'Welcome home, traveler Rinne. I'm glad to see you're all right.

　The one who greeted us as we dove through the warp gate was Iris, who had been waiting for us since the time we saw her off.

'Welcome back!

　She must have already greeted Nana, who had left a little earlier. She took out a piece of stardust from her inventory and was juggling it in a corner of the room.

　A piece of stardust looks like a large piece of kompeito, about the size of a baseball.
　They seem to be stored in a special box separate from the normal inventory, and no matter how many you get, your agility doesn't seem to drop due to the weight limit.
　Incidentally, if you are in a party, the total number of items you get divided by the number of people in your party will be allocated to you when you clear the dungeon or when you leave the party.

　However, with this specification, if you play with a party from the beginning to the end, two people will get the same number of stardust shards.
　If the same number of stardust shards are allocated to both players in the final ranking, how will the ranking of both players be determined?

　I asked Iris about this question, and she nodded once before answering.

'It's random.

'What?'

'The order is determined by a completely random number. Any fractions that are not divisible by the number of people in the party will be randomly assigned.'

'Oh, I see. ...... Well, that's fine with me. It's a good idea to have a good time.

　Well, if you say it's decided by random numbers, then it can't be helped.
　In the first place, the ranking rewards for this event are quite random.
　For each server, the highest reward is from 1st to 6th place.
　From there to 100th is the next highest reward.
　The next highest reward is 1000th.
　The rest of the players are all the same.
　Each reward is a rare item, with the rarest being a 'revival potion' in this case.

　Besides, if you don't like random elements, you can dive one by one at the end.
　If you dive solo, all the stardust shards you get will count for you.

　By the way, we got a little over 500 shards this time around. We got about 100 from Mirage, so it seems that bosses are more efficient.
　We'll split it between the two of us, so each of us will have 250 at our disposal.

'Can we exchange them?

'You can exchange stardust shards. Here's the catalog.

'Catalog: ......'

　I take the magazine-like thing that was handed to me and flip through it. It's just an ordinary catalog.
　Something like ....... I wish there was a menu card or something in between, because I suddenly feel like I'm being pulled back into reality.

　When I regained my composure and inspected the contents, I found that there were about three pages of just potions: "Beginner Potions", "Intermediate Potions", "Potion Candy", and "MP Potions" .......
　It's nice to have MP potions. This item is quite difficult to make, and is quite expensive even in NPC stores.


　100 shards for intermediate. If you think that's what a boss of that strength would drop, then ...... isn't so bad.

'Hmmm...'

　Perhaps bored with juggling, Nana came to peek at the catalog I was reading.
　Because of our height difference, I lowered my hand to hold the catalog in consideration of Nana who was slightly stretched out.

'Ehehe, thank you.

'You're welcome. ...... Is there anything you want?'

'Hmm... I was thinking... I was wondering if there are any mapping items...'

　I was surprised to hear Nana say that with a chuckle.
　It took me about two and a half hours to complete each lap this time.
　You can't earn shards efficiently if you take this long every time, although of course you can't help it to a certain extent if you're doing a thorough search.
　I'm not sure what to make of it, but I think it's a good idea.
　The mainstream of games nowadays are games that can be played hard to become stronger, and games that can be played casually to some extent.
　As this was a round-the-clock event, it was only natural to think that the more you rounded the event, the more items you could get to make it easier.

'Iris, which items are related to the strategy?

'If that's the case, please look at the items after the return ticket.

　As he flipped through the catalog, he found that the items after the return tag were indeed all items that might be useful for the strategy, such as the map and the detection kit.
　The exchange rate for the map was quite high, requiring 200 pieces of stardust per piece. The "detection kit" is a substitute for the detection skill, and is said to have the same effect as the detection skill in exchange for a random chance of breaking.

'Nana, I'd like to make a map of two of them for now...'

'Alright~'

'Iris, give us one map each.

'A map. Then I'll take 200 pieces of stardust from each of you.

　We each collect a piece of stardust, and Iris gives us a map.
　When she took it out of her inventory, a map with "Map No. 16" in the upper left part appeared.
　The one that Nana took out is labeled "Map No. 11". Since the contents of the maps were different, it seemed to be a map of a different level.

'Nana, give me that.

'Do you think you can remember it?

　She tilts her head and looks at Nana, who asks her a question, and closes her eyes.
　I compare the contents of the map in my hand with the map in my brain that I had constructed from the route I had taken earlier.
　After about five minutes of careful checking, I found out something.
　The two maps we exchanged this time were one that overlapped with the hierarchy we had passed through in our first attempt, and one that did not.
　The map whose structure overlapped with the one I actually went through was, oddly enough, the one of the level where the jewelry box appeared.
　Of course, it's just that my memory and the route are very similar, but since they took the trouble to call it a map and put the exchange items on it, I should be able to assume that it's from the same level.
　No. 16 means there are at least 16 kinds. I don't know what the maximum number is, but it's probably around 20 at most, given the size of this dungeon and the duration of the event.
　The dungeon is made up of 10 levels of these randomly combined.

'............Yes, I learned both of them. I don't need them anymore, so I'll give them to Nana.



'Thank you. You've got a great memory.'

'It's the only thing I've got going for me. ...... We'll need more pieces to collect the map for now.'

'Do you want to go right away?

'No, let's just go through the catalog. You know, there are event-specific weapons, right?

　I stopped Nana, who was staring at the door with a twinkle in her eye, as if she was itching to go on a rampage.
　Yes, there are a few event-only items in this event, even though the map is now an easy target.
　In fact, the goal for normal players is to acquire and strengthen them.

　For example, this event's limited edition weapons are called the "Stardust" series. The armor is called the "Stardust" series. The only difference between the two is that the names are in English or Japanese, but they are easy to understand in the sense that they clearly distinguish the armor.

　If you ask me if they are strong, they are not particularly strong. It can be used by anyone from a beginner to a fierce, so it's about as good as a Trillia armor for sale in a store.
　As a weapon type, it does not support detailed derivatives. There are only the basic skills and their derivatives, so some people may not have any weapons they use.
　Even so, the fact that it's an event-only weapon makes it worthwhile, and from a beginner's point of view, it's certainly an exceptional performance.

'There's no gold bar ......'.

　While the two of us were looking at the catalog, Nana muttered something like that.
　She seemed to be rather seriously shocked, and kept her eyes downcast with a pensive expression. You'll be able to find a lot of people who are interested in this sort of thing.

　It's a good idea to have a good idea of what you're looking for and what you can do to help.
　In my case, it's a staff weapon called "Stardust Staff".
　The performance at the time of exchange is exactly the same as the "beginner" series of weapons you received at the time of initial setup.
　Each of these weapons can be exchanged for 250 shards, plus up to five additional 100 shards for each weapon.
　In other words, by collecting 750 shards for each weapon, you can increase its performance to the level of Trillia's store.
　In addition, the materials that can be exchanged are those that can be found in normal play, so even if you don't get all of them during the event, you can still get them by collecting them after the event.
　In the worst case, if you collect 250 of them, you'll be able to strengthen them somehow, so compilers will probably aim for that.
　Incidentally, this weapon, which at first glance seems to have only a temporary performance, has a very useful use for one reason.
　In particular, it has a use that can be a trump card for striking weapon users like Nana.
　Nana probably doesn't realize it yet, but there doesn't seem to be time to explain it to her.
　I thought to myself as I saw Nana shaking her body, as if the tingling had not subsided.

'Well, let's go for the second lap for now. I'll pick up the pace from before, okay?

'Hmm, make sure you follow me, okay?

　I went through the door again with Nana, who had recovered from the shock of the gold bar.
　Without saying a word, Iris bowed her head and quietly saw us off.