I hate being in pain, so I think I'll make a full defense build

Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 179 Defense Specialization and the Haunted Mansion 2

Maple shot into the mansion along with Sally, and then the door shut behind them.

“Alright, stand up, stand up Sally! Didn’t you come here to get something?”

“Ah…yes. Maple…stay close by, okay?”

“Of course!”

Maple took Sally’s hands to help her up, and then she scanned her surroundings.

It was a fairly large mansion, and aside from the entrance that they had just come in from, there were three other doors. In the front and on the right and the left.

There was also a staircase that led to a second floor with more doors.

And an old, broken chandelier hung from the ceiling.

The walls were lined with candle holders. The candles were mostly melted down, and their flames flickered gently.

“It’s big in here. So, where are we supposed to go?”

Maple asked Sally.

“Uh…huh? …I don’t know yet…”

There were many holes in the information she had gathered.

And it wasn’t so much that the information was not yet available, but that Sally had not gathered information like she usually did.

“Then we’ll just have to explore the whole building.”

Maple said. Sally shook her head vigorously.

“Let’s come back after I’ve done more research. Okay? It won’t be very efficient for us to explore now, and the monsters are likely to be strong. There will be plenty of fighting…I think we should find out the shortest route first…”

Maple narrowed her eyes and stared hard at Sally as she began to rant. Then Sally suddenly stopped.

“No. Let’s hurry up and get this over with! Don’t worry, I’m here with you!”

“Umm…”

Maple was there, and she had Dedicated Affection activated constantly, so they were generally protected from all enemies.

So even if Sally was shaking like a newborn deer, the chances of them being killed were incredibly low.

“Alright, let’s go by instinct…to the right!”

Maple walked over to the door on the right and opened it.

Dust blew in the air and revealed a long hallway that stretched behind the door.

Maple put a hand to her ear and listened for any sounds. But she could not hear anything.

“Yes. There’s nothing here.”

Maple said and started to walk.

The long hallways had several places that allowed you to turn to the left.

Not only that, but there were doors that likely lead to other rooms, meaning that there were many places to search.

“Where should we try first…woah!”

Maple felt something strange at her feet, and so she looked down.

What she saw were numerous pale and translucent hands coming out of the floor to grab her and Sally’s feet.

The hands stretched up and grabbed their bodies.

And then the ghostly woman they saw in the air passed through the walls and came towards them.

“Ma-ma-ma-mamamamamaple!!”

“Wait a second!”

Maple took out her sword and cut at the hands that grabbed their feet.

While they could not be killed, they withdrew and vanished.

Maple also carefully slashed at the hands near Sally’s feet, and then she fired her weapons at the ghost woman.

“Phew. Good! Are you alright now?”

“Yes…I’m glad you’re here, Maple.”

Sally seemed as weak as ever, and her spirit was nearly broken.

As Sally had said before, it was over once you felt that you could not do it.

“Let’s explore this place quickly and leave!”

Just as Maple started to walk again, a dim blue light began to flash.

Normally, it would have been very easy for Sally to allow Maple to escape and then run away herself.

The light became bigger, and before they knew it, both of them were teleported away.

As they were enveloped by light, Sally realized that it was an emergency situation, and her senses informed her of something that she did not want to know.

It was the sensation of Maple’s hand slipping out of her grasp.

The light faded, and when Sally opened her eyes, she was in an unfamiliar hallway.

“Ma-Maple? Where…where? Ahh…!”

Sally called for Maple in a trembling voice. Just then, something hit her left shoulder from the back.

Sally shuddered and then froze. Then she looked at her left shoulder.

There was a thin, white hand that was clearly not part of a living person.

The hand was connected to an abnormally cold and thin arm that continued to wrap around Sally.

“Ah….Ah-ah-ah, no…AGAHAGAHAHAAGA!!!”

Sally shrieked as she began to run, and she was able to escape the cold embrace.

She continued to run until she fell into a certain room.

“Hah, ha, hahh. Lo-Log out…”

Just as Sally pulled out the panel in order to log out, red handprints appeared on the panel and banged on it noisily.

“Owwww…”

Within her horror, a calm part of Sally’s mind recalled a piece of information.

There were logout limitations in certain areas. It had something to do with the monsters in the area.

They depleted your AGI every time they touched you, and when it turned to 0, you would die.

It was an area that was supposed to be easy to escape if you could move normally.

“It’s…it’s chasing me…”

It was slow, and if you carefully made your way around the mansion without stopping, then it would not be able to catch you.

Of course, it was now clear that this was no easy task for Sally.