Jac woke up with a headache and glanced around, the monster flower was lying dead in the acid pool created by its own stomach acid. Feeling a strange sense of justice and some glee, he groaned and stood up. He was holding the kidney stone in his right hand. Not remembering when he switched the gun with the stone, he stashed the stone in his pants pocket but it fell from the dissolved fabric. The acid had completely ruined his clothes.

His backpack was already destroyed by the corrosive acid lying near him. He tried to salvage some items from the bag but the clothes and rations were corroded. That meant no change of clothes for him, he would be practically naked if he removed the tattered and corroded fabrics still clinging to his body. At least the bullets were useable although the outer covering of the bullet pack was corroded, it seemed the acid wasn't strong enough to damage the metals. He fished out the bullets and looked around for his gun and cleaver, the latter was lying some distance away from the dead monster but the former was nowhere to be found.

"Excuse me!" A voice whispered near Jac's ear, he flinched and took a fighting stance. He looked around, but there was no one near him.

"Me up here." The voice whispered once again, he felt as if the speaker was standing just behind him and breathing down his neck. He turned around but found no one standing behind him. Finally, he looked up.

A frog the size of a basketball peered down at him with large beady eyes. Its body was lean, coloured green. Yellow lightning patterns circled its neck and limbs. it was standing on its hind limbs while clutching a gun with its front limbs. The frog was aiming the gun at him. Jac's eyes widened at realizing that the gun was his.

"Hold the monster core, the one in your hand, above your head and walk towards me" The voice whispered again in his ear, although the frog didn't even open its mouth.

'So this is something important after all' Jac thought while he took a quick look at the kidney stone in his hand.

"Did you just ask me to come over to you? How are you even speaking? And do you even know how to use a gun?" Jac asked out loud, trying to make a sense of the situation. He knew that in sky heaven, there existed some pet animals like cats, dogs and bears who could speak with the help of technology. But it was still his first time encountering a talking 'creature'. Creature because he was sure that there were no bipedal frogs in his world.

"Too many questions gentleman. Now, if you value your life, move those legs" The frog used the tip of the gun's barrel to beckon Jac. It was too humane of a gesture. Wondering if this frog was working with other humans and learning things from them, he started walking towards the frog.

He started making plans to fight off the frog. The best case here would be if he captured the frog alive so that he could question it. He just needed one opening where the frog was distracted.

"Hold the core above your head or me will shoot you" The frog threatened Jac.

"I can't. My left hand is not working" Jac had tried to move his left hand but it was unresponsive even after the system's healing.

"Just lift the hand that's working" The frog glared at him.

A few steps after raising the stone above his head, there was a muted sound of something running towards him. Jac assumed that there was an accomplice of the frog, who was running at him and probably going to tackle him. The frog started to shoot the gun, surprisingly though, it did not shoot at him. The frog was shooting behind him. Jac ran towards the nearest tree and took cover. He looked from behind the tree, apparently a Cadaga had rushed him and the frog had shot it down. The Cadaga was still alive though and trying to escape by crawling. Jac had counted the shots and the gun should be empty now, the frog had shot three times and managed to hit the Cadage in the neck while it seemed two bullets had missed.

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"Froggy! Are you still around?" Jac yelled from behind his cover.

"Don't call me strange names, gentleman. This is a warning." The frog's creepy voice whispered in his ear. Well, the strange frog had manners. He better refrain from

"Look, I know you are out of bullets. Help me kill the monster and I will hand over the kidney stone to you. deal?" Jac yelled again from behind the tree.

"Stop yelling stupid gentleman. Look up, I am above you. And what do you mean by kidney stone?" The frog's voice whispered, Jac looked up. The frog was dangling, like a monkey using its hind limbs, from a branch above his tree.

Jac reconsidered the frog's manners. He waved the stone in his hand. "I am talking about this monster core. You want it?"

"Yes, if you give me that core, me will let you go. Otherwise, me can just take it from your corpse" The frog declared menacingly. Jac was inclined to agree to the frog's demands, but he was unsure if it was the way out of the situation.

"Oh! If it was so easier for you to take this monster core, you would have done so when I was knocked out. Look, we should join han..." before he could complete his sentence, the frog shot out its tongue at incredible speed and snatched the core. It gulped down the core the next instant.

"Me didn't take it before, to lure out the stalker. You were a bait in an elaborate plan created by great I." The frog whispered in Jac's ear with its creepy voice ability while making a facial expression that felt like it was smirking. But the next moment, it let go of the gun which almost fell on Jac's head. The frog's body froze and it plopped down on the ground. The fall wasn't too high, so the damage should be light. But even after falling, the frog didn't stand up instead just lay frozen. It seemed like the frog had gone into a severe food coma.

"Froggy!" Jac picked up the gun and called out to it but it didn't respond. Not daring to touch the frog with his own hands, he picked up a twig and poked the frog with it, the frog's fingers twitched but it didn't open its eyes. This was a golden opportunity for him. Jac peeked from behind the tree, it seemed the Cadaga had crawled away and escaped. but it left a bloody trail behind, so it would be easier to track it.

Jac dashed out from behind the tree, he picked up the meat cleaver and chopped some vines. He went back and tied up the frog. He did so very carefully, not wanting to touch the frog just in case it was poisonous. He laid the vines on the ground first, then rolled the frog on the vines using the metal body of the cleaver. He fashioned a vine in a rope and tied its one end with the skull in his left leg, while the other was tied to the frog. He used another vine as a rope to hold the cleaver on his back. He loaded the gun with the bullets.

He had an idea while thinking about how to carry the bullets efficiently, given that his bag and pockets both were destroyed. He opened the Cadaga skull's jaw and stuffed the bullets inside, he used the vines to block the eye sockets to prevent the bullets from falling. Finally, he wrapped another vine around the skull to shut its jaws off. At least, it will be somewhat useful until he gets rid of it.

It was sad that he wasn't able to take out the skull from his leg before he levelled up, but he was so exhausted at the time of levelling up that the thought didn't even cross his mind. Jac looked in the direction the Cadaga escaped, opposite the quest's directional arrows. He could either go and try to kill the Cadaga for some XP points or go for the quest. He sighed as he looked at the stiff frog, he wouldn't be able to fight without sacrificing the frog in case the injured Cadaga attracted any other predators. The frog may turn out to be a valuable helper. Jac wasn't stupid, as the frog had called him, to undervalue the ability to communicate across species assuming the frog was able to communicate with anyone.

Jac started walking towards the quest location while dragging the frog with him. It was fun to drag the Froggy around but it created a lot of noise. Unfortunately, his left hand wasn't completely healed. Although there were no wounds or acid burns, the hand was still twisted at a weird angle. He wanted to keep his right hand free in case he needed to fight.

The next fifty minutes of the walk went uneventful, he didn't encounter any monsters or ambushes. Finally, he arrived at his destination. How did he know? The quest's directional arrow turned into the golden pin and fixed itself on the ground. However, there was a problem. A huge serpent blocked his way into the temple.