Defense Specialization and the Eighth Floor

As the boss was defeated, the mist slowly cleared, and the Demon King’s Power floating in the air became clearly visible. Maple carefully stored it in her inventory to ensure it wouldn’t be forgotten.

“Alright! Demon King’s Power V!”

“Nice fight. Now, just one more to go.”

“We’re finally going to face the Demon King.”

“I’m getting nervous…”

At this point, Maple Tree only had one challenge opportunity left. If they failed, they would have to endure the boss rush all over again. It was no wonder Mai and Yui were feeling the pressure.

“First, we need to gather the last Demon King’s Power. Leave that to me!”

“Yes!”

“Good luck, Maple!”

“What do you think about us gathering some extra Demon King’s Power from areas we can handle in our spare time? We can’t do the Fifth Floor, but it might speed up any retries if we need to go through it again.”

“That sounds like a great idea!”

“We don’t have any other pressing areas to explore, so…”

“We appreciate the help!”

With Mai and Yui, along with Chrome to protect them, they could form a solid team even against powerful bosses.

“Now that we’ve settled the plan, let’s head back quickly. Sally must be exhausted too.”

“As soon as we’re out, I’ll use Atrocity!”

“Yeah…”

Sally, who had been keeping her fear at bay through sheer focus during the boss fight, seemed utterly drained. The team, with Sally in tow, boarded the magic circle and left the boss room.

—

Having successfully completed their exploration of the Sixth Floor, Maple and Sally left the guild home in the horror area, with Sally finally able to relax on a sofa, looking visibly relieved.

“Ah, no more horror for a while, please…”

“Hehe, I think we won’t see any more of that for a while.”

The developers had designed a large, thematic area, so it was unlikely they’d create another similar floor anytime soon, aside from the overarching Tenth Layer.

“I hope the Demon King doesn’t summon anything weird.”

“Ah, like the bosses from each area! That could happen.”

“Right? Even if not, I bet he’ll summon something. After all, he’s a king.”

“And he probably has a lot of subordinates.”

They could only hope there wouldn’t be any undead involved. If there were, they’d prioritize taking them down to minimize the psychological strain.

“But let’s put that aside for now… The important thing is the Eighth Floor!”

“Yes! I’ve got my diving suit ready!”

They had already confirmed that the diving suit they used in the Eighth Floor was still functional. Having already explored the deep sea of the Eighth Floor, their diving suit had been sufficiently upgraded for a full exploration.

“Shall we teleport over then? They’re waiting for us.”

“Yeah! Let’s go!”

The two of them moved from one guild home to another. After completing the teleportation and stepping into the lobby, Kanade noticed them and waved with a smile.

“Hey there. It’s finally time for the Eighth Floor, huh?”

“Yeah! How’s it going for you, Kanade?”

“Of course, I’ve had plenty of time. There are still some interesting places and some areas where I can’t fight alone left to explore.”

Kanade’s power varied greatly depending on the books he had stored. Since he could only use his spells once, he had yet to fully recover after using up his main skills during the large-scale PvP battle.

“I prepared for the PvP battle for a long time, so collecting similar skills again will require some luck.”

“With the Demon King battle coming up, we need you to conserve as many skills as possible.”

“That’s the plan. That’s why I’ve been waiting for you two.”

“Is there a puzzle in the Eighth Floor?”

“Yes, there is. I already know how to solve it, but… it wouldn’t be much fun if I just gave you all the answers, right?”

With that, Kanade pulled out a bundle of notes from his inventory.

“You can read these hints even underwater. How about using them to solve the puzzles? I can give more detailed hints if needed.”

“Sounds good, Sally!”

“Okay, let’s give it a try.”

“Alright, let’s start with the first question I prepared. Hehe, it might be fun to solve each puzzle and progress accordingly.”

Even without going to the site, Kanade had already documented several puzzles. They started with a tutorial in the unrestricted environment of the guild home.

As Maple and Sally looked at the paper Kanade handed them, they narrowed their eyes at the amount of information.

“What is this…? It’s like a cipher.”

“Exactly. The basic one. If you decode the text, you’ll find the answer right there.”

“Hmm…”

“Where did this cipher come from?”

“From a book I collected for research. It might be a bit tough to find from scratch.”

Kanade could remember everything after just a glance, but that wasn’t the case for Maple and Sally. That’s why they had the notes. Even if they couldn’t memorize everything, they could decode the text with the cipher.

“Later, there’ll be more complex transformations, but… for now, just try reading it.”

Maple and Sally alternated between the cipher and the encoded text, gradually decoding it.

“Um, this matches with this, so…”

“Yeah, and this one corresponds to that… so it forms a sentence.”

As they decoded the text, they realized it gave directions on how to navigate the dungeon.

“Did you get it?”

“I think so!”

“Then let’s head to the dungeon. We can check our answers on-site, okay?”

“Got it!”

“Shall we fly over there with the flying machines?”

“Yeah, it’s not too far.”

Leaving the guild home, Maple and Sally flew over the water. The Eighth Floor was located at the edge of the Tenth Layer. The calm water stretched to the horizon, with remnants of old structures occasionally peeking out.

They stopped at one of these structures, landing on it with their flying machines. The building had weathered significantly, and there were no windows—just open holes revealing stairs leading downward.

“From here on, we’ll be underwater, so make sure to put on your diving suits before going down the stairs.”

“Alright!”

“Is there going to be any fighting?”

“Not immediately. I don’t think there’s any opponent here that would be too difficult for you two. Plus, there’s no piercing attacks here.”

“That’s reassuring!”

“Then it might be a good idea to activate Self-Offering Love in advance.”

“I agree. It’s been a while since our last underwater exploration, and we’ll need to check our puzzle solutions too.”

Deciding to eliminate the risk of losing a battle with Self-Offering Love, the three of them suited up in their diving gear.

“Okay, “Self-Offering Love!”

With angelic wings extending from her back, Maple completed her preparations, and the group ventured underwater.

Inside the sunken building, they soon found that the stairs leading down ended abruptly. Instead, they discovered writing on the wall.

“Hey, Sally! Isn’t this it?”

“It is. It matches the text we decoded earlier. So… we need to turn our backs to the stairs and push the floor on the left.”

“Let’s test it and see if we got it right.”

“Yeah!”

Swimming over, Maple pushed the designated spot on the floor, which sank with a loud click, eventually revealing a passage leading to the lower floor.

“We got it right!”

“Nice job, Maple. So this is how it works…”

“It’s still just the basics. You two should be able to progress quickly through this.”

“But if it’s this simple, Kanade, you could have solved it yourself, right? It’s not like it was a difficult puzzle.”

Kanade had mentioned that he already knew the answers before coming here, which explained why this basic cipher decoding felt straightforward.

“Sure, if it were just the puzzle. But the reason this place hasn’t been cleared is different.”

Kanade smiled wryly as he spoke.

“The boss is tough.”

“Ah…”

“Hehe, that’s right. So I’m counting on you two for the fight. I’ll be relying on you.”

“Okay.”

“Leave it to us! We’ll take it down for sure!”

“I’ll provide support, of course. Let’s head down to the boss room at the bottom first. We don’t want to spend too much time exploring, or we’ll have less time to fight.”

“Right, because it’s underwater!”

“Let’s ask Kanade about the boss as we descend.”

“I don’t know too much about it, though. It got me pretty quickly, which is why it’s still here.”

Having already solved the puzzle, Maple, Sally, and Kanade quickly made their way down the sunken building, eager to reach the boss room.