Maple/Plot

Introductory Arc
Kaede was pressured by her best friend, Risa, to try yet another game. This time, the game was called NewWorld Online, and Kaede created her character. She chose the great shield because it mentioned she could take no damage and was expecting not to feel any pain. Without thinking too hard, she put all her status points into VIT and started playing the game.

Inside the game, Kaede, now Maple, left town and explored the forest to try out her new character. Her first enemy was a horned rabbit, and after taking no damage, she decided to play with the rabbit as she encouraged it to try its best. An hour later, Maple learned a new skill, and after reading it, she accidentally killed the rabbit.

Unbeknownst to even herself, Kaede has started to find and learn abilities and equipment; not even the moderators knew or planned that people could use abilities most unexpectedly, contrary to what it was initially intended for.

Since Kaede found herself enjoying the game, she kept playing for several days. She fought monsters inside the forest and eventually encountered the boss of the beginner's forest, a giant bee. Maple laughed at the bee only to get a face full of acid that dealt poison damage, and it ignored her vitality's defense (note: high vitality does reduce but not negate the amount of damage received from poison). Feeling pain, Maple tried and failed to run away. After receiving notice, she gained poison resistance; she incited the bee to continue to poison her and eventually kill itself.

Because Kaede found herself addicted to the game, she began taking an interest in dressing up and approached another great shield user, Chrome. After a short discussion, he introduced her to Iz, a crafter, and they all became friends. Chrome and Iz recommended she get stronger, and they told her about the Labyrinth of the Poison Dragon before separating to handle their objectives.

Outside Chrome and Iz's expectations, Maple purchased potions and headed straight for the dungeon. Hours later, Maple found herself at the door to the boss room, and she entered confidently. Maple faced a long battle as she used Meditation and timed her potion uses while enduring the constant breath attacks until she acquired the [Poison Immunity] skill. Maple found herself unable to take damage without a weapon, so she used real-world common sense to experiment on defeating the poison dragon. The only method that worked was eating the dragon, so she ate him whole.

As a reward for her feast, she learned the [Hydra Eater] and [Hydra] skills. She also received a set of unique series equipment for defeating the boss and meeting the requirements for unique series.

Sometime after Maple's conquest of the Labyrinth of the Poison Dragon, the 1st event was announced and Maple trained hard for it. During the event, she used her new gear, equipment, and skills as she rose to 3rd place and maintained it until the end of the event.

After the event, Risa finished her necessary studies and logged in NWO as Sally. She met up with Maple, and they went fishing together. Maple received enough scales for the shield she wanted and helped Sally time her water breathing as she attempted the dungeon she discovered.

Second Event Arc
Maple and Sally joined the 2nd event together as a party and explored the grasslands until they spotted a goblin who walked into the ground. They dispelled the illusion and conquered the goblin dungeon before returning to the surface and heading towards the mountains in the distance, so they don't end up walking in circles.

After they walked for about an hour, they entered a deep forest,t and because it was dark outside, zombies, ghosts, and the like were out to spook Sally. Maple took off her armor so Sally could rush through the forest while carrying her until they found a house and rested there for the night. Around midnight, they found and explored the cellar and healed a male NPC before returning to rest. Having fully rested, they left the house when it was bright out and began climbing the mountain. On the way up the mountain, they defeated several groups of players and monsters. At the top, they met Chrome's group, and they let his group enter the nearby teleport circle first. Shortly after Chrome's party entered, the teleport circle lit up again, so Maple and Sally readied to enter it themselves.

Maple and Sally were transferred to a field and began a fight shortly after a giant bird appeared. The big ice-attributed bird's name was Silverwing, and he was full of stats, skills, and the developer's malice from being overworked. After a long battle, where Maple felt pain a lot, Maple and Sally defeated Silverwing and acquired their spoils, some crafting materials, five silver medals, and a pair of eggs. Maple chose the green egg, and Sally took the violet egg. They left through another portal and traversed the mountain, a forest, and a valley as they occasionally warmed their eggs with their bodies. From Maple's egg hatched a green turtle she called Syrup so they could be Maple Syrup together, and Sally's egg hatched a white fox she named Oboro.

They continued exploring and even fought copies of each other before they traveled through the desert terrain. At an oasis in the desert, Maple and Sally encountered beauty in a kimono named Kasumi who tried to escape after testing the waters with speech. Sally gave chase, and Maple ran after them, only to drag them into a dungeon and work together to complete it. Kasumi became friends with them and separated from them so she could hunt for medals.

Maple and Sally rested before leaving the desert and moving through a forest. They got to a beach, and Sally left to check underwater and an island in the distance. Maple made a sandcastle and played Othello (alt. Reversi) with Kanade while she waited for Sally to return. Maple explained the situation when Sally returned, and Kanade explored the island's teleport formation before returning to them after death. Maple and Sally move down the coast after Kanade delivers his report on the spot he was teleported to.

Further down the coast, Maple and Sally encountered a ruin and discovered a group of players as they searched it. They overheard the group talking about a book and a puzzle, so Sally killed them for the book. They spent the day trying to uncover the riddle, and around midnight, they met the riddle's requirements and uncovered a teleport formation. After they were transferred, they followed a pathway surrounded by sea and fish on both sides and entered a pair of doors where they encountered a dome-shaped room where they fought the Sea King. The would-be wall, ceiling, and floor were the ocean, and the free air where they fought decreased as the boss's health did. After a long battle that took 4 hours, they defeated the Sea King, got their reward, and returned to land.

On the sixth day, Sally left Maple at a cave where she used Venom Capsule to turn it into a cave of death. She trained Syrup and Oboro while Sally was away on an ant monster that kept re-spawning. After he skills reset for the 7th day of the event, she came to one of the furthest rooms in the cave and played with Sally and Kasumi after covering the outer entrance in poison.

Maple used her medals to learn the [Fortress] and [Psychokinesis] skills. She used psychokinesis on the enlarged Syrup to make him fly and earned the moniker Flying Fortress.

Guild Founding Arc
Kaede embarrassed herself at school when she used her game reactions and decided to take a 3-day break. She returned to learn about guilds,s and Sally gave her all the necessary items to form a guild. After they picked out a house, they invited Kanade and Kasumi to join. Maple also invited Chrome when they ran into him and Iz as well.

When Maple ran out of necessary things to do, she explored the city and began the Benevolent Knight chain quest. She bypassed some of the more difficult content, completed the Loving Sacrifice (alt. Dedicated Affection) extra quest, and learned the skill. With Loving Sacrifice in her arsenal, she asked Iz to make her a new suit of armor and displayed her new skill to the other guild members.

Maple overheard Chrome saying he wanted to become stronger and was too busy to aid him, so she cheered him on by lending him Syrup.

After the 3rd event was announced, Maple harvested wool with Sally and Kasumi. While they weren't paying attention, Maple ate a whole sheep and learned the [Sheep Eater] skill. Iz created outfits out of wool for Maple, Sally, Kanade, and Kasumi so they could collect more points during the event. After the 3rd event began, Maple found collecting points with 0 DEX difficult. Maple fell off a mountain while killing cows and found herself at a cathedral she was at before. Inside, she encountered a demon and defeated him by eating him.

After the 4th event was announced, Maple Tree held a meeting, and it was decided Maple and Sally would recruit for their guild. Since they had no luck on the 2nd layer, they tried recruiting on the 1st layer and invited the twins, Mai and Yui. Sally defeated the 1st layer boss, and Maple defeated the 2nd layer boss on their own to show off to the twins. At the 3rd layer guild house, the twins met the other guild members. Maple took the twins through the Labyrinth of the Poison Dragon multiple times. Maple stayed in demon form, and the twins wore helmets to hide their information before the 4th event.

On the 3rd layer, Maple listens to an old man's tale and later stumbles on the Dream Graveyard where she finds the first machine lord in a rusted state. The first gets possessed by the second machine lord, and after a series of events, Maple inherits the machine lord's power and defeats the second, becoming The Third.

Guild Competition Arc
When the 4th event began, Maple and the other members of Maple Tree were transported to the event together. Maple was left to defend their base with Mai, Yui, and Kanade. Maple uses [Loving Sacrifice] to protect everyone who stays behind and defend the guild orb.

Maple receives a message from Sally, who thought she would die and left Mai and Yui alone to guard their base. She used [Machine God] to fly through the sky and rescue Sally from Frederica's encirclement. Though Maple returned to the guild base in a hurry, Mai and Yui had been killed, so she killed Dred and apologized when the twins revived.

After Maple returned with Sally, Sally had Kanade copy her map notes onto Maple's map. Once everyone from Maple Tree returned to their base, Maple went out on the attack. Maple mainly collected orbs only after killing its nearby members. Maple returned to her base and guarded the orbs with the rest of Maple Tree.

Following a rest, Maple went out together with the twins. They collected orbs as they found their way to the Kingdom of the Flame Emperor to try and take their orb. Maple and the twins fought hard against Marx's traps and Misery's magic until Mii returned. Mii's magic made it hard for Maple to protect the twins, so she had them sit on Syrup in the sky. Maple fought hard against Mii and was pressured into using one of her hidden cards, [Machine God]. With the skill released, the Kingdom of the Flame Emperor's resistance proved futile, and they were swiftly defeated. Unfortunately, Shin had taken their orb and ran away, so Maple could not collect it.

Maple and the twins returned to their base to claim points before they switched teams. Maple went out with Chrome and Kasumi as they sky-dropped onto guilds and collected a few orbs. They regrouped at their base because they could not find orbs.

Before the members of Maple Tree could leave their base, the Congregation of the Holy Swords initiated an attack with Payne, Dred, Drag, Frederica, and 15 general members. Maple had expended many of her daily uses of skills and was vulnerable to the best of the Payne's knowledge. Maple fought hard, but she couldn't support or get support from her guild members, and Payne had borrowed buffs from the ultimate skills of other players. Pressured by the Congregation of the Holy Swords and cornered by Payne, Maple revealed [Atrocity] and defeated her enemies.

After surviving the Congregation of the Holy Swords assault, Maple Tree rested before mounting demon Maple and went out to assault various guilds. They caused chaos and accelerated the end of the event. In the middle of the chaos, Maple Tree saved the Kingdom of the Flame Emperor from being wiped out.

Following the completion of the 4th event, Maple added Mii, Marx, Misery, and Shin from the Kingdom of the Flame Emperor and Payne, Dred, Drag, and Frederica and from Congregation of the Holy Swords to her friends list for an airhead-ed reason. She invited them to join Maple Tree's after party.

Rulership Arc
Maple split up from the rest of Maple Tree after they reached the 4th layer to explore. As she visited the shops, she began a quest and defeated a pot full of poisonous monsters.

Weeks later, Maple discovered Mii going into the Fluffy Fluffy Playtime Room shop. Maple went in, and they fluffed some fluffy, floating cats together. To apologize for embarrassing Mii, Maple went hunting monsters with her. They bonded and defeated monsters before resting inside Maple's [Wooley] fur. While resting, Maple's fur ball was pulled into a lake and taken above the clouds. Maple and Mii walked on the clouds through a lightning storm and discovered the [Dewdrop of Heaven] together. Later, Maple helped many others get the dewdrop and found her inventory stuff plenty of wealth. A couple of days later, Maple and the other Maple Tree members went to kill a dragon. Because the twins killed the dragon so fast, they also went and killed the oni for his key item drop.

As Maple worked on ranking up her access permit, she encountered a giant snowman monster from the 5th event and had trouble killing it until it died from her instant death effect. Just after Christmas, Maple opened her gift and learned the [Frozen Earth] skill.

Because Maple was sick just before the 5th layer was released, the other seven members of Maple Tree went on to the next layer without her. She logged in after recovering and went to fight the white oni under the misconception that he was the layer boss. After a long and tough fight, Maple killed him and learned the [Pandemonium I] skill. Maple learned he wasn't the layer boss and headed toward the dungeon that leads to the next layer. She joined Frederica's party and showed her power a little.

As Maple killed some cloud monsters on the 5th layer, she acquired the 6th event's teleport item. She ran into Payne at the jungle event map, and they teamed up to form the elite corps. With Maples' vitality supporting him, Payne acted like a damage dealer and mopped the floor with countless enemies. A queen bee they encountered dropped two silver crown accessories and some jars of honey. Together, they made their way to a silent forest where they fought a wood shaman of sorts who granted an MP up-skill, and they easily put him down. It wasn't explained why Maple didn't learn the skill, but with her health reduced, she left the event.

While others were exploring the jungle for their event rewards, Maple stumbled upon a massive throne on which the King of Light sat. Since most of her skills didn't work, she tried to kill him with enormous consumables. When that failed, she brought the twins, and they made quick work of him. Maple learned the [Throne of the Heavenly King] skill.

Maple and Sally went to a rain area where Kasumi joined them. They purchased umbrellas, and they went through it and fought a boss.

Ghost Layer Arc
Maple Tree went up to the 6th layer together after it is released. Maple and the others found the layer to contain things Sally is afraid of. Maple decided she'd help Sally get what she wanted from the layer.

Maple took Sally to a haunted house to get a skill that doubles the effects of items. While exploring, they were separated, and Sally was spooked several times.

Several days after Maple and Sally visited the haunted house, Maple went searching for the shoes Sally wanted and found an even better pair. Before she could return to town and meet up with Sally, she was led into a pitfall and fought with a giant red ghost boss. Barely avoiding death, Maple defeated him and acquired the [Helping Hands] accessory. Afterward, Maple met with Sally and handed over the shoes and accessory, only for the accessory to be returned the next day.

Maple and Mii went monster hunting together. Mii killed monsters without worry for defense as Maple sat on her throne, looking like an angel. Mii informed Maple she could buy skills and the location of an information dealer.

Maple went looking for the [Heavy Body] skill. At the mansion, she was harassed by traps and a pair of ghost twins. Even though she overcame the twins and gained a green dress that allowed her to use the [Poltergeist] ability, she failed to get the skill, she desired.

Tower Arc
The 7th event was announced several days after Maple visited the twin's mansion. Maple and Sally decided to pair up for the tower climb.

Maple and Sally explored the 1st floor of the tower, a floor littered with traps and monsters that felt like bosses. They defeated the earth dragon boss before moving to the next floor.

They took a day break before exploring the 2nd floor. They defeated animated books and avoided black shadows on their way to the boss. During the giant book boss fight, some of Maple's equipment and skills were taken and used against them. They retreated outside the room before making a second attempt, resulting in the boss's defeat.

Maple and Sally traversed the 3rd floor's rocky terrain complimented with lava. Once they reached an impassable obstacle, they back-tracked and found a way to overcome it and defeat the boss, a giant elemental who switches between lava and ice.

They traveled down the 4th floor's waterfall on Syrup's back. Their attempts to skip the waterfall were met with heavy resistance. The boss was a giant turtle, and Maple and Sally turned the battle into a vacation.

Because the 5th floor contained creatures that Sally feared, Maple suspended their exploration for a day. While the other members of Maple Tree took the normal route through the floor, Maple went through the floor with Sally inside a box in her demon form's mouth.

Maple and Sally traversed the 6th floor's cave system while fighting golems made of something resembling a diamond. Because they had piercing attacks, Maple hid inside her wool, and Sally fought the golems. Maple acquired the [Crystallize] skill before the boss fought and used it to trap the boss, a human magician who summons countless golems, inside her wool where Sally could one-sidedly attack him as she used many of Iz's bombs herself.

On the 7th floor, they free-fell down a cliff and barely dodged the developer trap thanks to Sally's quick thinking. They had a mild fight with a hedgehog covered in icy spikes before defeating him.

Because the 8th floor wasn't straightforward, Maple and Sally failed to find a boss room and experienced a sneak attack from the boss. They discovered fruits and used them and their skills to overcome the chameleon.

The 9th floor's shadow boss offered little resistance, but the floor flying mechanic made his fight tedious.

The 10th floor's boss, a silver knight, was made to hunt Maple. Sally spent much of the battle supporting her, and the battle was as close a call as it gets with Maple.

Companions Arc
Maple and the other members of Maple Tree advanced to the 7th layer and learned that the game had officially added the companion feature. Already having their companions, Maple and Sally made it their mission to help the others get their companions.

Maple took the twins, Mai and Yui, through the forest to find an animal that caught their eyes. They were interested in a bear cub they spotted but couldn't keep up with. While Maple had wanted to help assist the twins further in getting each of them a bear cub companion, the reminder from Sally about an upcoming test at school prevented her from doing so.

Following the test, Maple continued her mission to find possible companions of the other members of Maple Tree. While exploring an island area, she was attacked by a tentacle and eventually fought a large tentacle monster, which she defeated by eating. After defeating the tentacle monster, she gained the skill to manifest her tentacles.

Maple and Mii were going to hunt monsters together when Iz showed up, asking for help to gain ingredients needed to create items needed for a quest to gain a fairy companion. Mii decided to join them, and they went around together on Ignis to one of the areas where Iz needed to get ingredients.

Maple and Sally explored together after everyone in Maple Tree acquired their companions. They were fluffing the wild animals before resting inside Maple's wool. While inside her fur ball, they were carried around for a while, and at their final stop, they found a key item. With some hypothesis, exploration, and a little luck, Kanade guided them toward the other two key items and their final destination. Maple and Sally had a revenge match against a giant bird and defeated a wind giant. They found the animal city and evolved their companions, Syrup and Oboro.

Eighth Event Arc
Maple and the other members of Maple Tree joined the qualifications for the 8th event individually. Although Maple defeated many monsters, she gained a debuff that made many kinds run from her. Using her knowledge from the jungle event, she used a plant monster to lure all nearby monsters to their doom. She had her partner, Syrup, use his new skills to turn the area around herself into a death trap.

Near the end of the qualifying event, she ends up in the mouth of a giant crocodile. Using the [Wooly] ability, she gains control of the crocodile and uses the [Deploy Armaments] ability to have the crocodile shoot laser beams out of its mouth.

On the first day of the 8th event, as the Maple Tree members split into two groups to increase their chances of finding medals, Maple teams up with Sally, Mai and Yui, with her using the [Loving Sacrifice] ability to protect them as they do battle with elemental-based dolls.

At the start of the event's second day, a black light separates the members of Maple Tree. In an attempt to reunite with the rest of her guild, Maple attempts to make herself a tracking beacon using Syrup and her [Machine God] ability. While it ends up in disaster, it does get the attention of Mii, who, in the process, manages to locate Mai. After reuniting with Mai, Maple receives from Mii a tracking beacon that Marx made that allows the Kingdom of the Flame Emperor to keep track of each other, with Mii then heading out to find the remaining members of her guild. Combined with the tracking beacon and her second attempt to make a beacon, this time involving her using her [Poltergeist] ability to swing off the remaining lasers like a sword and her and Mai having a tea party set up on the back of Syrup, Maple eventually reunites the rest of Maple Tree along with the members of the Kingdom of the Flame Emperor and the Congregation of the Holy Swords, with the three guilds teaming up for the rest of the event.

She then joined Sally, Mii and Frederica to take down a Demon Queen boss that they called a fake Maple and took it down. On the third day, the three guilds took down Cthulhu together with Maple delivering the final blow.