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 less monsters for us to fight," Alex said.

"Less? Are you forgetting the ember bugs? I'm pretty sure just that room had more monsters than this whole valley," Hera said.

"Well, it depends if there are tadpoles or underground caverns. If not, then you are probably right," Bonnie said after a moment.

"Really? I kind of want to go there later," Mark said.

"Wow, guys, check this out. I guess this is how we clear the poison pool in the boss," Blue said, holding the pearl towards the group. Hera activated her [Inspect]

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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.

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"Oh, crap. That's awesome," Mark gasped.

"I know, right? With this, we can clear the poison in the pools," Hera said.

"Maybe even use it on us if someone gets covered in poison," Bonnie said.

"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 said.

"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 replied.

"No, not that one. I mean the dungeon quest," Leo said.

"Speaking of which. Where is the quest? I didn't get it," Alex was looking at the 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 asked.

"No, maybe it's something obvious that we missed," Bonnie said.

"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 said.

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, but its grey skin gave way to tears dripping with the same ooze, and there were several cracks on its skin showing purple flesh under it.

There was a small lizard, moving backward in front of the frog while staring at the massive grey 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)

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Valley Lizard (Water Affinity)

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"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 assassinates could be enough to kill the beast. When they were far enough away from the group, Leo and Blue rushed towards the frog. As long as it was focused on them, it shouldn't notice the duo 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 pair of frogs.

Hera and Alex got closer to the grey 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 in an animal, but Leo had learned a few taming skills and spells that made the communication easier. The rain frog slammed its body on the side of the monster, rushing back towards Leo right after. That was the way they fought. Leo would be the main tank while Tiger would use its speed to distract and damage their target. 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 its 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. 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. He had a considerable amount of ammo on him, and about two times that in small arrowheads that he could use to make more.

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.

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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, while the other creatures defend their territory.

Solve the conflict inside the valley.

First completion rewards:

5 000 gold, minor mana stone

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"Duuudeee, we get mana stones here?" Mark gasped.

"I guess so. Why is that so exciting?" Blue asked.

"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," Mark explained.

"They are also very expensive. I think that a medium-sized one can go for like 50 000," Alex said.

"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 asked.

"I vote team lizard. The idea is to do a few runs here, right? We can try the other options later," Hera said.

"I kind of agree with that. We can feel like the good guys for a while," Bonnie 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 was 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 couldn't test it right now.

During that time, the lizard was watching the group. The creature had a 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. With no other option, 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 and noticed a small purple water pool and an area where the trees were dripping with the purple sludge.

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 the MAZE, things still followed some sort of logic. There had to be a source for it all.

The more they walked, the bigger the critters became. Soon even Tiger was smaller than the rest of the frogs. Finally, they 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 inside the pools. Hera kept watching the one in the middle. 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 to 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.

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Garjat - Elder Frog (Lightning Affinity)

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"That one uses thunder!" Hera warned.

Tha 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 his 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 under 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, Hera remembered the slumbering emperor and felt a knot in her stomach. Was she even allowed to worry about such a thing anymore?

Hera was in a daze when Blue approached her, "Hey. Are you ok?"

The explorer shook her head, "Yeah, sorry. Just dealing with some stuff. You don't happen to have icecream on you?"

Blue shook her head with a weak smile, and they kept walking towards the other side of the hot springs. After a few moments of walking, 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.

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Lesser Poison Frog

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Lesser Poison Frog

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Lesser Poison Frog

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Hera and Bonnie rushed back towards the group as a fourth shape emerged from the poison pool.

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Poison Frog

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"Watch out, guys. Don't let that sludge hit you," Leo said as he got ready for the fight.