The Depths of Palm

The Depths of Palm (パルムの深き場所 Parumu no Fukaki Basho) is the 3rd episode of Log Horizon anime. It first aired on October 19, 2013.

Synopsis
The episode begins with Wyverns flying around Tear Stone Mountain, with Shiroe's Party walking to the Depths of Palm. Upon arriving at the entrance, Akatsuki notes that the area looks different in-person compared to when it was still a game.

Depths
A little bit later, Shiroe and Naotsugu are walking through the depths when Akatsuki reports in to tell them that there are no enemies in sight. Shiroe gives a recap on what they were doing; they are three days into a journey to save Serara in Susukino. Although Griffins can only be used four hours per day, with them, the party managed to travel a distance that would take two weeks by horse. As they approached Tear Stone Mountain, the presence of Wyverns caused them to decide to dismount the Griffins and go through the Depths of Palm by foot, even though it took more time and was dangerous. The Depths of Palm is a complex maze of ancient tunnels and mine shafts, that lead to the northern side of Tear Stone Mountain.

Back into present time, Naotsugu praises the design of the tunnel when suddenly, the bridge cracks, something they note was not in the game. Akatsuki and Shiroe then notice the presence of Rat-Men, a type of demi-human monster. Although low-leveled, they could spread Plague. Also, they instinctively knew the level difference between them and Shiroe's Party, so they decide not to attack until they could have the party cornered. For this reason, Shiroe decides to take another route when Akatsuki notices the presence of Rat-Men at the top of the tunnel.

As they to take a break in a safe area, Akatsuki reports that she already scouted the floor ahead. As Shiroe thanks Akatsuki and asks what she saw, Akatsuki gets annoyed by the fact that he was being too formal. Diverting his attention from the subject, Shiroe asks Naotsugu to go ahead and eat, but Naotsugu was depressed over the tasteless food that couldn't be cooked and didn't change even if a Chef made it. The only respite was that they could put salt and sugar into food to make it taste a bit better. After, as Naotsugu complains about their consistently mushy food, Shiroe gets a call from Maryelle, who asks about his location.

She is surprised when he told her that he had already reached the Depths of Palm, unaware that he and Naotsugu were in possession of Griffins. Henrietta barges into the call, first asking about how they did it, then immediately asking about Akatsuki's safety, much to the girl's horror. Diverting Maryelle's and Henrietta's questions, Shiroe asks the guild mistress about Serara's status, who informs him that Serara was hiding with a "nice guy" after Shiroe gives an explanation about Telepathy.

Serara's side
As Shiroe wonders what the "nice guy" in Susukino was like, the scene switches to Serara inside a house. There, she displays surprise and agony over the fact that her Housekeeper level is now 44, since she was always cleaning out of boredom. She bemoans how she picked such a useless subclass and wonders what it would be like to have a Production subclass while she cleans the house. Coming to a sort of realization, she declares that she's actually practicing being a housewife, waiting for her "kitty-husband" to come home. Much to to her shock and slight horror, Nyanta arrives just after she says this out loud.

Regaining her composure, Serara asks about situation in town, but it is the same as usual. Some Brigandia members are seen robbing from the Lander merchants and harassing them. As Nyanta and Serara talk, Nyanta praises the house’s cleanliness and shows that the house is located in a deserted building. Then, Nyanta asked about people on their way to save Serara, and she states that they may arrive the next day, before noon. Nyanta is pleasantly surprised that her rescuers had arrived at such a short amount of time.

Guild Gathering
Maryelle thanks Shiroe for accepting the request; once they end their conversation, the party continues their journey. Henrietta questions how Shiroe was going to cross the tunnel, but Maryelle is convinced that Shiroe had some plan. Henrietta then wonders why Shiroe refused joining guilds, but not even Maryelle knows why. At that moment, Liliana appears at the doorway, announcing that everybody has come. As Maryelle and some other Crescent Moon Alliance members walk along the hallway, Maryelle asks about the attendence and is informed that 60% were coming, 10% didn't reply, and 30% refused. Meanwhile, in D.D.D's guild hall, Takayama Misa informs Krusty about the small guilds' gathering and Shiroe's current position.

Fall and Flashback
Meanwhile, Naotsugu almost falls from the cracking bridge. Shiroe heard more cracking sound and tried to stop Akatsuki and Naotsugu when the bridge cracked. Just as Shiroe tries taking another route, the bridge cracks from underneath him and he plummets down below. Although Akatsuki wants to jump down after him, Naotsugu tries holding her back.



Shiroe is struggling to survive in the water, afraid that if he died, he would be transported back to the Cathedral in Akihabara. As he heard Akatsuki and Naotsugu call his name he reminisces about his life back in the real world, where he was an introvert. After he began playing Elder Tale, many people kept on asking and demanding things out of him due to his knowledge about the game. However, there was a group that wasn't like that, whose leader only wanted to see all the pretty scenery in the game.

As Shiroe regains consciousness, he sees Akatsuki hovering over him worriedly while Naotsugu is cleaning his sword. Naotsugu tells Shiroe to thank Akatsuki, as she jumped down to save him. Akatsuki adds that Naotsugu also jumped to save both of them. After Shiroe thanks both of them, Akatsuki also thanks Shiroe because he had tried to save her life. Shiroe remarks that he didn't feel any pain or chills, despite falling from a great height into water. Naotsugu justifies with their high level, noting that he didn't feel any fatigue despite having walked for a long time.

As the group approaches the exit, Akatsuki praises Shiroe's cartography skills, which Shiroe explains is the result of his Scribe subclass and his CAD work in real life, as he was an engineering student in his last year at college. With that, Akatsuki adds that this puts them around the same age, surprising the two men in the group. Unlike Shiroe, Naotsugu immediately blurts out his surprise, earning him a swift knee kick from the girl. In his attempt to ignore Akatsuki's threatening aura, Shiroe suddenly remembers two kids he was mentoring before the Catastrophe struck; he had forgotten about them, having seen them join a guild and deciding that they were safe.

Rat-Maso


Suddenly, they switched zones and became aware of a presence of something big blocking the stairs. The monster look like an extremely large Rat-Man and Shiroe suppose it was a new monster in the Homesteading the Noosphere expansion. Although it was risky, Shiroe decided to eliminate Rat-Maso. Naotsugu went to the right of monster, distracting it with a skill. As the monster attacked Naotsugu with his tail, Akatsuki attacks from behind with Stealth Blade, and Naotsugu attacks with Cross Slash. While Naotsugu and Akatsuki keep fighting, Shiroe uses Thorn Bind Hostage. Akatsuki and Naotsugu break the thorns to deal extra damage, but its defense is pretty high. Akatsuki finish last shot with Assassinate skill and buffs from Shiroe's Mind Shock and Keen Edge skills.



Upon finally reaching the other side of the mountains, Shiroe is stunned by the gorgeous ocean view with the sunset. Shiroe remembers his time in the Debauchery Tea Party, where its leader told him that adventures would let them see new things. With that, Shiroe tells the other two that they were the first ones in this new world to see the other side of the Depths of Palm.

Susukino side
In Susukino, Demiqas, the leader of Brigandia, makes his threat known as he kills a member of his own guild who was trying to back out of their habit of killing and stealing from Adventurers. Infuriated that Serara and Nyanta still eluded him, he ordered his men to continue searching for them.