15] Fourth Layer

A month after the event, NWO's 4th Layer opened, with a team made of Me, Sioux, Fae, Hektor and Schwartz, the Boss, which I suspect would force Maple to rely on her teammates to defeat, was done in quickly. The Elenium guys messaged us, telling they beat the layer boss… using their newly crafted guns…. Alright, I guess? As our newly expanded guild roster were all pouring in quickly, we went and opened the Guild home's access in the Layer and went to explore our own ways.

Sioux POV

The layer was one of a Nighttime Feudal Akitsushima, just like those popular Animes, Devil Slayer and Saga of Rudy-Chan. Walking around, the tag allowing those who were part of guilds in the top 10 ranking of the last event to get until the third gate, many were already looking for what is necessary to raise its rank. I do my search, but one thing Pixie and I share is liking Europan designs more, she is into Great war to modern stuff, I like those Medieval themes and old-time mythology more.

Seeing the shops, the bars, and miscellaneous buildings I can enter, all on a basic looking around way, after that, to the wild areas you can explore I went. The monsters are as always, a lot of the same ones, just with better stats and some even got a new skill this time. Going around, looking for interesting or unusual sights, it leads me to a worn and clearly unused path, uphill even, smells like at least some POI or a minor dead end at worst, so up I go.

A few Minutes of walking ended in an open area, small, and the sole thing there was a Parish lit in an abnormal way by moonlight, since it's clearly something where you can get something from there, cautiously, my hands open the door to inside, the inside of this parish was empty, the furniture and layout was like any such building would be, but something was here, the ambiance or something made this place feel… ominous.

Spear in hands and a Buckler shield in my right arm, not the most orthodox, but I feel better doing a bash strike with my right side, so it's more of a taste or preference of mine. Exploring this quiet building, the few noises did little with not creeping me out, whatever happened, this is a place where players would build some very scary and creepy backstories for. Rather than distract myself with that, I put myself to explore this place.

In a rather large internal courtyard, just before what I suppose is this Parish's Cemetery zone, a figure stood guard, a form fitting blue suit, with armor pieces in some areas, namely the shoulders, forearms, and lower legs. The imposing red Spear made it clear; this Human looking NPC is a Boss. No soon I step in, he glares at me and spear already in combat stance. I hate such gung-ho enemies. (A.N: In most YS timelines, Mary Sioux sneezes.)

Holy crap, this bastard is though, hits hard, and damned be if this Spear of his isn't busted, forcing me to time a perfect parry just so his SURE HIT attack fails? Annoying, half an hour already and his HP is still at 60%, while I had to spend ten HP potions already, at this rate, I will die first. Steadily, teeth gritted, the fight continues.

After some though fighting, having had to learn every damn pattern of this bastard's attacks, his HP was one hit from being done for, so it's obvious now he was being a real pain in my ass to deal that one hit, EVA rose, zero VIT, and his strikes would skewer me and kill me if I let his flurry of strikes hit me even once. Ah, how annoying!

"YOU'RE A PAIN IN THE ASS!"

[GROUND POUND]

Letting him make a strike right behind one of the breakable Pillars, which would get his spear stuck for a short moment, enough for this one attack, pounded him in the head, earning a Critical hit, and what I swear is a fucking dumb smile on this NPC, perv. Once he becomes particles of light, a locked door in a side corridor opened. There, this "Dungeon's" loot chest and return circle were present.

[Acquired Unique Series: Succcessor of the Eire Armor set.]

That form fitting bodysuit with some armor, stats were nice, but no way I am wearing that…. Maybe for Pixie…. But that's just to show off!

[Acquired Unique Weapon: Gae Bolg]

That's his weapon, looking at the stats and unique properties, huh, two nice skills. One is Unavoidable Thrust, basically the ability that forced me into Parry learning crash course mid fight, basically, so long my target is within 50m of me, my attack WILL hit and deal insane amounts of damage, it also ignores 80% of my foe's VIT, so this can likely deal a harsh blow to Maple if the need comes.

The other is a ranged Throw attack, I can use it once, then a cooldown of 24 in-game hours, I can in the crudest terms make this Spear into a Nuclear Missile, large AoE, large damage, and it seems able to ignore any Defense buff that's not outright damage immunity. Quite the damn powerful weapon….. the issue is that all the other perks this has demand me wear that armor….. Pixie…. Are you finding stuff better than this?

Pixie POV

I give kudos for the Developer team, the quality of this Layer really comes to a step in difference to the previous others, it's packed yet orderly, plenty to do in the safe area, and even more once you go exploring out there, I probably mapped the whole area people would walk around normally, the Foo- Monsters were also not many in new kinds, this walking around with barely an aim netted me…. Into kind of a weird place.

The forest got dark, forcing me to get the Torchlight and Lamp, walking around, suddenly something popped in my Game HUD.

"Something Wicked is coming?"

Dread, juuust like training by Mike and Mom…. Yup, an Evade based quest? Bring it. attacking that thing just had it spawn the furthest point from me, and as I was finding the paper pieces, that distance was lowered, by the seventh and last one, it's now invincible, forcing me into full evasion, while it can't be beaten, using Elenium Super glue on it sure worked, suck it Not!Slenderman in low poly Stickman shape. Piecing the papers, it led me to a new spot in this dungeon.

"An Akitsushiman house? Modern and the classic of Animes? Geez, the Ring lass is my foe now?"

Entering it, yup, an awful stagnant malicious feel in the air, on the very entrance, a skeleton, the last victim of this haunted house, just to be sure, I equipped the Gadd Poltersucker 5000. Erlich Gadd made this and assured us it would ruin any ghost's night; odd I would trust it. Damn Elenium weirdos. I pick the only other thing aside the Skeleton, the Camera it had, old type, film reel based.

"OOOOoooooOOooOOOoohhhhhh."

"Maybe I can eat a bite of my foe at least?"

Exploring the house, access to the second floor was blocked by some thick miasma, so I explore what I can of the first floor, somehow the Bathroom door was locked, same for most aside the Living room and Kitchen area one. No soon I enter, a ghost tries attacking me, I flash the camera, perfect quick shot, it's stunned, and this joke of a tool from that Elenium weirdo did work, one ghost done for.

The puzzles and exploration style of Survival Horror was limited in scope and area, this is an Akitsushiman suburban house after all. Sadly those ghosts only tasted like Stale potatoes, soon, after throwing a Holy Woodern Sandal on the ass of the bratty Ghost in the Garden, then putting it into Vacuum Incarceration, the second floor was now free of that miasma, going there, a few more annoying ghosts and key items, and the final room, a Guest room no less.

Inside, a TV was on, stactic coming from it exploring the whole room, a few nice trinkets went for the collection list, alongside a weird Hairpin, in the shape of a Snow crystal, I store it, then no soon I approach that TV, two hands grab me and pull me inside, Boss fight it is.

The arena was….. the bottom of a Well, one disproportionately huge in scale, and here she is, a Gigantic version of that creepy woman of the cursed tape…. Well, time to dig i- beat her.

Surprisingly, the lethal gimmick was all this boss had of dangerous, that and the fact she tasted like soggy noodles, of course I decided to finish her by my biting. That done, the chest spawned, the gear was an Unique series alright, had Empathic growth, and in a sense, it fits the dungeon and my Combat style, but the design…. Pass.

[Acquired unique gear set: Escorting Hound Clothes]

[Acquired Unique weapons: Short blade of the Call, Short Blade of the Seventh demise]

The Armor gave me a stealth bonus, and added a special set of buffs with activation conditions; Stalker grants me one Guaranteed crit on my an attack on either an enemy down on the ground (Not on their two feet), but requires me to be following the target for a few minutes, Escort gives me a 10% Buff to my status if I'm following an allied player from a distance for a while, and Prey is a status effect I inflict on whoever I'm tracking for either Stalker or Escort, if they fall or falter upon finding me, they end having a debuff of 5% reduced status.

The Blades were a pair combo, Blade of the call is useless until it's special effect conditions are met, that's where the Blade of Seventh demise comes, for each unique attack I do on the same enemy, they will build a stack of "D-Days" up to seven, once I pile a ful stack of it, attacking with Blade of the Call will activate a special skill, an Instakill one no less. Their drawbacks were simple, it reduced my stats by a flat 5%, made me more vulnerable to Holy magic and Healing was only 25% effective while I had them equipped.

[Acquire Unique Skill: Sarah]

This one was for killing the Boss with a vampiric attack, funny. I can summon a muddy and murky water puddle, max size was 20m in radius, and it could only be kept for two minutes at most, with an Hour of Cooldown, it simply made any demerits of my unique gear moot, in the area, I could also hide in the puddle for as long the puddle lifespan remaining was, niche and occasional use, but could be useful, as it caused VIT ignoring DoT as well as make Healing less effective, and Offensive Holy magics were sealed to anyone in the puddle area.

All this is specialized for ONE kind of approach of my playstyle, so if I ever need some insane Instakill source, I will pop this out. With that, I returned to the safe area.

Something about that hairpin bugged me, so I went to see if there's something here I feel may hint me further, I was a bit surprised I had already advanced one level in the pass, so I quickly went to get the updated one from the guard room near the gate for the fourth level, and went in already, a few were there already, Kasumi from Maple tree for example, she was shining with motivation, so much she passed me without realizing I was there, yup, a Akitsushimanophile for sure.

As I walk around, I see a rather interesting house, a Bathhouse, from the looks, it shouldn't be accessible to players, but as soon I approach, the click of a lock being undone happens, and it opens, a woman, beautiful and exuding the beauty of the Traditional Akitsushiman woman, had opened the door, but she wasn't human, that pale blue skin, general lack of body warmth, and icy stare, a Yuki Onna.

"Hello, you need something?"

"Ah, well… I found this lost somewhere, would you know who it belongs to?"

Taking the Hairpin out, I present to her, the expressions and general air around her to me changed in a heartbeat. She picked it, with care, and a nice gentle smile came to her.

"My, thank you so much, I thought I had lost this forever ever since that scum took over the house me and my dear husband lived in. come in."

Entering, it was your typical bathhouse reception area, sitting in the chair she gave me to wait while she went deeper inside to get her gift to me as thanks for returning such a precious memento, the photo of her with her human husband told all, the skeleton half buried in that haunted house's garden was him, the same photo was in the master bedroom after all.

"Please, have this, I thought I would never have something to remember him dearly."

I accept, three Scrolls were used as I did.

[Acquired Skill: Cold Mist}

[Acquired Skill: Kiss of Freezing]

[Acquired Skill: Snowy time]

First was an AoE that covered a large zone in Mist one sees in winter at times, hindering vision. The second was another passive related to my Bite, now I caused a gradual stack of Freezing on enemies I attack by bitting, once 10 stacks were accumulated, Instadeath, however nearby fire, heat sources or player with proper gear were harder if not immune to the freezing, but since my Bite now has EVEN faster HP and MP drain speed, not a bad buff at all.

Last one was for the first one to be even more dangerous, for a minute, the ambient temperature would drop, snow would fall for a while, and all Ice related skills from anyone would have a small performance boost. Useful, a bit. Suddenly, she is talking again.

"Also, please, if you or your friends need some rest, feel free to come here and enjoy a warm bath."

[Global: The 4th Layer's Bathhouse has been unlocked]

[Guild: The Bathhouse owner friendship with Commando Wing Pixie is high enough, all members have a 10% Discount in paying for anything in the bathhouse.]

Yuuuup…. My Guild chat became a Vtuber stream flood of talks…. Then Fae's PM came.

[Pixie, are you wooing NPCs already?]

{No Fae, I just found a key item during my exploration.]

[Hm, alright, how about we use it now?]

[Sure?]

The last thing I, Fae, Sioux, and Eris did, Eris only because Sioux dragged her to make company, was enjoy this new Bathhouse, I even found she had new exclusive quests for me…. Oh well, I can do that.