Chapter two

" We did it, and that's level Seventy two." Yui's face beams as she and her sister finish of the final boss of the dungeon.

"We can finally clear a high difficulty dungeon by ourselves." Mai smiles in pure joy.

" Come on Mai, let's go clear another one before the patch begins. We still have time for another dungeon run." Yui grabs Mai's hand and begins pulling her to the exit portal.

Getting on their respective bears Yukimi and Tsukimi, they race towards another dungeon which they then blaze through in under fifteen minutes.

" Another one done, if we keep going on it's only a matter of time before we're the same level as Maple." Yui waved her hammer in excitement.

A notification has Mai looking at her status screen.

" Hey look, Maple just logged in." She closes her status screen.

" Really where is she? She's at the guild come on let's go." Yui quickly checks her status screen to see Maple's location.

Getting back on their bears the girls race back to the guild on the thirteenth stratum

Yui

Lv 72. HP 35/35. MP 20/20

[STR 5520 <+1375 >] [VIT 0]

[AGI 0] [DEX 0]

[INT 0]

Equipment

Head[Little Ribbon X]

Body[White Doll Dress XX]

R. Hand[White Annihilammer XX]

L. Hand[White Annihiammer XX]

Legs[White Doll Tights XX]

Feet[White Doll Shoes XX]

Accessories[Silk Gloves]

[Bonding Ring]

[Helping Hands IV]

Skills

Double Stamp, Double Impact, Double Strike, Attack Boost (L), Combo Turpitude, Hammer Mastery XX, Throw, Farshot, Conqueror, Annihilator, Giant Killing, Destroy Mode, Titan's Lot, Titan's Might, Little Helper

Tamed Monster

Name Yukimi. A bear monster with distinctive white fur.

Power Share, Bright star, Giganticize, Rend

Mai

Lv 72. HP 35/35. MP 20/20

[STR 5520 <+1375 >] [VIT 0]

[AGI 0] [DEX 0]

[INT 0]

Equipment

Head[Little Ribbon X]

Body[Black Doll Dress XX]

R. Hand[Black Annihilammer XX]

L. Hand[Black Annihiammer XX]

Legs[Black Doll Tights XX]

Feet[Black Doll Shoes XX]

Accessories[Silk Gloves]

[Bonding Ring]

[Helping Hands IV]

Skills

Double Stamp, Double Impact, Double Strike, Attack Boost (L), Combo Turpitude, Hammer Mastery XX, Throw, Farshot, Conqueror, Annihilator, Giant Killing, Destroy Mode, Titan's Lot, Titan's Might, Little Helper

Tamed Monster

Name Tsukimi A bear monster with distinctive Black fur.

Power Share, Bright star, Giganticize, Rend

///////////////////

" Aww man, they're not logged in yet." Maple droops as she enters the Maple tree guild hall in the first stratum.

Maple roams around the first stratum guild hall for a few minutes when the door to the guild opens up with Chrome walking in.

" Hey Maple, sorry I'm late. They're uploading a patch soon and I had to finish up. Welcome back. So how were your exams?" He asks as he takes off a ring from his finger. Maple's Bonding Bridge.

" Thanks for taking care of Syrup for me. I crushed my exams as always. At least it felt like I did." Maple quickly puts on the Bonding Bridge and immediately summons Syrup.

A flash of light and Syrup appears, the turtle immediately rubbing up against Maple.

Hugging her pet close, she checks his status.

" Oh, you've got a new skill as well. Let's see, Temporal Carapace. Whoa what's this?" Maple gaped in awe.

|| Temporal Carapace (1) ||

Reduces damage of the user by 80% for ten seconds

For ten seconds, creates a barrier that speeds up time by four times for the user.

A white light shines for a moment and the twins appear.

" Welcome back Maple." Yui runs slowly towards maple and gives her a hug.

" Hey Yui, Mai. It's been a while huh." Maple chuckles as she hugs Yui and pats Mai's head.

" Yes, two months is a really long time." Yui and Mai replies at the exact same time.

Their conversation is cut off however as each of them receive a notification on their statuses.

|| WARNING. COMMENCING PATCH UPDATE.||

" Crap, I forgot about the patch." Chrome laughed nervously.

" Oh right, Mai and I were about to log out as well." Yui fidgets as Mai begins to log off.

" See you in a while Maple when the patch is over." Chrome bids his goodbye to Maple.

However.

" Uhm, Maple, Chrome. My status won't open." Mai now obviously panicking calls out.

" What?" Maple is surprised.

" Huh, what do you mean." Chrome walks up to Mai as she continuously tries to bring up her status.

" Mine too." Yui yells out, now panicking as well.

Chrome quickly attempts to bring up his status but the result is the same.

" Hey hey hey, is this some kind of bug." Chrome paces, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

Seeing everyone upset and worried, Maple brings up her status and a blue screen appears before her.

" Hey mine still works." She calls out to the others, but a quick look at the screen confuses her.

|| MAPLE TREE GUILD || Lv 1

Members

Maple - Guildmaster

Chrome

Yui

Mai

•Sally•

•Kasumi•

•Iz•

•Kanade•

|| Inventory ||

|| Armory ||

|| Buffs ||

|| Skill Slot ||

" This is the guild status. Not my own." Maple closes the status with worry.

" Maple, you have to see this." Chrome calls while he looks through a window.

Looking through the window, Maple is shocked. Trees, large trees as far as the eyes can see. A thick forest lies beyond the guild building.

Walking outside with the others, Maple didn't know what kind of prank this was, there wasn't much of a ray of hope of this being a dream.

Metal greaves squishing in the softened dirt, Maple and the others take in the strong scent of the forest.

Looking back, Chrome notices that their guild looks no different from the forest. That is, their guild is now a large tree similar to the trees around.

Picking up dirt and watching them fall freely from his hand, Chrome comes to a terrifying conclusion.

" Hey, this is too weird." Yui steps cautiously towards Maple.

" Y...you don't think." Mai stutters after her sister.

" Yeah." Chrome joins them and places his hand on Maple's shoulder snapping her from her thoughts.

" Chances are, we aren't in New world online anymore."

An ominous wind blows through the trees of the forest. Bringing with them, the dangers of the unknown.