Having decided to kill the monster, the next thing we needed to do was to find it.

You would think that it would be easy to find because there's a lot of mud around right?

Wrong.

The place was marsh. As such, the area was practically flooded. The few islands of land you could see did indeed have mud on them.

But what's the chances that the monster would crawl up one island only to slither back into the water?

But the area around the village was fairly solid. So we were able to follow its tracks in the mud up until they vanished into the water.

That was both good and bad for us.

Good, because it seemed like my fire would be particularly effective against it as it appears it has a water affinity.

And bad, because we now only know the general direction it came from. We still had a lot of ground to cover.

So it seemed like we were going to be doing a lot of wading in this murky water.

I liked my black robe, but if it got wet it would be extremely cumbersome.

Previously I had kept it dry with a few heating spells. Not that hard really.

So I took it off and stashed it inside my inventory. Underneath I wore simple trousers and a light shirt. I instantly felt almost naked.

Turning back to Watt, he looked like his clothes would be fine. Though I was a little concerned that he might have problems with his baggage.

When we were walking on the wet road, his stuff had his feet sinking into the soggy ground at every step.

I was irritated at how much it slowed us down and he obviously felt guilty about it. So I tried not to show it.

But the number of times I had to wait for him..

Given that he sold most of his things at the store, he should be a fair bit lighter now. But the store obviously wouldn't accept the large quantity of furs he was collecting..

It looked as if I'd need to help carry some of his things.

"Watt. We are going to be going through the water, and I'm not sure you will be able to keep up. So I'll carry about 40 furs for you"

Watt nodded, and opened his inventory. Upon handing them to me I instantly felt my feet sinking slightly into the ground whereas before I was almost walking on top of it.

However. Watt's feet were more than ankle deep..

Just how many furs did he have..

This was going to be a real problem.

"How many furs do you have Watt?"

Watt opened his inventory and looked inside.

"Almost two thousand"

I almost fell down in shock.

How was he even standing?!?

I wasn't really sure on what to think there.

But he definitely can't go out into the water like this.

The store could probably buy more of his furs. But they wouldn't buy more than about 500.

There's not much traffic around this area so the purchase price would also be low.

We could probably inquire about having it stored for a while until we came back.

Sighing, I reluctantly turned around and turned to the village. "Come on. We best see about storing the stuff"

As we stepped through the gate, I heard a croaking roar. It sounded big..

Was this our monster? It was in the direction we just left.

With a spring in my step we walked to the store and I negotiated with the store to hold Watt's furs.

Watt seemed happy enough to pay the fee, and seeing as I was trying to save up for a staff to improve my combat efficiency. I left him to it.

As I looked around the storeroom, I noticed that it seemed that they had purchased some of his furs.. There was a entire wall stacked with them.

We definitely wouldn't be selling any more here. How did he even manage to sell that much? Did he sell them for almost nothing?

Stepping out of the store, Watt immediately noticed the difference in weight. He practically floated on the ground and had a giant grin on his face as he moved around easily.

Surprisingly, his feet barely made a mark in the muddy ground. His agility must be pretty high.

Unnatural strength and high agility. Judging from his bow, he has a lot of dexterity as well. A strange combination.

He didn't look to do melee, does he just train his strength for carrying things?

Walking back to where the tracks faded off into water, we slowly got in, cringing as the cold water wrapped around our legs.

Who knew what crawled through this muck..

Casting a heat spell, I weakened the effects of the cold water and started wading.

Watt followed behind me, content to remain in my wake with the heated areas of water.

I would prefer that he led, but I really didn't trust him to lead us safely.

So I had to feel my way out with my toes and avoid the dips in the ground, we also skirted areas where the water rippled. Perhaps with the squirmings of a monster..

Heading forwards, I kept a ear out for any noises. Watt had his bow out and was tracking any movements.

He hadn't fired at anything yet. But I'm not sure if that was because he didn't see anything, or if he didn't want to leave me alone.

He liked to reuse his arrows when he could, and take the loot of what he killed.

We were moving silently through the water, or at least Watt was when we heard another of those loud croaking roars.

It sounded close.

Slowing down, I turned towards where the roar came from and we slowly moved forwards.

Rushes and reeds surrounding a island filled our view as we approached, behind which the island was obscured from our view, but thankfully, the land they were planted was fairly solid enough to take a break.

But tension still filled my shoulders as I peered through the rushes to see what monster it was.

I almost didn't see it until it moved.

A massive muddy brown lizard had its back to me. Its coloring naturally blended in with the brown water and mud.

This was definitely a little bit out of our league. Just to give a good approximation, it was about three times taller than Watt, and he was already large enough.

But I had high hopes for my fireballs. Especially as with its size, it would be hard for me to miss.

Watt's arrows wouldn't penetrate deeply in its scales, but if the belly was exposed, or vital areas.. Then Watt should be able to deal some damage.

I had high regard for his skills and didn't doubt for a instant that he would miss.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

During our attack on the goblins, his arrows hadn't always hit. He obviously wasn't used to targets that had intelligence.

But during our time there, he rapidly improved. He caught on pretty fast actually.

Turning back to Watt, I whispered "We are going to be attacking the lizard. Remain quiet and avoid making noise"

He nodded and found a empty spot wherein he began doing his exercises.

This would take a few minutes for him to prepare himself, so I carefully watched the lizard. Looking for how it moved, any weak spots.

Anything that would give us a advantage.

Watt soon finished and took his bow out.

Crawling next to me, Watt listened as I pointed out the few places I thought he would have a good chance of dealing damage.

Namely the eyes and mouth and the thin skin exposed under its armpits. Or legpits. Whatever you call them.

I hadn't seen the lizard's belly, as it slithers over the ground, barely raising itself when it moves.

With my plan outlined, we began circling around to the left to gain a better vantage point to fight.

The lizard looked around occasionally, its tongue flicking as it seeked the scent of something that remained tantalizingly out of reach.

Despite the village elder's thoughts, I had complete confidence we could take this beast on.

While it looked powerful, and the thick claws it wielded were nothing to laugh at.

I was a fire mage, its natural weakness. And Watt was a great marksman.

We split up to give the lizard a harder choice on who to attack, then I started chanting quietly to build up as big a fireball as I could.

However, before I could get it to a large size the lizard spotted us.

With a thunderous roar it challenged us, picked me and charged.

Quickly I fired my fireball, but in my haste missed and I had to dodge to the side.

The lizard swiped its claws at me, but a slew of arrows slammed the swipe offcourse and the attack missed.

Glaring, it turned towards Watt as I ran away. Thankful for his distraction I put distance between between myself and the lizard.

Watt fired more arrows, but most of them bounced off its thick scales.

Backing away to a safe location, I started casting another fireball as Watt frantically ducked and rolled to escape the lizard's deadly swipes.

Watt proved himself to be very agile as he moved at a speed I could never hope to obtain.

His large body dancing around the claws and the bow occasionally twanging as he fired off a shot. Enraging the lizard more.

He would be great as a assassin.

My fireball ready, I yelled a warning "Incoming!"

With that, I fired it towards the lizard.

Watt took a quick look and with a neat flip landed outside the range of the claws and started running for safety.

The lizard snarled after him, blood bleeding from a dozen shallow cuts before looking back towards the source of the shout, just in time for my fire envelope him in flames.

He roared in pain and stumbled towards the water seeking relief from the pain.

Watt took this chance to send a arrow directly at its left eye.

The lizard roared again as Watt's arrow unerringly found its mark.

Crashing into the water, the flames extinguished with a hiss.

Spotting a new weakness, I yelled to Watt "Aim for the burned areas!"

Watt nodded and fired a volley of arrows, he seemed to have less stone arrows than I remembered. Did he run out? I really need to get him to switch over from wooden arrows.

At his current level they still dealt damage, but the despite the scales being burned to sheds and the tender skin exposed. The majority of his arrows failed to deal any major damage.

The few stone arrows in his volley more than made up for that however as the lizard roared again in pain.

Another fireball ready, I sent it towards the lizard as it thrashed in the water.

With a weak roar and a crash as my fireball hit, it finally submitted and died.

Readying another fireball as a precaution, we cautiously approached the lizard.

After confirming that the lizard was truly dead. We went to go through the drops in anticipation.

I was disappointed.

Aside from the meat, it dropped only scales and a skin.

Watt was happy enough with the skin and meat, so I took the scales.

They would likely sell for quite a bit.

Neither of us had the identifying skill, so we couldn't examine their properties.

Watt didn't look happy that my fireballs had destroyed most of his arrows. But he really did need to start using non-wooden arrows.

They are decent as a distraction, but not much else.

Amazingly, Watt hadn't been hit. And as he was the distraction I didn't sustain any damage either.

So we were able to head straight back to the village after restoring our stamina.

The walk itself was fairly eventual. Though Watt did manage to kill a few snakes this time.

As expected, he waded to them to collect their corpses and retrieve his arrows.

After we reached the village, after greeting the guards I headed to the center to talk to the old man.

I approached the elder and with a smug smile proclaimed "We've killed the monster"

The old man blearily looked up at me and shook his head. "I told you. You wouldn't be able to kill it."

"You need to judge our strength better. The monster has been slain" I insisted. I was little upset that the npc was being difficult.

So taking from my inventory the scales, I displayed them and added with a superior grin "And with these, I can prove it"

The old man looked at my scales and with a small sad smile informed me.

"Son. We hunt those for sport."

...

Seriously?

But as if to confirm it. We heard a loud croaking roar.

Ah. That was embarrassing.

We collected Watt's furs back from the store and left the village.

I don't think I'll ever return to that place.

My pride has taken a serious blow.

---------------

I think I screwed up Jorge's and Watt's characters from their original impressions..

They definitely had different introductions of their characters than later written.