Leo dashed forward, piercing a poisonous frog in its stomach. The creature fell to the ground, lifeless. A few moments later, it vanished, leaving a small pearl and a gold coin behind.
"Hey, this is new," Blue said as she got close to the pearl.
"The drop rate in these dungeons is pretty good," Mark walked towards the coin.
"I think they vary. The lookout wasn't that good. Although there were fewer monsters for us to fight," Alex said.
"Less? Are you forgetting the Emberbugs? I'm pretty sure just that room had more monsters than this whole valley," Hera said.
Bonnie stopped to think for a moment, "Well, it depends if there are tadpoles or underground caverns. If not, then you are probably right."
"What are Emberbugs?" Mark frowned.
"In the Arcanist Lookout dungeon, we fought a bunch of tiny bugs the size of embers," Leo explained as he helped Tiger walk away from the poison pool on the ground.
"Really? I kind of want to go there later," Mark said.
"Wow, check this out. I guess this is how we clear the poison pool in the boss," Blue said, holding the pearl towards the group. Activating her [Inspect] Hera checked what the controller was talking about.
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Purifying Pearl
Consumable
A pearl that is created inside the heart of some creatures contaminated with poison. The pearl works as a cleansing device, filtering the poison flowing through the blood vessels, allowing the creature to survive.
Can be used to cleanse poison in an area.
Only usable inside the Frog Valley.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh, crap. That's awesome," Mark gasped.
"I know, right? With this, we can clear the poison in the pools," Hera smiled.
"Maybe even use it on us if someone gets covered in poison," Bonnie picked the pearl and placed in her pouch.
"What? No, I mean cool and all, but I'm talking about the gold. This one is worth twenty," Mark was almost dancing while picking the coin.
"That's great and all, but we will get more from the quest," Leo had Tiger on his arms and was petting the frog.
"I'm not so sure we will be able to find those items. Besides, the quest we got in the guild only gives what? 2 000 gold per item? We are not getting enough for all of us," Mark rolled his eyes.
"No, not that one. I mean the dungeon quest," Leo said without looking away from Tiger.
"Speaking of which. Where is the quest? I didn't get it," Alex pulled up her tablet, making sure she didn't miss anything.
"We still didn't get it. Maybe we need something to trigger it first. Did it say anything in the compendium?" Hera turned towards Bonnie.
"No, maybe it's something obvious that we missed," the Researcher frowned, her golden hair falling in front of her face.
"Or maybe we get it later. I mean, the path so far is very linear. We are not even out of this entrance and already faced a few frogs. If we move away from this path, we find a wall not far from here," Alex gestured to the side, using her tablet to double check the information.
Agreeing to move a bit further, the group headed deeper into the valley, killing a couple more frogs until they reached a large wooden archway. Beyond it, there was another poison frog, but it was different than the other ones. It still was drooling that purple sludge that every other frog had. However, its gray skin gave way to cracks dripping with the same ooze. The larger gaps revealed an eerie looking purple flesh underneath.
There was a small lizard moving backward in front of the frog while staring at the massive gray beast. As much as it was small, it still was much bigger than a regular lizard, being the size of a husky. Hera activated the Affinity Sight once more and used [Observe] on the two creatures.
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Poison Frog (Poison Affinity)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Valley Lizard (Water Affinity)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Should we save it? Or kill them both?" Leo asked.
"Let's deal with the big one first. Otherwise, it's gonna kill the lizard before we have a chance to decide," Alex said, already activating her [Hide] and moving to the frog's back.
Hera followed her cue. A double hit from two Assassins could be enough to kill the monster. When the pair had moved far enough away from the group and close to the creatures, Leo and Blue rushed towards the frog. As long as it was focused on them, it shouldn't notice Hera and Alex moving to strike it. Tiger let out a squeak that seemed to catch the attention of the lizard, who skittered back, trying to move away from the now two frogs.
Hera and Alex got closer to the gray monster, and as soon as Bonnie launched an Air Fist towards the creature, the two jumped towards the frog, hitting its back with their weapons. The gashes made by the blades showed that the frog's skin was flaccid and loose in places. Underneath it, its muscles were all purple, just like the sludge coming out of its mouth.
Leo rushed at the frog, telling Tiger to distract the monster but avoid the sludge. Typically, such a complicated order wouldn't work on a monster, but Leo had learned a few taming skills and spells that made communication easier. The rain frog slammed its body against the side of the monster, rushing back towards Leo right after.
This had become their way of fighting. Leo would be the main tank, making sure their target was always focused on him, while Tiger would use its speed to mess with the creature they were attacking. It was surprisingly effective, especially against frogs, since they had trouble spinning around. Tiger had the same issue, but Leo trained him to dash while turning his body in the air. That way, he could be ready to change his direction before landing.
Hera and Alex kept doing hit and run tactics, worried that the blood coming out of the monster could be harmful to them. At the same time, Blue was attacking in a similar way but without moving away from the frog's sight. She was still the tank, after all. Mark kept sending arrow after arrow towards it, the beast. He had a considerable amount of ammo on him, and about two times that in small arrowheads that he could use to make more on the go.
If all that wasn't enough, Bonnie also kept sending Air Fist spells at the creature every chance she got. It was hard to get a clean shot when so many people were fighting the same target, yet she still managed to do so every so often.
The poison frog held its own for a while, but the assault from the party's six members was too much for it. In less than two minutes, the creature fell limp on the floor.
As they turned their attention towards the lizard, a window popped up in front of them all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have discovered the Frog Valley's conflict
Dungeon Quest:
The Frog Valley is a place filled with conflict.
The poison creatures are trying to overtake the valley by spreading their poisonous mana. At the same time, the other beings who live in the area defend their territory with everything they have.
Solve the conflict inside the valley.
First completion rewards:
5,000 gold, minor mana stone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Duuudeee, we get mana stones here?" Mark gasped.
"I guess so. Why is that so exciting?" Blue frowned. .
"You are kidding, right? Mana stones are used in the generators. We can use it to make some self-sustaining enchantments. Or we can use it as a backup mana source," Bonnie explained.
"They are also very expensive. I think that a medium-sized one can go for like 50,000," Alex was trying to search the information on her tablet, but without an internet connection she couldn't access the shops.
"Yeah! There are some specialized ones too, like mana stones for fire mana or water mana. They are more expensive and more effective in certain situations, but worse in others," Mark seemed really giddy with the idea of getting a mana stone.
"Before we get the stone, we need to figure out what to do with the quest. What do you guys think? Team poison, team lizard, or team kill them all?" Blue turned to the group.
"Kill them all?" Bonnie gasped.
"Yeah. It says to solve the conflict. There is no more fighting if everyone is dead," Blue shrugged.
"I vote team lizard. The idea is to do a few runs here, right? We can try the other options later," Hera added before the Researcher could say anything else.
"I kind of agree with that. We can feel like the good guys for a while," Mark nodded.
"Why good guys? They are all monsters, and they don't even leave a body. Killing them all or some of them won't make us good or bad guys," Alex rolled her eyes.
"Still, it's better than killing those cute lizards," Blue was approaching the creature as if it were a dog.
"Talking about killing, what did that big one drop?" Leo turned towards where the body of the giant frog was.
In place of a corpse, there were four golden coins and a pearl. This one was larger than the other one they had found, but the description stayed the same. Their best guess was that the bigger one could cleanse a larger area, but they didn't want to waste the two pearls testing it right now.
During that time, the lizard was watching the group. The creature had light green skin with two white stripes on its sides and a blue diamond shape mark on its forehead. As the group tried to approach it, the lizard vanished between the bushes at the side.
They tried finding it, but to no avail. Having no other options, they kept heading further into the valley. A few regular-sized frogs started to appear around the area, and they saw a couple of places where the poison was already spreading. Small purple water pools and trees dripping with the purple sludge were starting to appear everywhere.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Hera and Bonnie were marking those places on their maps, trying to figure out where the poison was coming from. Even if they were inside a dungeon, things still followed some sort of logic. There had to be a source or a pattern for it all.
The more they walked, the bigger the critters became. Soon even Tiger was smaller than the rest of the lizards. After several minutes, they finally reached a larger open area. The trees and bushes gave way to dozens of small hot springs, with a very large one in the middle of them all.
They moved carefully through the area, making sure not to end up falling into the pools. Hera kept watching the one in the middle as it looked too much like a boss arena. When they were close enough, she activated her pulse spell. Inside the smaller banks, several small frogs were swimming in the thermal waters. However, in the large one, there was a massive creature, almost big enough to cover the entire pool.
As they got closer, the creature raised from the depths, splashing the hot water into the smaller pools. The beast was a massive light brown frog that glistened as the water dripped from its body.
"Watch out!" Alex cried as she jumped back, moving away from the larger pool.
Hera got her handaxe and chakram on hand and got ready for a fight, already activating her [Observe] and using the Affinity Sight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Garjat - Elder Frog (Lightning Affinity)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"That one uses thunder!" Hera warned.
The massive frog, towering over the party, took a few moments to open its eyes. When it saw the group of people in front of it, the frog jerked back, smashing its back on the edge of the pool. His face was odd, its eyes were wide, and its mouth partially open. It kept pushing itself backward in an almost cartoonish way.
"Is it just me, or does it look scared?" Alex asked.
"It kind of does," Blue said, standing in front of the creature.
The frog dove once more into the pool of water. Most of its body was mostly submerged, but a small part of its back still appeared after all the water it splashed away. It was clear that the monster was shivering. The group gathered once more around the pool and watched the creature. Hera could see that the water rose once more, although it would take some time before completely covering the frog.
"Still feel we are not the good guys?" Blue turned to Alex with a smile.
The assassin shrugged, "I'm not saying I wouldn't feel kind of bad for attacking it, but something that size wouldn't go down without a fight."
Hera nodded, but still fighting a creature that was so afraid wouldn't be her first option. At that moment, the Explorer remembered the slumbering emperor and felt a knot in her stomach. Was she even allowed to worry about such a thing anymore?
She was in a daze when Blue approached her, "Hey. Are you ok?"
The Explorer shook her head, snapping out of her trance, "Yeah, sorry. Just dealing with some stuff. You don't happen to have ice cream on you?"
Blue shook her head with a weak smile, and they kept walking towards the other side of the hot springs. Once they left the cluster of thermal waters, the group reached another pool of poison. Hera and Bonnie approached it, trying to see if there was any other hint about the source of all the poison, when three creatures jumped out of the pool.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesser Poison Frog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesser Poison Frog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesser Poison Frog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The pair rushed back towards the group as a fourth shape emerged from the poison pool. It had the same shape as the other frogs. However, the gray skin almost looked like a ripped shirt, slowly being removed by the purple flesh that burst from within.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Poison Frog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Watch out, guys. Don't let that sludge hit you," Leo said as he got ready for the fight.
The three lesser frogs jumped towards the group, Hera and Alex jumped to the side. Each of them dealt with one of the creatures. Leo was holding back the third one while Blue distracted the big one coming from the pond.
Bonnie and Mark were moving back, flinging spells and arrows towards the smaller ones. Luckily, fighting the lesser frogs was very similar to the frogs they were used to fighting. They only had to be more careful with their tongues. Every time one of the creatures opened its mouth, more of that sludge fell to the ground, spreading even more poison around.
Blue was punching the larger frog, sparks crackling around the two. Hera's eyes went toward her friend. She needed to deal with the small one quickly to help the Controller.
With a sidestep, Hera was able to cut the frog twice on the back of its neck. Still, it wasn't enough to kill it. Two arrows hit the frog's face, and Hera took that chance to hit it once more on the neck, trying to cleave its head off. The frog was in bad shape but still endured the assault. Luckily enough, its wounds didn't splatter more of the sludge. Only the liquid coming out of its mouth seemed to be part of the poison.
It took Hera four more strikes before she was able to kill the monster in front of her. A few to the face and head, with the last one opening up its stomach. With the lesser poison frog on the ground, Hera rushed to help Blue. Apparently, that was the same idea that Leo had. The hunter was already dashing towards the giant frog to help the controller, having finished off another of the smaller frogs.
The loose skin of the poison frog was proving to be a problem for Blue. Her fists would sometimes lose their power as the skin was pulled to the side. Blunt strikes seemed to be far from optimal while fighting that creature.
As Leo arrived, his spear pierced the frog's stomach, making some of its blood and some small amounts of sludge spill into the pool. Blue had to dodge away from it to avoid being poisoned. It was hard to fight the creature without jumping into the water.
When Hera joined the fray, she had her chakram tied to Yarnball's string. Having a mid-range weapon could help a lot to deal with the frogs without getting close enough to be splashed by the poison. It was a shame she still had yet to learn any new attack spells. The poison spray and needle would probably be wasted in this area. Spinning her Mayura's Feather, she struck three times in a row at the poison frog's leg.
Soon after that, Bonnie started to throw spells at the poison frog. The beast sent its tongue toward Mark and Bonnie. Not wanting to leave her friends out in the open, Hera tried to hit it with her chakram, but could only make a small cut on the tongue. Alex suddenly appeared, following that attack with an upward slash, making part of the tongue fall to the ground.
Hera turned back to aim at the frog's head. She kept spinning her chakram, aiming at its eyes. Leo was split between stabbing the creature and telling Tiger to stay back. The rain frog wanted to help in the fight, but there was no way to attack the poison frog without falling into the water.
Because of the difficult terrain, the fight took longer than expected. It was hard for Blue to keep the frog's attention while she couldn't attack it as often. Finally, after three minutes, the frog died, its corpse submerged in the pool.
"Crap! Are you going to die?" Mark gasped.
"Stop with the drama, it's just a bit of poison," Bonnie pushed the man who was looking at her arm away. There was some sludge covering the cloth atop her right biceps.
"Sorry! I should have kept its attention on me," Blue said as she rushed towards the researcher.
"Don't worry. We have the pearls. Everyone ok with me using one here?" Bonnie asked.
"Yeah, but can we use two? The frog dropped something different," Leo said.
Bonnie, who was holding a pearl near her arm, stopped her hand and walked over to the pond. In the middle of it, there were a few coins, a pearl, and something that looked like a brick. The researcher stared at the pearl for a moment and kneeled by the water.
"Hera, hold this," Bonnie gave the pearl to her friend.
"What are you... Bonnie!" Hera watched as the researcher placed her hand in the contaminated water.
"Now give me the pearl. I'm not sure if we need to break it or just touch the poison for it to work," Bonnie said. Hera just gave the pearl back, still in shock from the situation.
"What are you doing?" Leo yelled.
"I'm testing how this pearl thing works. It never said anything about the range. Maybe one pearl is enough to cleanse both the water and my arm. Worst-case scenario, we use two here," she explained.
"We didn't even agree if we were going to use two," Leo rebutted.
"Sorry, I wanted to test this fast. I can feel the poison starting to seep into my arm." Bonnie said as she dropped the pearl into the water.
As the pearl hit the poison, it melted into the water. A pearlescent glow started to cover the area, spreading through all the pond and beyond. Bonnie was bathed in the light as well as Hera, who was near her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have been cleansed by a Purifying Pearl
Poison immunity granted for the next 3 seconds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the light vanished, Hera and Bonnie stared at each other.
"Did you get that notification?" Hera asked.
"Yeah, this thing is way too strong. Look how big is the area it affected," Bonnie looked around. Even a tree that was by the pond was clear of all poison. It should be around 7 meters away from where the pearl was.
"I'm not talking about that, Bonnie. The three seconds," Hera said with a smile.
"What are you..." Bonnie suddenly jolted up with a big smile, "You think that would nullify attacks?"
"Yep, it said immunity to poison, not resistance. So if something spits poison or uses a strong poison spell, this could save everyone. Or at least I think it would. We still need to make sure of it," Hera explained.
"What are you two talking about?" Alex asked.
They explained the notification and how it could potentially save them from a big attack. After that, they checked the loot from the monsters. In total, they got 50 gold, another large pearl, and something that looked like a block of clay.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Impermeable Clay
Consumable
When applied to a surface, this clay created an area that cannot get wet.
If used inside the Frog Valley, the clay becomes a layer of protection against any environmental poison in liquid form.
Duration 1 hour
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Nice! With this, I can jump in the water and actually fight," Blue said as she read the description.
"Yeah, although I'm still weirded out about where the frogs came from. Look," Alex jumped into the small pond, which was now clear of poison, and walked to the middle of it. The water never got higher than her thighs, "It's weird, right?"
"Well.. things inside dungeons do disappear. Maybe they appear like that too. I think it was called... spaning," Bonnie said.
"It's actually spawning," everyone stared at Mark, who just corrected Bonnie, "What? It's a gaming term. When a monster appears out of thin air, they are spawning. Spawn kill is actually a widespread tactic in games."
Hera nodded, hearing his explanation remind her of the term, even though it was a long time since she played some games. The group finished their looting and kept heading to the other side of the valley.
Blue was excited about using the clay, but she agreed that it was better if she waited to get closer to an area they would actually need it before wasting it. By the amount, it also seemed like they could use it on multiple people, especially if they only covered part of their bodies.
They fought a few more of the lesser poison frogs on the way to the back of the valley, but since the group was staying clear of the poison pools, none of the bigger ones appeared. After crossing to the snake territory, the poison frogs stopped appearing. Instead, odd, bloated, gray snakes started to assault the group.
They weren't very agile, and a few weren't even able to move their heads properly. Yet they came in larger numbers. At one point, Blue was dealing with three of them while each member of the party dealt with another snake, even Tiger had to hold one of them back on his own.
At least the snakes would drop some pearls. They found one item every ten or so snakes. Gold was still dropped by most of them but in much smaller quantities. Even after killing more than fifty snakes, they only got 18 gold and a about six pearls.
After some time, the lesser poison snakes were starting to become considerably big. A few were already large enough to eat Tiger whole. The group was moving in a tighter formation. Seeing giant frogs was one thing, but seeing giant snakes was terrifying.
An anaconda back on Earth was already big enough to swallow a person. A snake that reached their waist without even raising their heads was something out of a nightmare. Luckily none of those snakes weren't attacking them.
The group reached an area where the walls of the valley closed in. There was a large cavern in the wall with some large stones protruding from the ground, creating secondary entrances on the left side. Coming out of the holes, several snakes were watching something. Hera followed their eyes and saw a gigantic viper fighting with a purple and black giant lizard. The two monsters were almost as tall as the surrounding trees.
The two beasts were throwing each other to the sides, slamming their massive frames against the walls. Hera and her party were all shocked by the display. This was a real fight between monsters. The ground rumbled with each impact between the titans in front of them.
The viper was not only biting but also using its tail as a whip. With a strike of its claws, the lizard made some deep gashes in the viper's skin. In response, the snake went to bite the lizard. It had a clear shot at the lizard's neck, but the bite stopped short, spraying a liquid on the creature's side. The lizard's skin started to fizzle and boil as if it was hit by burning oil. The beast roared and jumped towards the viper, pinning it to the ground with one of its legs and clawing away at it with the other.
The viper looked helpless, but just for a moment. It took advantage of the position of its body and wrapped itself around the lizard. They both struggled for a moment. Hera unconsciously held her breath as if she was watching a wildlife documentary. Then, with a sickening crunch, the lizard went limp.
The viper let go of the creature and raised its head in a silent roar. When it finally lower its head, Hera came out of her daze and activated the Affinity Sight and her [Observe].
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chu'a - Elder Snake (Acid Affinity)
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greater Poison Lizard (Corpse)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"That one uses acid, can we do anything about that?" Hera asked.
"I'm not sure, you think the clay could work?" Blue looked at the block of clay.
"I don't think so. It talks specifically about poison," Bonnie shook her head..
"Fuck," Leo cursed.
They all turned their heads to where Leo was looking. In front of them, the giant viper was staring at the group through its red eyes.
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