Chapter 57

The road from Pura and past the wheat field seemed to look the same as always. The intensity of the downpour didn’t differ from in the city, but the massive amounts of rain that flowed through the gutters in there seemed not to have bothered the nature here; not yet, anyway. The wheat field also looked like it hadn’t changed much at all. The tutorial forest, on the other hand, had. The trees stood much closer together, and the leaves showed colors in red, orange, and yellow throughout. Some had started to lose them, creating a soft rug and made the groups’ steps almost silent as they walked into the open dungeon.

The air smelled sweet from the wet leaves, but there was also something bitter that Leon couldn’t place. Bigger drops of rain fell from the tree crowns and slid off the players’ invisible barriers, and where branches didn’t shield the ground, the rain poured in as normal. The stones had increased in quantity but lessened in size, and most of their surfaces were laden with moss. The group continued in silence, just inspecting the surroundings while they walked. A minute into the forest, Leon stopped and looked around.

Where there had once been only trees, there was sunken ground, with puddles resting in the middle, and everything held deep earthy colors. Vines hung from the branches above them, connecting the tree crowns to each other.

“It looks like a witch’s swamp,” Finn said, stepping forward. “Kinda cut out of a video game. Not very original.”

Leon nodded. “I agree. The only things missing are the death caps and other poisonous mushrooms.” He smiled to himself. They had probably chosen the comforts of being in Crag’s dungeon over being out here.

“Do you think we’ll face witches?” Ava asked, looking around. “With spells?”

“Likely not.” Leon stepped forward, closer to the area, and his boot met not just a puddle, but water deep enough to cover his shoe. Swamp was the right word for it. He kind of understood why the game decided to not let the players get wet. If this was how the areas would look like during this season, people would be miserable while fighting. They would likely return before they had made any actual progress. Leon shivered, just thinking about walking around in wet, cold socks. That was also a new thing; it was chillier than normal. He welcomed that.

They continued onward, keeping a keen eye on the dirt path where they walked. It was raised higher than the surrounding areas, except for a few smaller parts, so they kept on it for now. There were swamp areas to the sides of them where the ground had sunken in, leaving a thicker layer of water in a circular pattern. Those areas were divided by small patches of forest where the trees stood thick and patches of moss and stone covered the ground.

“We still haven’t found anything, and we’ve walked for like ten minutes,” Finn complained, shaking his boot, even though it shouldn’t be wet. “If our wise leader had taken us to the wheat field, we would have run into at least three monsters by now.”

“Maybe,” Leon said, leading the way further in, “but we know nothing about what we’re going to face this season. I thought it would be for the best to try out some lower level monsters to see what we can expect, instead of rushing into something we might regret.”

Finn was right, though. How far did they have to get from the forest entrance to actually face a monster? Maybe these areas were mapped out, and they had to diverge from the paths? That would be different from when the wolves walked about in here, but the entire season seemed to make things different. He could always use his skill to call on any monsters nearby, even if he didn’t know their sounds, but was it worth the risk of calling on all monsters in the area when they didn’t know what they would face?

“This is a waste of time,” Finn said, stepping forward. He swatted a fly away with a hand.

“Wait.” Leon held up a hand and stopped. The others followed suit; even Finn.

Finn tapped a foot on the ground, which would have been annoying if not the wet leaves and the sound of dripping rain mainly blurred it out. Leon looked around. The entire forest seemed to have come alive without him noticing; not with monsters, but with insects. Flies that were as big as his thumb, dragonflies the size of his arm, centipedes long as his leg, and beetles as big as his fist, and other insects crawling about, all in much larger sizes than they had the right to be. Most of them were camouflaged against the bark of the trees, but clearly visible when one looked for them.

The others followed his gaze around, and Ava let out a squeak and jumped to the middle of the path.

“That’s so disgusting!” she said. “Let’s go back. I don’t want to be here!”

“You didn’t even notice them until now,” Hert muttered. “Just pretend they aren’t there.”

Ava spun around to face him. “That’s impossible!”

“Decide not to look at them, then.” Hert shrugged. “They don’t seem to want anything to do with us, just living their peaceful lives.”

“It feels like they’re crawling over my skin!”

“But they aren’t.”

Leon looked around, ignoring their banter. Since the insects were so big, they must be there for a reason, but they weren’t big enough to be the monsters, and as Hert said, the insects hadn’t attacked them. He sighed.

“Man, let’s turn back,” Finn said, shaking his head. He stepped toward Leon. “We’re not gonna get anything done—” His sentence got cut short as something snapped over his face, and he fell backward with a surprised yelp.

Leon spun around, looking. Something flew toward him, and he ducked just in time.

“A frog!” Ava said.

“That’s a toad,” Hert hurried toward them, holding his shield up. Ava jogged to stay behind him.

The dark blue tongue that had tried attacking Leon snapped back to where it came from, which was a place several paces from the path they stood on.

A toad big as a Labrador sat on the edge of the round swamp area, and in front of it sat three frogs, half its size. All four creatures had a dull green color, like moss, making them almost invisible when looking over the environment. They stared at Leon’s group with their black eyes. Even though they didn’t have pupils, one could feel their gaze. How many of these groups had they passed while looking for monsters to fight? Probably one or two, depending on where the insects gathered.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Finn crawled to his feet, holding his cheek. “Bastard poisoned me!” He hauled out his bow.

“Wait!” Leon held out his arm, forcing Finn to choose between stepping off the path to ready his shot or wait without doing anything.

Finn grimaced and held his bow by his side. “They’re level three. One hit and they’re goners. Not gonna bring us much coin, and with that hit, I just lost ten. They’re dead!”

Leon nodded. “You’re probably right. But we won’t take them out immediately.”

“Why the hell not?” Finn spat. He looked at Hert and Ava and quickly sidled to stand behind her and Hert’s shield.

Leon drew his sword from the inventory. “We want to see what they can do, so we can be prepared for it.”

“Not we, you,” Finn hissed. “Well, take them out or take the hits! What are you waiting for?”

Leon looked at the creatures. All three of the frogs croaked and then their tongues lashed out. One toward him, and two toward Hert and his shield. Leon stepped aside and cut in a downward motion. He heard a small croak as the tip of the tongue fell onto the ground, where it wriggled for a few seconds. Then it laid still.

The tongues that hit Hert’s shield drew back, and Leon walked into the sunken area. The water reached his ankles and the soles of his shoes sank. As he moved forward, there was a small bit of resistance, which ended with a ‘plop’ when he pulled the shoe out of the mud. That was going to be a problem. The wetness did nothing to him as a person, but he didn’t doubt his shoes would get wet if they left his foot.

Leon ran forward, hoping his feet wouldn’t have the time to get sucked in. When the frogs croaked again, Leon dashed to the side. The three tongues coming toward him smacked into each other just beside his head. They were quick, but it seemed to take them some time to actually attack. It was also interesting that the frog that had the tip of its tongue cut off still attacked with it.

He looked at the toad, which hadn’t moved yet. It just followed Leon’s movements with its beady, black eyes. Leon struck his sword into the first frog, and with a small croak, it laid lifeless, sinking a little into the mud. He moved sideways toward the two other frogs, when they suddenly stretched out their legs and launched toward him. Leon threw himself down, and they jumped over, landing behind him. Leon spun around and slashed out with the sword, and one fell down.

“He ate it!” Ava said from the path.

Leon looked behind his shoulder, where the frog he’d taken down first had disappeared. A leg stuck out of the toad’s mouth as it crunched away.

“Hey, Leon,” Hert called. “Don’t get too close to the toad. He might actually chew you up.”

Leon ducked for the last frog jumping at him, and the toad lashed out a tongue. Not at Leon, but at the other fallen frog. It wrapped the tongue around the smaller monster’s body and suddenly, that too was in the toad’s mouth. Leon looked at the last remaining frog, wondering what was up with this group of creatures. The frog started shifting color. Red streaks appeared on its back, leading from the head to the legs. Before anything else happened, he stabbed the frog. Just as his blade left it, the toad’s tongue was there and grabbed the dead amphibian. Leon swung toward the tongue, but it was too quick. The toad opened its mouth, revealing a purple tongue and gums. The hole was larger than should be possible.

Leon stood back, waiting to see what would happen. As the toad chewed up the third of its group, it began growing both bulkier and taller. The warts over its body shifted into a red color, which faded and became stronger with each breath. Leon waited, and after a few seconds, when the toad seemed to have finished growing, he held his sword out.

The toad opened its mouth wide, and Leon braced himself for the lashing tongue. Instead, a red blob big as a tennis ball came toward him. He lifted his sword in front of him, and with a stroke of luck, the red thing hit the blade and splattered to the side.

Poisoned blade

First time information:

Your blade has been hit by or infused with poison. If left as it is, your blade will deal poison damage for thirty minutes, then the poison disappears. This will always afflict poison to every monster that isn’t immune to this status, but it also makes the blade lose durability more quickly. If you wish for your blade not to take these beneficial traits for the negative effects, you can choose to wipe the blade off if you have a cloth available to do so.

Leon dismissed the box. Interesting how it worked, but the toad and the frogs likely wouldn’t get affected by it, since the poison came from them. So what use would it have? He almost wished he had taken the toad out before it put him in this position. It wasn’t worth the extra durability loss, no matter how big or small it was.

He sprang forward to end it. The tongue lashed out toward him and slithered around his leg. It pulled him off his feet.

“Finn, shoot it!” he shouted. The toad pulled him to his mouth, much quicker than what felt comfortable. Finn’s arrow pierced its forehead, and it shattered into pixels. The small pile of loot appeared on a lily pad in front of him. “Good work!”

Leon picked up the loot.

You have picked up the following items:

10 coin

2 Frog leg

1 Cluster of warts

1 Frog’s eye

1 Poison sack

Do you wish to keep or discard these items?

[Keep] [Discard]

Leon looked through the boxes that explained the items he’d picked up. All of them were crafting materials, except for the frog legs, which could also be used for cooking.

He walked to his group on the path and told them what they’d gained.

“Man, I told you so!” Finn stomped a foot on the ground. “Big fat waste of a ten coin potion.”

“But we gained some information,” Leon said, holding out the sword. It had a green sheen, and even though rain fell on it, it didn’t seem to wash it off. “Not only about monsters.”

“What’s the color?” Ava asked, leaning in to look closer. “Looks weird.”

Leon told them about the pop-up.

“That’s unfair,” Finn said. “I can’t get the same for my arrows, can I?”

“Probably not,” Leon agreed. “But you can with your dagger, if you’re lucky or unlucky enough.”

“Yeah, no. I’m not gonna risk getting poisoned because of some stupid ass thing where you have to get spit on with poison and maybe block it.” He sniffed. “Not like I need such a thing, anyway. I’m too good to need advantages like that.”

Leon just shook his head, then he nodded into the forest. “Let’s keep going? I think we’ll be able to find more camps like this one now that we finally know what we’re looking for.”

Hert nodded. “But they’re still going to be hard to see, unless the areas just keep repeating. And how do you want to handle them, Leon? You want to rush in like before?”

Leon shook his head and started walking inward again, following the path. “Depends on what we meet. I’m still not fully sure how the forest is behaving. Maybe the amphibians are the only monster creature in here. It’s likely, since it’s the tutorial forest, and the wolves were the only type of monster before. The wolf had an advantage in speed, while these guys have poison. It’s a pretty even trade, in a way.”

“You’re forgetting the imps,” Hert said. “Those were there too.”

“Imps?” Finn asked. “I’ve never seen imps in here. But then again, I don’t spend time in this forest unless I have to. Too little coin for the effort.”

“I get that,” Leon said and started walking further in.

He had already felt the same, after having entered the wheat field and fought tougher monsters. The payoff was that the creatures were more dangerous to take down, but also that they took a lot of fatigue and time. The money would make it worth it, but that was also something with being in a group — they needed to share it. So to climb and to afford everything from now on, it wouldn’t be worth spending much more time here. At least not if they weren’t after the ingredients in of themselves, and no one in the party crafted potions or the like. So, from tomorrow, they would enter the wheat field, and maybe, if Red wanted, they could go into the forest to get the creatures in here.