Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 251
Defense Specialization and the 7th Layer
After reaching the 7th layer, Maple and the others rushed to the guild home as if they could not wait to start exploring. After that, they split up and started to explore the town.
In the center, there was a huge tree that seemed to stretch to the sky. And in the town, there were waterways and intersecting roads paved with stone. If you looked up, you could see wooden bridges that connected the trees in a complex web that included tree houses.
"Alright! Let's explore!"
Maple was full of curiosity as she dashed through the new town. And for a while, she walked down the streets and looked at everything around her. She quickly noticed something that was very different from other towns up until now. All of the NPCs that were stationed here had some kind of animal with them.
"Oh! It's just like me and Syrup!"
And so Maple went around talking to the NPCs and gathered information in different stores before returning to the guild home. When she was back, she saw that the others were there too, after finding out their goal on this layer.
"Hey! Everyone! How was it?"
Maple was having so much fun and could not wait to share it with everyone.
And so Sally began to tell them the information she had gathered.
"Welcome back. I'm sure you know this by now, Maple, but the 7th layer is a place where you can get pet monsters like Oboro and Syrup."
"Yes! Yes! There are apparently all kinds of ways you can make them join you!"
The information they had gathered was not about any special event. Regardless, they had found out that there were different methods of befriending the monsters. Defeating them or giving them items etcetera.
"However, it seems like you still have to use 'Bridge of Bonds,' so I can't befriend any monsters outside of Oboro."
"…?"
"Oh, you didn't know that yet? While implementing the 7th layer, they changed it so that the Bridge of Bonds effect can only be carried once by each person."
And since Maple and Sally already had the rings for Syrup and Oboro respectively, they could not acquire any more monsters.
"Oh…I see. Hmm. Well, it's fine because I have Syrup!"
"So, I guess we can help the others on this layer?"
"Yes! Let's do that!"
As Maple and Sally already had monster buddies, they decided to offer their help to the other six.
"That would be great. After all, it will be really hard if defeating a strong monster is one of the conditions for taming."
"Yeah. Well, I guess we should start exploring around then. This layer seems really large."
They could see that the field stretched out far from the town. There were snowy mountains and steep cliffs, and volcanoes in the distance.
"Maybe we can mark down the monsters we'd like to befriend and then search for them. I'm not sure what to choose yet…"
"I wonder if there's a monster that will help me produce items…"
"Let's do our best too! Mai!"
"Yes, Yui."
They all thought about what kind of monster to get. And then started to gather more detailed information about which monsters were in what areas.