Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu

Because of the power of Maple’s great shield, the bullets were temporarily sucked into it. However, she lost Bizzare Eater in the process, and so was thrown into the wall right after.

“Ahh…! Was I knocked back!?”

The bluish-white bullets had a powerful knockback ability, and as Maple was not fast enough to dodge them, she was pushed into the pile of rubble.

However, it was not powerful enough to puncture her armor, and she was only pushed back.

“Ahh…I can’t move…”

The sensation of being hit by the bullets was no more than a minor irritation, but the knockback ability prevented her from moving.

“Hydra!”

First, Maple tried unleashing Hydra on the machine god, but venom was not effective on machines. The only damage it did was from the Hydra directly, and there was no additional damage from the poison.

“Agh…what should I do…”

She had already lost Bizarre Eater, and she had used Savagery when she fell down here.

Syrup was not included with Maple’s other skills and had not been hurt when falling down here. It was now inside of her ring.

But it would only become a victim to the bullets if she took it out carelessly.

The only options for an attack that she had left, were Hydra, the result of Bizzare Eater and Predator and Oozing Chaos.

Maple had incredibly strong defense and instant firepower, but she had one clear weakness that could not be changed.

It was efficiency.

Maple’s skills depended on the 0 MP consumption of her equipment, and that had its limits.

Maple’s power was not something that could be maintained for long. With every skill that she used, her attacks would grow weaker.

Once she had used all of her skills, Maple would not be able to defeat the monster. However, the monster would not be able to defeat Maple either.

And Predator would not work here as it did against the Hydra.

A rusted machine could not be eaten.

She knew this very well.

“Dedicated Affection!”

She wasn’t too sure about piercing attacks, but Maple decided to rely on Predator and Syrups attacks.

As Hydra’s effects were minimal, Maple decided to change her equipment.

The tiara appeared on her head, and the pure white short sword in her hand. Then she used a potion to replenish her HP.

Now her HP was 650.

While her defense capabilities were now lowered, the bullets still felt like she was being massaged.

“Good…Predator!”

Maple called out the twin monsters and Syrup, then took in a deep breath and concentrated.

“Syrup! Mother Nature!”

Hearing Maple’s voice, Syrup caused vines to jump out of the ground and push up the terrain.

The obstacle that had suddenly appeared now blocked the bullets from reaching Maple.

In that instant, Maple rushed towards the machine god with all of the speed that she could muster.

Now that Syrup had fulfilled its purpose, it was returned to its original size.

However, before Maple was able to arrive at her target, more bullets attacked her.

“Fuu!”

Being immune to poison wasn’t the only reason for Maple changing her equipment.

One of the skills of ‘Dedicated Affection.’

A great skill that used 600 HP.

“AEGIS!”

A dome of light surrounded Maple and the monsters, and for a few dozen seconds, all attacks would become ineffective on them.

She was able to get close with ‘Mother Nature’ and closer again with this skill, and yet she was still too far to reach her target.

The closer she got, the harder the attacks became. The attacks were what she needed to stop first.

The twin monsters bought Maple some time by eating the projectiles that came towards her.

These projectiles were supplied by the mountains of garbage around them, but nevertheless, there would be a delay in restocking them.

“Cover Move!”

As the projectiles were destroyed in front of her, Maple only had to chase after Syrup, which had been returned to its original size as it flew in front of her.

Then Maple dismissed the monsters and thrust her hand into the hole in the machine gods chest, which was full with a blue light.

“It’s this light that is bad!”

As if hugging the machine god, Maple thrust her hand deep inside of it.

It was in order to return it to sanity while leaving as much of its body intact as possible.

“Oozing Chaos!”

The monster that shot from Maple’s hand pierced through the chest and came out the other side.

In a way, this was the right move. In another way, it was the wrong one.

It would not be possible to return him to sanity by attacking him there. However, as it was his ‘weakness,’ it was possible to deal immense damage there. And as a result, a change came over the machine god.

“GG…KAHA…….I WILL BE GONE…BUT…”

Maple perked up her ears so she would not miss a single word that the machine god said.

“…NOW THAT MY CONSCIOUS HAS RETURNED FOR A MOMENT…I ENTRUST TO YOU…BRAVE ONE…”

So saying, the machine god began to collect the blue light in its chest once again.

“…WITH…MY…POWER…KILL…WHAT WAS…ONCE…ME…”

And with this, the machine god threw the old gear at Maple.

It was absorbed into her body and disappeared.

“…ALLOW ME TO…SLEEP…”

And then the machine god changed again.

Its body was enveloped in a pale light as it gathered equipment from the ‘second one’ towards itself and rose into the sky. Then it shot down blue bullets towards Maple.

Maple had no choice but to block them like before.

“GIVE AWAY YOUR POWER…WHAT A WASTE…”

She heard the machine’s voice from above.

From the words, she realized that it must be the voice of the ‘second one.’

The machine had been hijacked and was now moving against its will.

“…Machine God…”

The skill that Maple had received. The power of the former god. It was a simple power, there was nothing mysterious about it at all.

Maple changed her equipment.

Just in case, she removed the tiara and Bridge of Bonds and returned her short sword as well.

“Machine God!”

As Maple shouted this, a certain image appeared in her head.

Maple selected the armor, great shield, and short sword.

While the second god could make machines out of nothing, the first needed the materials.

In other words.

It was a power that destroyed equipment and gave birth to weapons.

Of course, the stronger the materials, the more powerful the weapons that could be created.

“Deploy All Weapons.”

Maple said quietly. And a black set of armor began to form around her.

After that, numerous armaments that were as black as the night continued to be developed.

A gun noisily expanded from her shield arm, a giant canon grew out from her back like the branch of a tree as it pointed to the sky.

Black blades came out of her sword arm, and even her legs and thighs were strengthened by machines.

There were small gears that spun along her torso, and there were intricate gears and wires covering the right side of her face that went down to her neck.

“Wa-wah!? What, what is this!?”

Maple looked at the weapons on her in surprise. But then she remembered what she had to do.

“I need to defeat it…Provoke!”

Maple put Bridge of Bonds back on and called Syrup. The vines and boulders that came out of the ground swallowed up both Maple and the floating second god and covered them with several layers.

As Maple was attacking it, the second god was surrounded by the vines, which pushed it even closer to Maple.

“…Now…you cannot escape me.”

Maple had inherited the powers of the first, so in other words, she was the third.

The newly born machine god positioned all of her weapons at the second.

“Commence Attack.”

With an explosion, all of the weapons spouted fire at once.

While all of them may have looked like equipment, they were not.

They were skills whose power had been enhanced for a price.

In other words, this had nothing to do with Maple’s STR numbers.

Each individual attack was not that powerful, and so this attack relied on the rapidity of the successive attacks.

Yes, at least for now.

Just as the cage of vines were blown away, the blue light that surrounded the first god disappeared.

The first god was carried by the machine that was Maple and slowly laid to rest.

Once Maple landed on the ground, she quietly leaned him against his other machines.

“…Good.”

Now that she had confirmed that the blue light was completely gone, she looked back at him a few times as she left the scene.

While Maple mournfully made her way back up.

Four players were having a discussion in a room of a certain guild.

One was ‘Holy Sword’ Pain.

One was ‘God Speed’ Dread.

One was Frederica.

One was the fifth in the first event.

‘Ground Splitter’ Drag.

They were all talking together.

About the others in the top 10 that they could not convince to join them.

And also about a certain guild that they were concerned by, Maple Tree.