342 Part 2

“‘First of the Blade – Kagerou’!”

As if to put an end to the fight before it tried something else, Kasumi teleported again and swung her blades. The manta ray had no way of resisting, and it vanished into light. Kasumi caught the clump of water that remained. Then she called Haku and landed gracefully on top of its head.

“…It looked like you changed your job to Acrobat.”

“Hehe. You were really moving like a game character.”

“Yeah. It took me a while to get used to moving like that… But the skill that I acquired greatly reduced the cool down time for my skills for a fixed time. The demerit is that if I don’t kill something within that time, all of my skills will go into cool down mode.”

“Ohh… Well, that is difficult to use… But it’s strong enough to make up for it. So all that moving in the air is only possible because of that skill?”

“There are other transport skills that can be used to hop around.”

“Th-there is something suspicious about it…”

“I’m just glad everyone is getting stronger. It makes helping you all feel more rewarding.”

“Hmm. Am I being too serious with my choices then?”

“Hehe. I think you’re fine just the way you are, Chrome.”

“I agree.”

It was hard to tell if Chrome was satisfied by these answers.

Maple and Sally were dashing through the field on their horse. Maple was grabbing onto Sally with one hand so that she didn’t fall. Her other hand was carrying a gatling gun, which shot down groups of fish.

“This is like horseback archery…”

“One hundred percent accuracy! Not really…but I get a few if I shoot a hundred times!”

“Maybe your aim is starting to improve? Though, it’s kind of strange that a shield-wielder is getting better at shooting.”

“Hehe. I’ll be like Wilbert one day!”

“Haha. No, I doubt that is possible. Anyway, as for the ones you missed… ‘Cyclone Cutter’!”

Sally said. And then the fish that managed to escape Maple’s guns were chopped up by wind blades.

“Yes, got them.”

“That’s amazing!”

Holding the reins of a horse at this speed while attacking monsters was no easy task. And so Sally had to be careful that they didn’t crash into any obstacles while she attacked. She even made sure that there weren’t any dropped materials they had missed.

“I’ll make up for what you lack. Still, try to improve your aim, okay?”

“Okay!”

They continued to ride like this, and were able to encounter a number of large monsters including sharks, manta rays, octopuses and squids. However, all of them attacked with water alone, and were not much of a threat.

In fact, Sally realized that there was no need to dismount from the horse in order to kill them, and so she just had Maple shoot them continuously as she made the horse run at full speed. Like this, they dodged the attacks while Maple acted as fixed artillery.

“Hmm. It’s nice when we don’t have to get down.”

“It’s amazing. We can dodge them while on the horse.”

“Their attacks are quite simple and easy to read.”

And so they repeated this process of killing them and picking up the dropped items. While large monsters were counted just the same as smaller ones, they discovered that they were guaranteed to acquire the items that Izu wanted, and so they prioritized those monsters so that other players wouldn’t get to them first.

“It’s still the first day. It will take some time before we know what places they spawn the most.”

“Then it will be easier to gather them?”

“Hmm. But then again, there will be more people, which means more competition, so I can’t be sure.”

“Oh, right. Then we better find a place that no one else goes!”

“That would be best. I guess that’s why we’re running around like this now.”

One of the reasons they had chosen the 7th layer was because they had a perfect method of transportation they could use. Furthermore, the 7th layer was larger than the others, which made the competition less fierce, just like Sally had said.

That being said, anyone could easily get a horse, and so there were obviously other players who were doing the same thing as Sally.

“Ah.”

“Oh, it’s Sally. How are you?”

A pair of riders appeared in front of them. It was Frederica and Drag from ‘Congregation of the Holy Swords.’

“Mm. We’re doing alright, I guess. We’re just taking our time while searching for a good hunting ground. How about you?”

“Pretty much the same. We hunted some monsters other than fish, but not much.”

Frederica turned to look at Drag, and he started to give his impression.

“The monsters during the last event were more satisfying to hunt. These new ones barely put up a fight.”

“They are really weak…”

It was something that both Maple and Sally had felt as well. The monsters in the previous event had definitely been designed to be on the tougher side, but even without that comparison, these new monsters were very underwhelming in terms of HP and attack patterns.

“Well, that’s something we can all agree on.”

“Yes, yes. Anyway, we’re going around and trying to find out if there is any hidden element to all of this.”

The Congregation of Holy Swords had many members. If all of them were out hunting, and they didn’t find anything, then there was a good chance that there was something still hidden.

“Hmm. But we still don’t have any information that we can trade. I’m not lying.”

“I guess you were wrong about this one, Frederica.”

“It’s Maple and Sally. I was so sure they would find something quickly.”

“Well, we’ll contact you if we do find something! Won’t we, Sally?”

“I suppose. Ah, of course, as part of a trade.”

“I’ll have something good prepared for you. Look forward to it, okay? Goodbye then.”

“See you later. Oh, and I’ll be looking forward to fighting you in the future.”

“I won’t lose!”

“Right. Neither will we.”

Frederica waved a small hand at them and then followed after Drag, who moved on ahead. After a while, they were completely out of sight.

“Information, huh… That being said, we really haven’t found any leads.”

“Yes. Maybe we should try exploring a different area?”

“…? Do you mean going to a different layer?”

Maple asked, but Sally shook her head. It seemed like they wouldn’t find anything new even if they continued to run around the field. In that case, perhaps they should move to a different area.

“A dungeon. Why don’t we try entering a few dungeons?”

“Ah, I see. There might be something different there!”

“Exactly. And one time might not be enough, so we’ll have to try several times.”

“Then it should be a place where the boss is easy to reach.”

“And if it turns out that there is nothing, we can return to hunting sharks. This event has only just started, so we need to get an idea of how it all works.”

“Yes!”

Maple and Sally had already finished a number of dungeons on the 7th layer. And so they chose one that would allow them to reach the boss easily, and then they dashed towards it on horseback.