All three seemed confused for a bit before realization struck them at different times and they all looked to one another. Joe waited then continued, not wanting the negative emotions to stay to long, “She touched Garnedell on his shoulder at about five; maybe six. Garnedell and Zilnek charged the monster about eight or nine and the first hit against the goblin was at about twelve. Garnedell struck the mukfrog but the mukfrog was able to defend itself and even continue to maintain its magic attack on Kilniara. The second strike by Zilnek landed at thirteen, almost immediately after Garnedell’s strike and broke the mukfrog’s clavicle and his spell! Kilniara was free from the water after thirteen seconds. How long did she hold her breath?”
He looked at all three as the realization firmed to understanding and Joe allowed the moment to settle in their minds before striking once again, hammering the lesson home, “Kilniara was never in any danger with the mukfrog’s spell. Even if you had gone slower and carefully struck at the same time, you would have likely freed Kilniara at about the same time, especially if she would have told you about it right away. The mukfrog never even came close to harming you. You actually almost killed yourself! The mukfrog was simply using your panic to almost destroy you! I’ve given you a lot of hints. Tell me what would have been a better response.”
All three calmed as they heard Joe’s evaluation and began to reconsider the situation. Kilniara spoke first this time, easily finding a response, “I should have dropped my hand on their shoulders almost right away.”
“Yup. If you can’t talk, you can still communicate with touch. They would have noticed very quickly, just like they did when I helped you do the same thing. There’s one more thing you could have done.”
Kilniara seemed stumped, uncertain how to respond, and when Joe looked to the other two, the both seemed confused at Joe’s insistence of another action. Joe allowed them to wallow uselessly in thought before he continued, “Don’t panic!”
As soon as he said this, all three nodded, seemingly understanding but Joe hammered the point home as he continued, “You cannot panic in a fight! It will be your death! Think carefully. Respond well. Remember your plans. Communicate. Do your plan! That’s it!”
All three nodded and Joe turned to the two boys, “How about you two?”
They looked at each other and Garnedell responded, “Advance carefully.”
Joe gave a small nod at this point and Garnedell looked to Zilnek for the next suggestion, “Plan our strikes to quickly disrupt its spell casting?”
Joe nodded emphatically, “Exactly. Anything else?”
Both fell silent at this, unable to offer another suggestion and waited nervously before Joe continued with some exasperation. “Spread apart! There’s still two of you, and it was really important for you to do so! First, it could have split the mukfrog’s attention and given the person at its back free shots at it. But second, and more important, nobody was watching Kilniara to make sure she was safe or anything! You’re a team! You need to always think about your team! But your panic made you forget everything!”
Garnedell and Zilnek grimaced at this final point but both nodded in understanding and Joe calmed slightly, releasing his passion and continuing the teaching moment in a more relaxed and calming mood, smiling at them and offering them advice and praise for what they did do right, continuing to interrogate them and force them to evaluate all their actions and how they’d preformed.
After another ten minutes of evaluation, Joe sent them out against another staff mukfrog, and they once again did the same thing, with the mukfrog charging in close and not throwing up his water globe until a few swings into the fight. This time, his globe hit Garnedell, but he seemed to handle it well enough, only holding his breath as he continued to fight the monster and wait patiently for a strike to disrupt it and free him to breathe once again.
This actually took much less time as they were already engaged in close range to it and both Kilniara and Zilnek immediately stepped forward and struck simultaneously from both sides, collapsing the thing’s spell so fast that it almost seemed to not have happened.
The fight ended easily enough and Joe once again took the time to teach them once again, but had little to add but to advise Garnedell to rest in defense instead of continuing to fight because of his weak lung capacity. He nodded in understanding at that point and for the next three staff mukfrogs, all three were able to perform easily without difficulty, freeing their companions from the globe of water in under ten seconds the two times it happened.
When Joe saw that they were now easily handling the combat with the mukfrogs, he prepared to have them deal with them one on one. As he prepared for the one on one fights, he quickly noticed their exhaustion and he took the time to check his mental clock where he realized that it was probably quite late. Swapping over to his log page, he looked at his latest entry but found it from a while back and told them to rest before grabbing the attention of a nearby mukfrog before dispatching it quickly. Looking at his log once again, he saw the time was well into the late afternoon and realized that the long day was wearing on the kids. He was feeling the long day himself and decided to call an end to the day.
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“The day’s almost done! Let’s head home.”
The other three perked up at this, sighing in relief as the stood and prepared to leave. Joe saw their relief and realized the likely stress of dealing with heads forced underwater was overwhelming them slightly. Must have been affecting them more than I thought.
Joe considered how he could help them beyond just giving them more chances to become inured to it by repeatedly experiencing it. In the end, he decided to let it go and simply watch them, checking up on them once more in the morning.
Letting that go, Joe decided to ask for feedback, “So. You guys were OK?”
All three nodded tiredly but smiles began to surface on their face. Joe smiled and continued, “Should we keep doing this?”
This time, verbal cries of excitement and affirmation quickly returned and Joe laughed, “Glad you guys were having so much fun!”
They shook their heads before Kilniara replied for them, “Not too fun, but it’s exciting to know that we are able to stand our own well enough.”
“You guys do pretty well as a team. Nice job. We’ll do the same tomorrow, OK?”
All three nodded, a chorus of ‘yesses’ replying as Joe continued, “So same as today. Killing and practicing on the goblins in the morning, but right after lunch, we’ll go straight up to the mukfrogs and tomorrow, I want you to try to go one on one against the mukfrogs, OK?”
Their excitement as Joe described their tomorrow waned quickly when Joe revealed that he wanted them to solo the mukfrogs, cautious looks tossed towards one another and Joe quickly offered them comfort.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure I’m with you and won’t let you get overwhelmed, but you need to be able to fight them alone if something bad happens. You need to be able to know how to free yourself from the water spell even alone, if you need to.”
Garnedell actually nodded first, his face sobering as he offered a firm nod of acceptance. His leadership paid off and Kilniara joined quickly after with her own firm look and nod. Zilnek, as usual with his lower intelligence, took longer to nod, but he seemed to reply almost as soon as he understood and Joe smiled at all three.
“You will do fine. Don’t worry!”
The three nodded, their smiles a bit more natural now and Joe turned to leave, his eyes glancing around the room before a little something pricked at his thoughts.
“Garnedell. Don’t all monsters have cores?”
Garnedell quickly nodded, “Yes, Joe. They all have cores.”
“Then why is no one retrieving the cores from the goblins or mukfrogs here? I don’t think I even remember seeing anyone taking the snow’s cores either.”
Garnedell glanced at the two siblings before replying, “Of course, Master. Most people destroy the core as they are fighting the monsters.”
Joe frowned slightly, eyes furrowing as he took in Garnedell’s guarded response and his use of Master, but then quickly realized that he must have been protecting him from the sibling. Hmm… should I tell them yet? Only been a couple weeks, so… Joe considered but then discarded revealing more details as he’d already revealed quite a bit to them, along with Kukurnal. Revealing that he was a stranger and did not know much about dungeons, monsters, or the system of this world.
“Then where is the core of a mukfrog.”
“All monsters have cores high in their abdomen, just above the belly and below the bone protecting the chest.”
Joe considered before waved his hand to the mukfrog that he’d just killed, it’s body still not dissolved and reclaimed by the dungeon, “Show me in this mukfrog, please.”
Garnedell nodded and quickly jumped down, pulling out a small utility knife to pull open the abdomen of the mukfrog, although he was very cautious to pierce the stomach a bit lower, then reach in and up towards the chest, fumbling around inside the mukfrog before crying out in excitement, grasping something, then pulling it out.
“Joe! We have a mukfrog core!”
Joe smiled and took it from Garnedell before he glanced around at the people fighting. He watched for a few moments and then realized that almost all of their lethal strikes were at the center of mass, just below the ribs when they could. They're aiming for the core! No wonder… Joe almost dropped his jaw in shock when he saw this. Why would they destroy the core since it’s why most of them are here? It doesn’t make sense. He continued watching and noticed that when they did not have clear chances at the core, they always simply aimed for strikes to limbs or extremities. Joe frowned. Such... a waste. Why even... never mind. No attempt to block. No disengaging. Still trying to hit the monster. This meant pretty much all strikes were at extremities and only a few actual made an effort at striking a lethal location. Joe's frown grew at that realization. How are they killing them... with just that. Joe pondered as he waited. He almost asked Garnedell to explain but then froze. Guess I’ll have to ask later, but… His thoughts pondered as he now noticed people doing as Garnedell did, fumbling in the upper abdomen as they searched for cores but always coming up empty. Huh… wonder if the mukfrogs killed by the three would probably still have their cores… what with blunt damage only? Joe’s thoughts pondered then he closed his eyes and carefully thought back on all the fights he’d seen the three engage in, and he soon began to notice that almost all of their lethal strikes were only thrusting strikes to the upper abdomen. Joe had always been grateful for their careful and meticulous combat style up to this point, each always aiming for the torso, but now he wondered if there was some general popular opinion on how to fight monsters. Not a bad one, but it really would kill any accumulation of cores!
As they exited into the first floor, Joe looked around and saw the same thing happening as others searched the goblins as well, all coming up empty in their searches as well. Joe’s thoughts wandered, trying to understand why they would do such a thing. I really need to ask Garnedell. Why didn’t we pull out the cores earlier? We’ve been fighting here for almost three weeks. Joe berated himself as he realized that he’d been wasting so much, but, at the same time, his mind went back to Garnedell’s happy cry and realized that everyone in the room had looked over at them during that moment. That was… a lot of attention. As they slipped across the first floor room and into the safe area, Joe called Garnedell back to him and sent the other two on ahead. When they made the spiral stairs leading up, Joe whispered quietly to Garendell.