are also like us?”
“Yes, I am. I put everything into ‘VIT’!”
The two were very surprised by this.
Because they had never seen anyone who had done this successfully.
“Well…I’m not sure that Maple is…the best example…”
Perhaps Maple secretly agreed, because she did not deny it.
“What do you think? Sally? Can I bring them in?”
“Yes. I think so… There won’t be any demerits to their ‘STR’ build as long as you are there… There shouldn’t a problem once they can bring their level up within the month, anyway.”
With Sally’s approval, it was decided that Yui and Mai would join as members.
Maple registered both of them and so they were now a part of Maple Tree.
Now that this was done, they wanted to broaden the two girls’ range of movement to include the third layer, which is where Maple Tree was now active.
“Are you free today?”
“Uh, um, yes. I am. You’re free too, aren’t you, sister?”
“Yes, I am free as well.”
“Then come with me and Maple and we can head to the third layer together.”
“WHAAA!?”
“WHAAA!?”
The two reacted with surprise, but Maple and Sally were already on their way out of the town.
Once they were outside of the town, Sally turned around and looked towards Maple.
“Maple. The usual.”
Following her request, Maple called out Syrup, much to the surprise of the two girls. Then they got on its back and flew up into the sky.
“Don’t fall off.”
Maple warned them, but the two were so shocked that they were unable to react to anything she said.
“They are still very early in the game… It will take a while for them to get used to this.”
Getting used to Maple that is. It was the first thing that every new member of Maple Tree needed to do.
The four quickly moved on to the boss room in the second layer and opened the doors to go inside.
“Uhhh… If we die, please forgive us.”
Mai groaned. It was clear that she did not want to be a burden to the others.
“Ah…that won’t happen.”
“‘Dedicated Affection’!”
Maple shouted. Her hair then changed color and angel wings sprouted from her back.
The two girls froze, their thought process had completed halted.
They were no longer able to comprehend what was happening.
“I’ll deal with this. You sit down and watch.”
“Understood! Do your best!”
Maple said and then took the two girls to a corner of the room.
“…! Are you sure!? Sally is going to fight by herself! But, that’s a boss, right?”
Yui asked as she got closer to Maple.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. After all, I’ve never once seen Sally take any damage.”
“….What?”
“….What?”
“It’s starting now.”
Sally had called out Oboro in the direction that Maple was pointing. She was now running directly towards the deer.
There was no chance that the same attacks would be effective on Sally. She twisted her body and lowered her head as she dodged the deer’s attacks and bridged the gap between them.
“Oboro! ‘Shadow Clone’!”
As Sally shouted this, she split into five versions of herself. Each Sally ran separately from each other and charged at the deer.
Even Maple was surprised by this.
“I didn’t know that Oboro was capable of doing that now…”
“Sa-Sally is so amazing! How, how is she even dodging that!? And now she’s cloned herself!”
Yui was very excited as she talked to Maple.
“Who knows…? Even I have no idea…”
Even as they talked like this, the attack boost aura that surrounded Sally was getting bigger and bigger.
She was attacking with magic and daggers, in addition to the flames of Oboro. It only took a little longer than ten minutes for the deer to fall.
Now that the fight was over, the three of them ran up to Sally.
“Oboro’s advanced quite a lot, huh.”
“Yeah. Let’s hurry up and take care of the second layer boss.”
The four of them quickly entered the second layer and went straight to the dungeon.
“I won’t be fighting this time.”
“Mm. Okay.”
It was decided that Maple would fight the second layer’s boss by herself.
Yui and Mai looked worried when Sally declared this.
It was not surprising. Maple’s equipment was a large shield, and they had heard from her that she had put everything into ‘VIT.’
They understood the defense capabilities of ‘Dedicated Affection,’ but they still had not seen anything that would suggest Maple was strong in terms of combat.
Oblivious to their feelings on the matter, Maple opened the doors to the boss room and casually walked inside.
“Sally, don’t you think that you should go and help her…”
“I, I agree.”
“Hmm. What a refreshing reaction.”
This might just have been the first time Sally saw another player be worried about Maple.
That was how famous Maple was. Mainly as a threat.
“Did you think my fighting was amazing?”
“Uh…y-yes.”
“Uh…y-yes.”
Inhuman ability to evade. Powerful skills.
The battle with the deer was so amazing, that if it was viewed by 100 people, all of them would agree.
“In just a moment you two are going to see a fight that will seem ridiculous and should not be possible in this world.”
Sally told them to concentrate hard on what they were about to see. Then she herself looked towards the walking Maple.
These two did now know it yet, but they would in just a few dozen seconds.
“Sally did tell me to show them everything… Syrup!”
Maple called Syrup out and blew it up to a gigantic size before making it float in the air.
All the while, she was being attacked by the boss but received zero damage.
“‘Hydra’, ‘Oozing Chaos,’ Syrup ‘Soul Canon’!”
The three-headed hydra, the monster’s mouth, and the shining beam all smashed into the Tree Boss.
While the boss was recoiling, Maple had now reached it. She pulled out her great shield, even as she continued to nullify all damage.
‘Bizarre Eater’ gouged at its trunk. The bosses HP was falling rapidly by the onrush of special attacks.
But even then, Maple’s attacks would not stop.
“‘Predator’! ‘Dedicated Affection’!”
Two monsters appeared beside Maple and immediately bit into the boss.
Angel wings sprouted from Maple’s back, protecting the monsters.
The boss let out a great cry and thrashed with its branches and fired magic attacks at Maple and the monsters, but all of it was meaningless.
“‘Savagery’!”
A black pillar of light rose from Maple before materializing into a giant monster.
It spat fire, it ground with its teeth, it tore with its claws, until the boss was in tatters.
It was a one-sided assault. It was no longer easy to tell just which of them was the boss.
“Hahh… It’s done, it’s done.”
“Maple. You can return to your original form now.”
“Ahh. Sorry, sorry.”
Maple popped out of the monster’s stomach and then it disappeared.
“Okay, let’s go to the third layer now!”
“Yes, lets.”
Maple began to walk on ahead as soon as Sally replied.
Sally looked towards Yui and Mai and said:
“She’s the strongest in our party. See? I bet I look pretty normal now, right?”
“…”
“…”
Both of them were unable to process what they had just witnessed and could only stand there with vacant expressions.
“But you two and Maple have something in common. So may you two will one day…become just like her.”
Sally suggested as she took Yui and Mai’s hands and led them towards the third layer.
Please understand that Yui and Mai are twins in the real world, so their names can be confusing. Yes.