Dungeon Day 38 - Continues
Following the nice chat about the factions, Dan was interested in knowing what the druids would need from him, and he nudged Xinos to ask. Dena quickly gave him an answer. Effectively, they just wanted some assistance in fighting off the invaders and some help in addressing the other factions they were currently helping. Naturally, as this was already part of Dan's plan, there wasn't much else to discuss other than just having the druid introduce them to the frog people and the other factions. However, before they went to be introduced to the other factions in the zone, Dan wanted to get to D rank, and the best way to do that was to get to the lake.
Before going, Xinos quickly mocked up a plan to assist the druids in defeating the invaders. Luckily, the druids were not being invaded by as many creatures as Dan, and taking them down wouldn’t be that hard. Speaking of the invaders, his hawk hadn’t gotten back to him because some owls had hurt it, and it was slowly healing up with the druid's help.
Now, of course, having to leave his monster teams behind, Dan was wondering if he should leave his jaguar as well. And he was leaning towards leaving Xinos behind as he currently didn’t need the Boss. In fact, he wouldn't need his jaguar until after he conquered the lake. And as long as he didn't send out any other of his bosses, he was confident in taking something like the scorpion bear again. Of course, he would have to provide extra assistance, but sending Balbatzar and Itsy should deal with most things.
In regards to actually dealing with the invaders in the druid lands, Xinos proposed a strike team approach. The druid's birds would be on the lookout for the invaders, and once spotted, they could report back to the druids, and then a team of beasts would be sent out to exterminate them. Additionally, now that they had some doe’s over in the druid's land, they would help heal the druid beasts injured from fighting off the invaders.
With that resolved, Dan had one question left as he wondered if all of the druids could actually transform. Dan figured transforming was some sort of magic, so if they all could do it, then it meant all of the druids were technically D Rank. However, Dena said that only one or two of the Druids were D rank. So, Dan was wondering if the rest were just regular mortals. However, Dena confirmed they gained the power from their bloodline, more commonly known as Innate Magic.
Anyways, with a plan established on how they would move forward in the druid lands and what he needed to do next, Dan began calculating what exactly he would need to do to help the frog people. Naturally, he would need to make a beast that could work underwater. The problem was taking said beasts over to the lake. Dan was tempted to claim a chunk of land all the way to the lake, but that would take a little bit too long, and it would be a waste of mana. Instead, he figured the best thing to do would be to make some kind of cart, floating carpet, or something to transport the beasts.
As he thought about transport vehicles, night quickly came, and Dan began doing all the configurations he would need for all the new beasts.
Dungeon Day 39
It was with great shame that Dan remembered that he still needed to figure out who was going to make contact with the frogs. Obviously, Dan himself wouldn't leave his little fort, but he still needed to send somebody down there. Or maybe some of the frogs could come up to the ground and meet with one of his bosses. Actually, thinking about the whole thing, it would be best if he sent Eagle the Hawk or Hawk the Eagle to do it. Both birds could get there relatively fast. They could meet the frog people on one of their islands, and communicating back and forth would be easier due to their Share Sense. Even better was that they could fly, so if another event boss came, they could get back to Dan extremely fast.
Having decided to do so, he nudged his jaguar to stay still and told Dena to do the same. After doing so, he told Eagle the Hawk to start moving towards the druid area as she would be able to get there the fastest.
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Dan also told the hawk about the different negotiations she could make with the frog people. Mainly, it was that Dan would help them deal with their mind-control frogs. Then, once the situation was resolved, the frog people would fall under his rule. Of course, it wouldn't be like a tyrant type of thing. At least not yet. Dan knew that the frogs would not be very happy with that deal, but considering that they would eventually lose the war, it was better than nothing. Dan felt a bit bad since, as soon as they accepted the connection, he had complete control over them, but he wouldn't make them do anything crazy. At least, not yet.
Though honestly, it's not like it was a bad deal on their end, as they couldn't really die as long as Dan was alive. In truth, it would be better if half of the faction accepted the deal. That way, they would fall under his control, and he could keep respawning them in his own lands whenever they died in battle against the shard.
That thought made Dan question if he would gain half of the frog's land if half of them came under his control. If that were the case, then the war would be over even faster as he could respawn the creatures right away at the lake and quickly take over the enemy shard.
Either way, time passed as Eagle the Hawk teleported away and quickly made her way to the druid's place. It only took the bird around five hours to get there, and once she did, she introduced herself to Dena, and both quickly flew off to the lake.
It took them about another hour or two to get to the lake, where Dena left Eagle the Hawk on one of the islands while she went down into the lake as she transformed into some sort of aquatic snake. Around 30 minutes later, the druid returned, and thankfully, she was not alone.
A contingent of around ten frog people and a snake that slowly but surely turned back to Dena, who was surprisingly not wet. The frog people didn't really walk out of the water. Instead, they just burst out, landing on the shore. They were all various shades of green, and if it wasn't for the clear differences in appearance and because they were a little larger, they could be mistaken for aquatic goblins.
As expected, the frog-people had features that Dan could honestly expect from entities called frog-people. Though Dan believed they were likely just a subspecies of beast kin. They had webbed hands and strong, muscled legs to propel them in the water. As they emerged from the water, they stood at full height, clearly marking themselves as much taller than your average goblin. However, Dan wasn't sure if that was just because these were warriors and they were slightly larger or just the natural size of these specific frogs.
Either way, they all wore similar armor, a mix of metal, some leather with kelp-like straps and shell-like pieces. The armor was mostly for their torso, as Dan assumed that they needed mobility in their arms and legs to swim freely. In terms of weapons, they all carried tridents, though some carried swords and small shields. For some reason, Dan expected to see some crossbows, but they carried no-range weapons.
A much taller frog man stood in front of all the frog folk. This frog man wore a shell-like crown. The crown was not fancy; it was just a shell on his forehead tied around his head with the kelp-like leather material they used for their armor.
The small party quickly approached the tree that Eagle the hawk was on, and of course, Dena was quick to make introductions. The frog folk didn't make any faces of confusion, probably because they were used to the druid being able to talk to animals.
They did show surprise when the hawk spoke back to them as Eagle the hawk opened her beak, and her rather cheerful voice came out.
“Hello, friends!”
The frog people looked at his hawk for a minute before the leader spoke up. He had a bit of a ribbit to his voice, and his chin area inflated as he spoke.
“Good day, bird. Dena here tells me your master might be able to help us in our struggle.”
“Yes! Master is very powerful and willing to assist as long as you can provide what he wants.”
“And what is it that your master wants? Ribbit.”
“You.” Answered the cute bird cheerfully, as if it were just the most natural thing in the world.
“Excuse me? Did you say your master wants us?”
“Yes! Master wants you to become his vassals! Don’t worry, master is great!”
Of course, the chief didn't think it was funny and looked at Dena like she had wasted his precious time. However, Dena just shrugged.
“The hawk speaks the truth. This master of theirs has access to odd powers. I have seen it myself. This is why I spoke with them about forming an alliance.”
Clearly, Dena's words meant a lot to the frog man as after the druid finished speaking, the frog took on a look of contemplation. Then, after a minute of thinking, he finally looked back at Eagle and spoke.
“Show me.”