Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu Chapter 45

Defense Specialization and Exploring the Coast

The two walked along the coastline.

This was the outer circumference of the current event island.

The island was surrounded by the sea.

And there were several floating islands in the sky.

「There’s a library on one of those islands, right… that place is part of the playing field too, isn’t it?」

Maple muttered as she looked up at the sky.

In the vicinity of this island, though quite a distance away from it, floating in the air, there were, as far as the eye could see, six floating islands. There was no way to know if it was an accurate number, as some might have been hidden behind the mountain where the monster bird was.

In other words, excluding the island with the library Kanade mentioned, there were five more floating islands that could be explored.

「Well, they may have already been explored, though.」

「If we can solve that 【Jigsaw puzzle that can be done in four days】 and clear the dungeon… it shouldn’t take long for two people to finish!」

「We don’t know if there’s a similar dungeon, though.」

「That’s true, but… the fact is, that type of dungeon exists.」

Since Maple and Sally had encountered only combat dungeons, Maple wanted to try a dungeon that could be completed by exploring and solving riddles.

「Whether we can find one depends on our luck, I guess.」

「Yeah.」

The two continued their conversation as they moved along the coastline steadily.

Next to them was just a plain forest, and not a single monster appeared anywhere.

The only changes in the situation were the occasional battles with some biggish crab-type monsters that came out of the sea.

Other than that, all they were doing was walking.

And so, after going forward for an hour.

The sandy beach ended and the ground began to slope.

Step by step, they got farther and farther away from the surface of the sea and were now walking on a cliff.

「Ma-aple, don’t fall down, okay?」

「I-I’ll be fine!」

The road wasn’t at all narrow, and beside it was just a forest.

It wasn’t like they were walking against a wall, so it’d be hard for them to fall unless something really wrong happened.

「Well, you probably won’t die if you do fall, Maple.」

「Still, I won’t be able to climb back up.」

In any case, it meant that she should not fall.

The two walked on for two more hours.

The forest that had been beside them for so long had disappeared, revealing ruins made of mossy, old stone bricks to their right.

There was something about the terrain that made it seem as if there was something there.

A stone brick road stretched out from the ruins and continued in front of them to the tip of a cliff that jutted out towards the sea.

And there, several stones stood out from it, surrounding a pedestal in the middle.

「There’s something here, isn’t there?」

「Unless it’s been searched already.」

The two of them entered the ruins.

They searched every one of the crumbling structures, but they couldn’t find anything.

Even so, the two continued to search for the possible hidden rooms, and finally a change came about.

「Whoo… ps.」

Sally was about to leave the ruins when she pulled her body into cover.

Maple also followed Sally’s lead.

There were three players there.

Compared to the players they’d encountered so far, their equipment seemed to be above average.

Though not even close to the Unique Series, it was still fairly high quality equipment.

Their levels must have matched that, too.

They were pretty close. Any noise could mean getting spotted.

「What do we do now?」

Maple asked, whispering into Sally’s ear.

With her speaking like this, she couldn’t be heard, of course.

「Fighting is fine, as is not fighting… if we do fight… it’s fine for me to do it alone, and it’s fine to do it together with Maple.」

Letting Maple go in alone didn’t seem to be an option.

And then, the players started talking about something interesting.

「Hey, that book, you understand what it means?」

「No, it’s so tattered I can only read fragments… I know it has something to do with water, but the location of the 【Ancient Heart】…」

「Come on, that book is a special item, and if you die, you’re gonna drop it… the sooner you decipher it, the better.」

「I know that.」

Saying that, they walked on to find a place to use as a base.

They didn’t seem to notice the two.

The distance to them was growing.

「Maple. I want to defeat these players… but they’re probably going to try to escape because they have the book. That’s why…」

Sally leaned closer and, whispering very quickly, told Maple the plan.

「…Got it. Will you be okay?」

「Hehehe, of course!」

The players were walking away.

If they got any further away, they would lose sight of them.

The two started their plan.

「Yay!! Medal number fi-ive!!」

A girl’s voice echoed in the ruins.

The three players turned around at the voice and hid in the shadows.

If that were true, then they would like to hunt for it.

However, they didn’t know how strong their opponent was.

Therefore, they decided to observe the owner of the voice.

A girl skipped out of her hiding place.

The girl with a big smile on her face was equipped with a sea-blue muffler and leggings of a darker color than that. Her beautiful equipment would attract attention whether she liked it or not.

However, when it came to her overall look, that was not the case.

All the other equipment was default.

Those were just plain clothes, no equipment.

Probably not even a single modifier.

Even the shoes were clearly the default equipment.

「What do you think?」

「Obviously it’s the default equipment. She’s got nice equipment in some parts… but I’m guessing she’s wearing something she’s gotten from this event. Reminds me of my beginner days. Those ugly mismatches…」

「But… we don’t know if she actually has the medals.」

As the players continued to observe, the girl fiddled with the monitor and pulled something out of her inventory.

That was five medals.

「Tee-hee-hee… second half left, just the second half!」

That must have been her daily routine.

She sat down on a crumbling stone brick and admired the medals one by one, squeezing them tightly and putting them back in her inventory with a happy smile.

「It’s decided. Let’s go.」

「Yeah, let’s crush her.」

The three jumped out of their cover and the girl looked at the three with a start.

The girl stood up and held her dagger at the ready while edging away from them.

「W-what is it?」

「Sorry, okay? We want medals too.」

「…—!」

When the girl was about to run away, the three surrounded her, cutting off her escape route.

The players were gradually closing in on her from three directions, and the girl didn’t have the means to deal with them properly; her legs were shaking and she was restlessly glancing around.

「Get her!」

「「Yeah!」」

The three of them each swung their weapons.

There was no way the dagger swung out desperately could repel that, and the weapons sank into the girl’s body.

The three of them imagined the medals.

However…

There were no medals there.

The girl faded and disappeared as if she were a phantom.

「「「What?」」」

Damage effects burst out of one of the players as if to overwrite the surprise.

Twice, thrice.

He was continuously slashed while he was stunned.

And then, the wounds became fatal.

「Sorry, okay? I want the book too.」

Saying that was the girl who was about to pick up the book that had fallen to the ground; the girl who was hunted because they thought she was weak.

「What? Y-you’re kidding me!」

Because of the impossible situation, he lost his composure and used his skill to slash at her, but she dodged, and it looked as if the sword itself had dodged.

The girl was holding a dagger in each hand.

While she was evading, those daggers cut the arm that slashed at her.

「Guaaaah!?」

In a moment of panic, the girl picked up the book, tucked it away in her inventory and ran off.

「W-wait!」

The man who, scattering damage effects, chased after the girl…

In the next moment he scattered effects like fresh blood from his abdomen and turned into light.

Before he knew it, the girl who was running disappeared and was playing with her daggers at the spot where the man had been hit.

「It’s not good to fall for the same trick twice, you know.」

「What? Huh? W-what is this…」

The remaining one also seemed to be unable to accept the situation and was muttering something as if in delirium.

In such a situation, the girl.

Or rather, Sally, there was no way she could be beaten.

「Bye-bye.」

After a little while, the last one also disappeared into light.

Sally didn’t know where their initial point was, but she knew they wouldn’t be able to get the book back.

「And if you can’t beat me… you can’t defeat Maple.」

Maple came running up to Sally.

「How was it? I did well, right?」

「Yep! Seeing Sally with a different air about her was pretty amusing!」

「You didn’t need to see that part!」

「Hey, do it again! “Yay!” Say that, and skip about!」

「I won’t do that! I won’t! More importantly, why don’t we check the loot?」

「…I’ll let you off the hook thi-is time.」

「…That’s great. …Acting differently than usual sure is embarrassing.」

Sally made up her mind not to do this from now on unless it was a very serious matter.

The two started to check out what they had gotten from this battle.