340 Part 3

Maple slowly opened her eyes again. Her body still felt like it was floating, but she could now see her surroundings clearly. The scene she had seen with Sally when they were underground had looked like a night sky.

But this was different. It was like she was floating in the middle of the night sky. Well, the real sky wasn’t like this. But she didn’t care about such things now. The lights seemed to fly right in front of her eyes, as if she had cut out the stars as they were seen from the ground, and jumped into them.

As she basked in the sensation of floating, her back pressed into Sally’s.

“I’m almost surprised that I was right.”

“You just jumped towards the sky without warning. No one would discover it by accident.”

“I don’t know about that. I bet you would have just exploded your weapons and flew here.”

“Ahahahaha…”

“So you’re not going to refute that…”

Sally looked at Maple over her shoulder as she grabbed one of the lights and then threw it.

“Hehe. You can make shooting stars here.”

“You can grab them!”

Maple then copied Sally and grabbed one of the lights and tried throwing it.

“Hmm. It’s like we’re inside a miniature version of space?”

“Ah, that’s a good way to put it!”

And so Maple and Sally continued to throw the grains of light as they floated. They then sat together on the moon and gazed at the stars.

“Ah, that’s right. I asked Izu to make some food for us.”

“Oh, really!”

“Yeah, give me a second. That being said…”

When Sally took the basket out of her inventory, it started floating up and nearly got away. Maple frantically tried to grab it and nearly flew away herself. But Sally held her and they were eventually able to take out the food and drinks from the basket.

“Cheers!’

“Yes, cheers.”

“Mmmm, it’s so good! …There’s something about today that reminds of when I first started this game.”

“Could it be the strong enemy in the snowy mountain or the meal under the night sky? Oh, and also my skill?”

Sally said, and then Maple’s eyes widened.

“Ehehe. Were you thinking the same thing, Sally?”

“Yes… It feels so nostalgic and I was thinking back.”

“Of course, Izu’s cooking is definitely an improvement.”

“That’s true.”

Sally held a glass cup in one hand as she used the other to catch and play with a flying star.

“Oh, next time, I’ll be the one who finds a beautiful location, okay! But since the event is starting, it might take some time.”

“Well, I’ll be waiting.”

“Yes! Keep your expectations high!”

As Sally looked at the sky full of stars, she let go of the light she was holding and drained the last of her drink.

“I wish this could last forever.”

“Yes! Yes! It’s so pretty!”

“Hehe… It really is.”

That being said, they could not stay here forever. So once the basket was empty, they decided to get some souvenirs for the other guild members like they had promised, and then return.

“These will be a good souvenir.”

Sally said as she grabbed a few stars. They then turned into items as they entered a bottle.

“It’s called ‘A Pinch of Stardust.’”

“Let’s get enough for everyone before we leave! …Or will they disappear?”

“I think it should be fine.”

And so after acquiring souvenirs for the other guild members, they concluded their last tour before the start of the event.

After some time passed, the details of the event were revealed.

This time there wouldn’t be a special field, but every layer would have monsters added to it for a limited time. And depending on how many you killed, you would gain early access to certain 8th layer features, and everyone would receive medals.

Upon seeing these details, Maple Tree were quite relieved, as they realized that there was no need to stress over this event.

“There aren’t even rankings for the guilds. It’s just about how many monsters each player can kill.”

“Well, I’m quite curious about the materials you can get from these added monsters. As this event is strongly related to the 8th layer, there might be some really good materials.”

“It’s nice that we can just hunt them while leveling up. Besides, if we all get medals, everyone will be able to stay motivated.”

“All the recent events had really high difficulty… So it’s nice to have one that is more laid back. And I’ll probably be able to collect more magic books.”

“Let’s do our best, sister!”

“Ye-yes! I want to kill as many as we can. Especially since I learned a new skill…”

“I guess I won’t have to figure out how to deal with the other guilds until the next event then… Phew, that’s a relief.”

If she was being honest, Sally would have a lot of trouble if she was thrust into a PVP event at this point. She realized it during the fight in the snowy mountain. Even if she felt like she was fully prepared, there were many ways that everything could fall apart. She had to find some more skills that would help her deal with these problems.

“Maybe I’ll find something on the 8th layer…I don’t know.”

“It’s been awhile since we had an event like this. But at least I have ‘Savagery’ now!”

At this point, the players on the 7th layer were used to seeing Maple running wild while using Savagery. As there was no longer any point in hiding it, it was the perfect skill to make up for her lack of mobility, and would allow her to dash through the field and kill monsters.

“Alright then, let’s all do our best in the event!”

While they were allowed to cooperate, they would not be as efficient if they stayed together while moving. It would be best for everyone to go out on their own and kill any monsters they found. No one in Maple Tree had any objections to this, and so it was decided.

“Besides, one monster is one monster, so it might be best to go to a layer where there are fewer players. And like Izu said, maybe it’s the materials that are important.”

As the level of the monsters would be different depending on the layer, it was best to go to the place that fit you the best.

“However, I do wonder why the event is so long. Do they just want to give us a lot of time…”

Kasumi then paused. Perhaps there was no point in worrying about that.

But there was something that she was reminded of. It was about what had happened to Maple during the cow hunting event.

Maple herself, and Mai and Yui, who didn’t know about it, watched the other five with puzzledment as they whispered to each other. Regardless, their morale was quite high.

“Let’s do your best, Mai and Yui!”

“Yes!”

“So we can get more medals…”

The other members looked like they were both happy and scared as they listened to this. And while they wondered if Maple would go off course, they decided to do some final leveling up before the start of the event.