Maple and Sally, who had succeeded in acquiring new skills, continued to travel through the vast ocean that was the 8th Layer on their jet ski, searching for the next new skill.

  Even though their diving suits were completely upgraded, allowing them to explore anywhere underwater without restrictions, they had only barely started, and there were many places that they hadn’t gotten to yet.

  “Of course, we should prioritize some options, but in the end, we’ll just check everywhere~.”


  “There are a lot of machines underwater, huh?”


  Their next goal was to find a way to use the “Lost Legacy”. Judging from its name, the two of them had been searching around both the several pieces of machinery found everywhere underwater, as well in what seemed like the ruins of a former civilization, but they had yet to find any event of dungeon related to that item.

  “We sure have been to lots of places, but…… it seems to be really hard to find.”


  “It’d be nice if we could find it today. This looks like a good place too.”


  Sally urged Maple to look underwater after she stopped the jet ski. After facing 6the water, Maple saw a huge crevice in the ground far below.

  The water was so clear that they could see several monsters swimming around the area even from a distance, but the inside of the crevice was still dark and deep blue, and they couldn’t see what’s inside it.

  “.……Bwah, Sally~! You want to go down there?”


  “That’s right. I wanted to come here earlier, but it looks like a place that will eat through our oxygen timers.”


  “Ah, so that’s why we haven’t been there yet.”


  As opposed to Sally, it was a difficult place for Maple, who could only get more activity time through her diving suit, to explore without having fully upgraded her diving suit first.

  “I don’t know how far it is to the bottom of that crevice, and I haven’t heard any reports of anything happening down there yet. It’s basically a dark pit, so it’s easy to overlook something, but I can’t even search in here by myself.

  “Oh, it looks like a difficult place.”


  “It’d be nice if we were to find something good down there.”


  “Yeah!”


  They prepared Izu’s items, and after putting on their diving suits, they put the jet ski away and jumped into the water.

  “There are a lot of monsters by the entrance, think you can handle them?”


  “Sure thing! ‘Deploy All Weapons’!”


  Maple was a better choice than Sally when it came to dealing with a lot of small monsters at once. Maple started to dive down as she deployed her weapons, and when the monsters came within range, she immediately started to attack them.

  The rain of bullets and lasers that ripped through the water shot through the monsters before they had a chance to even see Maple as an attack target, causing great damage to them. Although they managed to turn around to fight back against Maple after being attacked, Maple, who had already caught them off guard from above, had an overwhelming advantage.

  Maple’s barrage was more dangerous to the monsters as they grew closer to her, so they were basically jumping to their own deaths, but even if they had stayed where they were, they would have still ended up like Swiss cheese.

  “Like I thought, they were no match for you……”


  “Something like this is no problem for me! But let’s hurry up ahead!”


  “Yeah. We can’t afford to waste time here.”


  They kept on diving while destroying all monsters on their path, and safely reached the entrance to the crevice. With their current ability, Maple and Sally could fight underwater just as if they were fighting normally on the surface.

  “Whoa…… It’s pretty deep.”


  Such a thing was unthinkable in the normal underwater field, but the color past the huge crevice at their feet was dark, like a mixture of dark blue paint. Unlike the clear water they had grown used to so far, it was impossible to see beyond it at all. It was even darker than the hidden path they had found in the underwater temple.

  “Let’s go. Remember that your oxygen will go down faster than usual here, so be careful.”


  “Got it!”


  After turning their headlights on, they went down the crevice.

  Then, their legs were swallowed by the darkness, and as they felt no ground under their feet, the two of them sank into the dark water.

  “Amazing! Not even at night you get this much darkness.”


  “It really is dark down here. We might not be able to notice anything outside of what’s being illuminated by our headlights.”


  It was so dark that it would be pretty easy to get separated from each other if they weren’t careful enough.

  “Ah…… how about ‘Dedicated Affection’!”


  As she activated her skill, white wings appeared on her back, and she began to shine brightly.

  “With this, I can protect you and you won’t lose sight of me that easily!”


  “Oh, nice thinking! Two birds with one stone.”


  Maple had acted as a landmark like this before, but back then, she had been carrying a bomb as she was launched into the air, so she was being a much safer landmark this time around.

  “We should get our backs against this wall and go alongside it as we advance. That way, we should be able to prevent getting attacked by surprise, since there’s not much light behind our backs.”


  “Yeah! Let’s do that!”


  Though Sally was vigilant, being extra careful wouldn’t hurt.

  “The monsters here will be different from outside, so be careful. They might take advantage of the darkness to attack.”


  “Okay~! I’ll be sure to attack anything that comes our way!”


  Since they couldn’t see that well down there, they wouldn’t be able to launch an attack like the one Maple did a while ago, but that was not what Maple and Sally excelled at either way. They weren’t mages, meant to stay in rear guard and attack from a distance. What they were really good at was short-range combat. Being approached by a monster wasn’t such a bad thing since Maple’s “Dedicated Affection” was active as well.

  “It really is pitch dark down here……”


  “If you enter right from the middle of the crevice, there would be no walls nearby, so it would be really hard to know which way you’re facing.”


  “Seems like your battle style might work well here, Sally.”


  It would be possible to take advantage of this underwater field to move in three dimensions while attacking monsters non-stop, but in such vast darkness where it was quite difficult to know where one is going, it would be very possible to lose one’s way.

  “As long as we don’t come across a boss or some other insanely strong monster, we should fight very conservatively. So……”


  “Yeah, leave it to me!”


  “Thanks. We should ignore as many monsters as possible. We didn’t come here for the experience points anyway.”


  “Got it!”


  Oxygen was more valuable than experience points here, so they decided to avoid all unnecessary battles and aim straight for the bottom.

  However, the crevice was considerably deep and wide. Still, the monsters didn’t seem to have been placed that close to the wall, so Maple and Sally were able to dive for a while without encountering anything.

  “Are we really going towards the bottom?”


  “I feel like we are, so we should be okay……”


  It was so dark that it was hard to tell whether they were actually moving at all, but that quickly changed once they started to see a blue light, different from the one emitted from their headlights, suddenly emerge before their eyes.

  “Oh. Looks like we have been going down after all.”


  “Is that an item? Or is it an event?”


  “It’s not moving, but…… Maple.”


  “What?”


  Sally approached Maple and told her something, and Maple nodded as if understanding.

  “Right…… We need to be careful when we approach that thing!”


  “Yes. It’s a disadvantageous situation, so the best plan here is to cover each other’s backs.”


  Carefully, the two approached the light together, aware of the possibility of having to retreat if anything happened.

  The moment they reached a distance where they could nearly touch the light, the absolute darkness shook, and the headlights cast light upon sharp fangs.

  “Maple!”


  “Yeah!”


  As the two of them quickly backed out, the jaws that had opened themselves in an attempt to swallow them snapped shut in the exact position they had been mere moments ago.

  “I knew it, that light was there just to lure us in.”


  “Whoa, Sally, you were totally right about it!”


  The monster seemed to have been using a skill to mix itself with the darkness, but once it opened its jaw, they could see it properly. The darkness remained the same, but the monster’s outline was clear as it tried to attack.

  “Is it like some kind of anglerfish?”


  “That seems to be the motif here. But we saw through its trick, we have it right where we want it.”


  Sally accelerated through the water, quickly getting next to the monster and turning to its side before slashing its big body with her two daggers. As it’s fighting style was simply hiding and waiting for players to fall into its trap, the anglerfish was sluggish, and couldn’t keep up with Sally’s high mobility at all.

  “‘Deploy Barrels’! ‘Commence Attack’!”


  There was no way to escape from Maple’s barrage with such slow movements, so the monster’s body was pierced by each and every shot fired by Maple, causing it to turn into light and disappear before it had any chance to make its next move.

  “Nice, Maple!”


  “I can deal with these kinds of monsters no problem!”


  “We need to be careful if we keep finding strange things. There might be more mimics like this up ahead. Though I don’t think we will be falling for anything like this again.”


  “Yeah, got it.”


  “I can’t stress this enough, these monsters may try to deceive us by looking very similar to other things.”


  “Okay~!”


  Thus Maple and Sally kept on avoiding unnecessary battles, and kept on diving towards the bottom of the crevice.