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

Defense Specialization and the Tower’s 8th Floor

The next day, the two of them prepared, just as they said they would. It was time to finally step foot into the 8th floor.

"I wonder what it’ll be like?"

"I guess we’ll find out."

They stood side by side and took a step forward. Then the 7th floor’s magic circle teleported them to the 8th floor.

As the light surrounding them started to fade, the saw that they were surrounded by a thick forest.

It reminded them of the jungles of a previous event. There were no clear roads here. In front of them and behind them, it was the same forest that spread out.

"Uhh...which way should we go?"

"The direction we were facing when we teleported...maybe?"

Neither of them was very confident. But there was no point in standing around. And so they started to walk forward.

Then it happened.

"!?"

"Sally!?"

She could see the effect of ’Empty Shell’ being activated from Sally. That was proof that Sally had been hit with an attack that would put her HP below 0.

Sally spun around. Her two daggers were unsheathed and she looked sharply towards the trees.

"De-, ’Dedicated Affection’!"

While a little late, Maple created the protective field around Sally.

For a while, the two of them stood back to back and watched their surroundings. But there was no follow-up attack.

Sally put away her daggers and sighed.

"Hahh... Thank you, Maple."

"Never mind that. Are you okay?"

"I think so... Ahh. I couldn’t even sense anything."

"Was it a trap?"

"I don’t know. It’s too early to say. But I don’t think I could have dodged that attack..."

"Yes, leave it to me! I’ll protect you!"

As long as Dedicated Affection was activated, Sally would be fine, even if the attack came again.

She barely thought about it as most attacks could be easily dodged, but Sally would actually die if she was hit by an attack twice.

"Still, I don’t like how one-sided this is. Let’s find out who is doing this."

"I’ll be on the lookout too!"

Maple said as she developed her weapons so that she could attack at a moment’s notice. As they advanced like this, monkey monsters started to throw explosive fruits at them, and roots popped out of the ground. However, they were all powerless against Maple.

"It would be a lot easier to explore without these monsters here..."

As Sally was much more cautious than usual, they were unable to relax. And since the monsters were all attacking from far away, they could not hit them back.

"The monsters keep running away."

"Yeah...that’s true. And I don’t get any experience. Hmm. It’s annoying that I can’t go and cut them."

They didn’t know what the boss was yet, and had no reason to attack for now. So they ignored the enemies and searched for the boss room.

And then, the two of them discovered an old stone monument that was covered in vines.

"Ah, Sally! There’s something here."

"There’s no magic circle, so it’s probably not for a boss room. But I guess we should take a look."

As they got closer to it, they saw that there were words written on it.

"A path shall appear before the person who defeats the cunning lord of the forest."

"Is that the boss?"

"Probably."

"Then we better defeat it...!?"

As they were talking, Maple suddenly shot forward and her face smashed into the stone monument.

Someone had attacked her from behind.

Sally quickly looked behind her and saw that there was a giant chameleon stuck to a tree. Its tongue now retracted into its mouth and then it turned invisible.

"That thing...!"

"Agh. What? Did you see something?"

"Yes. A chameleon. It’s probably the thing that first attacked me. Also, this is just a guess, but I think we’re already in the boss room. Or maybe the entire field is the boss room?"

"So, does that mean we have to chase after it?"

"Probably. But! It turned invisible. This is going to be very hard... That attack seemed like it was only an introduction."

With so many trees around them, the effectiveness of Maple’s ranged weapons were halved. Sally was also unable to sense the chameleon’s presence, which meant she couldn’t dodge its attacks. So she could not use her speed to scout the area as usual.

"Now, let’s go chase after it."

"We’ll have to test different things! ...Zzz."

Maple said excitedly, and then immediately closed her eyes and leaned against the stone monument as she fell asleep.

"...Maple? ...Ah, ’Sleep’!"

It was a powerful status effect that was deactivated when you took damage, but made you immobile for 20 seconds.

It was probably an effect of the previous attack that they hadn’t been able to see.

And then, as if they had been waiting for this to happen, the monster monkeys started to throw the explosive fruits down on their heads.

"Cunning...huh. It’s a good thing we have Dedicated Affection..."

However, Maple wouldn’t take any damage like this. That meant ’Sleep’ would not be deactivated.

"I guess I’ll just wait."

Sally watched Maple sleep comfortably and tried to think of a way to catch the chameleon.