Chapter 2:

It has been a month since this nightmare began. 2000 people have died, and the first floor hasn't even been cleared!

Maple, Klein, and the rest of their merry little guild watched as a warhammer came down upon the final goblin. His head shattered into thousands of blue shards of code as the dungeon was then cleared. Then, a chest appeared in a brilliant blue light at the end of the room. Klein was the first to open it, when he saw inside a bunch of gold and a puke green tower shield.

"Hey, Maple? You want this?" Klein asked. The two performed a "trade" (more like Maple received the shield and Klein got nothing in return) and Maple examined the equipment. It was definitely better than her current shield, but it looked so much worse. By this point, Maple had obtained a set of Iron Armor and an Iron Tower Shield. She was definitely the party tank!

Despite the superior stats, Maple shook her head. "I'll keep it, but I'm probably just gonna sell it when we get back to Tolbana in the morning." She said with a shrug. That's when a menu appeared in front of her. "Ooh! I gained a level!" She exclaimed, then started putting all of her points into Vitality again. All of this was much to the chagrin of her guildmates.

Klein shrugged, then pulled out his teleport crystal. "Well, your loss, I guess… I'm gonna head to bed. I heard the front liners are planning their attack against Illfang in the morning so I'm getting up bright and early to attend. Anyone coming with?" Klein said to his friends. The other guild members including Maple pulled out their crystals and were warped away to Fuurinkazan's Guild Hall! Unfortunately, there was a glitch in the teleport that caused them to appear outside the hall. This resulted in shock and horror at the sight of abnormally large bees around their home, one of which was wearing a cute little crown. Almost instantly, her highness and the other bees aggro'd onto them.

Almost like it was muscle memory to them, everyone got into position. Maple moved to the front, held her shield out in front of her, and watched as her shield and HP were completely unaffected by the Queen's mighty sting. However when royalty flew upwards, it shot some venom out at Maple directly. She was unable to block it in time, but as it hit her right in the face, she assumed she would be fine. However, as she wiped the venom away from her eyes, Maple could see she was afflicted with a "Poisoned" condition, and was beginning to take damage despite her nigh impregnable defenses.

This made Maple begin to worry, until she discovered this damage was only 5 per second and… well, her HP stat could handle it, to say the least… As she took the damage, the Queen Bee flew in for another stab, only for Maple to counter with one of her own. The Queen was defeated, and a steel ring fell to the floor. She picked it up to add to her inventory before she ran in to help her friends. She took more poison shots from the bees, and eventually something appeared in front of her. Poison Resistance - Minor: Acquired She then noticed she was taking less damage than before, though only by a little bit. "Guys! I just got poison resistance from that fight!" Maple announced.

Klein chuckled a little. "Yeah, probably because you had ten bees and a queen bee swarming you almost the entire fight…" He said with a hint of sarcasm. That's when he noticed Maple examining an item. A Ring. He looked over her shoulder to see the description…

Ring of the Forest Queen Bee

[Vit +6] Auto Recovery: Recovers 10% of maximum health every 10 minutes.

Klein's eyes widened a little. "Yeah, I'd recommend you equip that immediately!" Klein told her, and Maple didn't need telling twice. Plus it had a cute little bee design so she couldn't help but put it on! Maple then used an antidote crystal, and like that she was now cured of her ailment! Klein then stretched a little. "Alright guys and gal, I'm headed to bed… Who's joinin' me?" He asked, not even waiting for a response from the others before he walked inside…

Maple and the other guild members entered the Guild House, and as Maple was falling asleep in her bed, she saw a small screen appear in front of her.

Giant Killing: Acquired

Effect: When 4 of your stats, (other than HP/MP) are lower than your opponent's, your stats other than HP/MP are multiplied by 2

Acquire: Alone, subjugate a monster with four stats (other than HP/MP) higher than your own.

Maple did the math in her head, grinning from ear to ear when she realized what this meant. "128 times 2… 256!" She whispered to herself, resisting the urge to express her excitement with her now sleeping friends. She waved away the menu, and drifted off to sleep. Maple was excited for the next day…

Maple awoke really early that morning. She looked around and saw everybody else was still asleep. "I guess I could grind a little while I wait for the others…" she thought aloud in a whisper. She then walked outside, yawning. However when she walked outside, she saw no monsters. She decided it would be a better idea to just sleep under the tree. After all, it was a beautiful day outside. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming. The sun was nice and warm and there was a tree she could perfectly lay under. Like that, she lie under said tree, hands behind her head, and drifted off to sleep again…

Maple had no idea how long she was asleep, all she knew was that it was suddenly interrupted by a tickling sensation in her armpit. She jolted awake with a squeaky laugh, and as she came to her senses, she realized she was completely covered in disgusting, oversized bugs! Maple let out a scream of terror as she randomly stabbed at the ground with her dagger, missing each time due to her lack of composure and the frantic nature of her stabbing. After a few seconds of that, she then saw a new screen pop up.

Total Defense: Acquired

Multiplies VIT by 2, Required points to increase [STR][AGI][INT] increased by multiplied by 3

Acquire: Receive attacks continuously for an hour while dealing and receiving no damage.

Maple smiled for a moment when suddenly she heard a voice behind her. "Hey, Maple! You okay? At first I thought I heard you laughing and then you screamed and-" Klein spoke, then immediately stopped when he saw the bugs.

"Y-Yeah… I fell asleep out here. But look! I got a new skill!" Maple exclaimed, and showed him Total Defense. Klein read the effects and his eyes widened.

"Wait so you now have a permanent double to your already absurd Vitality stat?"

"...Quadruple." Maple replied simply. Klein looked like his eyes were about to fall out.

"...Pardon?!"

"Well, last night after the Bee fight, I got this skill too!" She said, and showed him her Giant Killing.

"So… you get two double bonuses to your Vitality stat… at all times, because you only put points into Vitality? Am I getting that correct?" Klein replied, and Maple nodded. "And on top of all of that, you got a ring that gives you back health over the course of ten minutes…" Klein added, and Maple giggled a little as she nodded. She could also see how ridiculous this was… and she loved it!

"Yep! Pretty cool, huh?" She asked Klein in response. Klein just went over to the bugs, not saying a word, and started slashing away at them… He was already too tired for this.

"It doesn't help that you also have that 'Shield Attack' skill from beating mobs with your shield out of instinct a week ago…" Klein simply said. Maple's eyes widened. "W-Wait! You're right!" she exclaimed, and pulled up the skill.

Shield Attack

Effect: A shield attack with power dependent on VIT. Knockback effect (small).

Maple's eyes sparkled, especially when she read the number of her vitality.

Maple LV 16 Great Shielder

HP: 200/200

[STR] 0

[AGI] 0

[INT] 0

[VIT] 512 (128 x2 x2)

[DEX] 0

—-

The amount of damage she could deal with one bash from her shield was absolutely nuts to her. On top of that her Vitality was far greater than her HP! Over double in fact! And when she looked at her guild member's stats, none of them even exceeded 100! That's when the other guild members came out, and after the bugs were beaten, they headed toward Tolbana along the path. Maple led the group so that any mobs would attack her invincible avatar as opposed to her vastly squishier friends.

Sure enough, a large pack of Dire Wolves would lunge directly at Maple and bite her. However, her HP wouldn't even decrease by a single point while the other members cut down the mobs! As this plan advanced, Maple saw yet another skill appear in front of her!

Provocation: Acquired

Effect: Draws the Monster's attention to one point. Cooldown Duration is 3 minutes.

Acquire: Steal more than 10 monster's attention at once.

As she was reading this, the monsters around her were vanquished. She decided to hide this one for now, since Klein was already exhausted from her never-ending list of skills. He then used his signature sword skill Reaver to cut through the last 4 Wolves instantly. The battle was won, and Klein gained a level up from that. He allocated his points, and the push continued.

They arrived in Tolbana, where a man named Diavel was already telling other players of the plan to take down Illfang, the Kobold Lord! He shared with each of the present players a guide book written by Beta Testers, which contained useful info like good locations to farm XP, gather resources, and even how to defeat Illfang. Klein, Maple, and the rest of the guild stood to the side. Klein whispered to the others. "You guys just wanna go gather more resources?" Klein asked his friends.

Maple looked a little surprised by his words, and so did the rest of his friends. He continued. "Look, as awesome as fighting this boss would seem, I don't want to take any risks just yet." He started, then pulled up a menu showing the guild's collective resources. "We don't have a lot of materials for new weapons and armor, our funds are low after we bought Maple that new armor she's wearing. Let's face it guys, our best bet would be to just continue grinding and come back at a later time." Klein explained. The group agreed this would be for the best… So, Fuurinkazan would head off to go find more dungeons while the first floor was cleared without them…

As Maple laid in bed, she saw she had a notification in her inbox. It told of how two players, Kirito and Asuna, saved everybody and took down Illfang, with Kirito dealing the final blow. When she read the name, she smiled. At least Kirito was doing well… She looked at Klein, who was in his own bed, already asleep after countless tiring hours of grinding new materials for the guild… As Maple drifted off to sleep, she wondered how Risa was doing, as well as her mother and father….

"Link Start!"