“I… don’t… want… to…!” Melun said through gritted teeth, as she struggled against Neira and Verne who were holding her down.
“Hahaha… no can do.” Aeryn let out a sinister laugh. She forced open Melun’s mouth with one hand, and held a mushroom in her other hand. Slowly, she brought it to Melun’s mouth and hung it threateningly for a while. She let out a few more laughs seeing tears appear in Melun’s eyes.
“I’m sorry okay!? I’m sorry I didn’t buy food! I was distracted by Q’s tail and Brie’s ears!”
“Mhmm, I understand honey. But unfortunately for you this is your punishment. You see, I don’t enjoy doing this, but I have to.”
“Liar! You’re definitely enjoying this!” Melun cried out, seeing the sadistic expression in Aeryn’s eyes.
“Ah, you noticed? Ufufufu…”
“Aeryn you sadist! I’ll get you back for this in real li- mmphgh!” Melun’s cries were quickly silenced as Aeryn shoved the mushroom into her mouth.
“Yes, that’s right… struggle all you want! But you can’t escape. Oh no… we have so many more items to test out! Ufufufu~.”
She is definitely the biggest pervert. Q thought as she watched Aeryn torture Melun with random consumables they picked up from exploring. After they found out that Melun had forgotten to bring food, the group began to argue about whether or not they should return. No one was willing to leave the cave to go back to town though, as they would be wasting time for the double experience and item drops. In the end, they were forced to search for random consumable items in the cave.
The first path they went through was the left path. Luckily there weren’t any enemies around, but there wasn’t anything of interest either. A bit of moss was covering the walls, so Q decided to take some in case they REALLY needed something to eat. Heading back out from there, they took the right path and encountered more Lure Flowers. Defeating the Lure Flowers this time was incredibly easy though, as Melun simply shot their flowers before they even surfaced, and the group surrounded a single Lure Flower and killed them one at a time.
Near the end of the path was an opening to a large area. Before that part there were some large gems which were the size of a fist, and Aeryn immediately approached them to start mining. This was a mistake though, as suddenly the walls shook and from the spot the gem was, teeth appeared!
[Lure Gemling] - Level 15
These lure creatures were a bit harder to deal damage to since they were made of stone, but they were smaller than their flower counterparts, making it was easier to hit their weak point (which turned out to be the gems). After they killed a few one dropped a ring which went over to Aeryn, and the party investigated the rest of the area.
Entering the opening they found themselves in a cave similar to the main cave from before, but this time there was a lot more plant-life. Trees with fruits on them and bushes with berries lined the entire area. The party was incredibly cautious at this point though, and decided to have Melun fire arrows at each plant and object to check whether or not it would be a lure creature. Sure enough, there was indeed a lure creature which took the form of an Altona tree. Its appearance was similar to the Lure Flowers, but this one was 5 meters tall and had spikes all over its body.
[Lure Tree] - Level 20
This lure creature the party had a lot of trouble with as it wouldn’t expose its back to let Q or Brie run up. Instead it kept its back against a wall and began shooting its liquid at the players. Once a player had been caught, it would suddenly take in a deep breath and expand its body, shooting out the spikes on it. This attack caused quite a lot of trouble to the players, and only Q and Neira were able to deflect the spikes, while the rest hid behind them.
Eventually it was beaten by Verne and Neira working together to throw Q up into the air. They made a ‘platform’ with their arms and launched Q up with all their might, giving her enough height to reach the tree and grab a hold of it. From there the battle was simple as Q just cast [Spark] and [Magic Fist] while the rest of the players kept its attention. The only trouble Q faced was the occasional spike launched towards her, but she avoided those without much problem.
After defeating the Lure Tree, everyone leveled up once. The Lure Tree also dropped a necklace which went to Fortis, and a pair of gauntlets which went to Neira. After killing the Lure Tree, the party began to gather consumables, and it was unanimously agreed upon that Melun would be testing them for poison as punishment for not bringing food.
“Ah, she has the poison status. These mushrooms are no good.” Aeryn tossed away the mushrooms but Kukis picked them up anyway. Giving her a questioning look, Kukis just shrugged.
“Hey, you never know, we could use these in the future.” Kukis said, picking up a few more mushrooms.
“I guess… oh. Fortis, she’s dying. Can we get a heal?” Aeryn said with a nonchalant tone.
“Sure. I guess this works as good practice for my healing spells as well.”
*Ptooey* Melun spit the remaining mushroom out of her mouth. “You’re not going to get rid of my poison status? The poison hurts you know!”
“Well, I would get rid of it, but right now my [Light Heal] spell needs to level up a bit more.” Fortis said with a grin.
“GAH! You too? When we get back in real life i’m going to- mmphgh!” Melun’s words were cut off as Aeryn stuffed another mushroom into her mouth.
“Ah. This one causes paralysis.”
In this fashion, Melun was turned into the poison tester and was subjected to all kinds of abnormal statuses. After half an hour of trying everything in the area, they had singled out which items were safe to eat and which were poisonous. Kukis took most of the poisonous items while Q, Brie, and Fortis began cooking with the ingredients. Melun on the other hand was sulking in a corner of the room, muttering about how evil everyone else was.
“...so mean… can’t... even have… I will… revenge...”
“Oh come now, it wasn’t that bad.” Aeryn said with a brilliant smile.
“It was terrible! They tasted bad and caused me pain!” Melun snapped back. Aeryn snickered a bit before walking away to let Melun vent her rage a bit.
“Did you at least get something from eating all that poison?” Neira inquired as she approached Melun.
“Yes… I got a poison resistance skill and a new title…”
“What title is it?” Neira was interested in what Melun had received.
“... [Test Subject]... it gives me a 10% resistance to poisons and diseases.”
“Well hey, that’s not so bad is it?” Neira said, thinking that the payoff was pretty good.
“It IS bad!” Melun complained. “Every time I see that title I’m going to be reminded of when you guys held me down and fed me weird things!” Melun seemed to be ready to complain some more, but Q called everyone over for food. Her complaints were temporarily held back as she enjoyed the delicious food.
Once the party was well rested and full, they left the area and headed for the center path. Halfway down, it suddenly turned into an abrupt vertical drop. Q picked up a rock and dropped it down the hole. 1 second… 2 seconds… 3… 4… The party counted 9 seconds before they heard a splash down below. “So… who wants to get wet?” Q asked, staring down into the hole.
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Nobody felt like jumping in first, but in the end it was agreed that the two with the highest defense, Verne and Neira, would do rock paper scissors to see who would jump down first. This seemingly innocent game quickly turned into an intense match of trickery and mind games as the two began to use psychological warfare against each other.
“Hahaha… For this round, I’m going to throw out rock!” Verne said with a smile on his face.
“I see… well then, I will NOT use paper in this round.” Neira kept her poker face and they began to play again. In the end Neira won their match, and Verne was forced to jump down.
“Don’t worry Verne, if you die I’ll return your stuff back to you.” Fortis said with a reassuring smile.
“Good luck.” Neira made a salute.
“Uhh… I kinda, really don’t want to jump down. Can we play another round?” Verne asked nervously.
“Oh just jump down already!” Melun shouted, forcefully pushing Verne into the hole.
“AAAAAAAaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..” *SPLASH*
“Hey Verne, are you alive?” Q shouted into the hole.
“Y-yeah!” They heard a faint response from Verne. “The water’s pretty deep so you should be fine coming down. I see an island up ahead, I’ll swim over there and scout it out.” Verne headed off towards the island and the rest of the players were deciding who to go down next.
“Um… is this a bad time to mention I can’t swim?” Kukis spoke up, looking at everyone else nervously.
“Nah, this is a great time to mention that!” Q said with a smile. “You’ll be swimming with me then!” She grabbed Kukis’ arm and jumped down the hole.
“Q!? Wai- AAAAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...” *SPLASH*
Seeing this, the rest of the players exchanged glances and quickly followed suit as they all jumped down into the hole one-by-one. Each of them were able to swim over to the island without much difficulty besides Q who had to deal with a flailing Kukis. Being on top of the island, they realized that they were currently in a small underwater lake. A bit of light was coming from the ceiling, but it was too far away to make out what the source of it was.
“Ugh… my clothes are soaked.” Melun said as she let out a cute sneeze.
“Want me to warm you up?” Aeryn asked, conjuring some flames in her hand.
“No thanks. I’m more liable to be burnt by that than anything else.”
“I have a solution then!” Kukis spoke up. “I figured out in my tutorial that if you unequip then re-equip something, the dirt and stuff comes off. It should work for wet clothes too right?” She said as she tried doing what she had suggested. A flash of light surrounded her body as she quickly unequipped and re-equipped her equipment, and it came back completely dry. “Wow. That’s super convenient.” She said, while touching her clothes to see how dry they were.
The rest of the players did the same except for Q. “Q, why aren’t you doing the same?” Kukis asked.
“Yeah, don’t you know that Verne’s staring at you like a complete pervert right now?” Melun said with a grin. Everyone looked over to Verne who was indeed staring at Q with wide eyes, and it was no wonder he was doing so. Right now Q’s clothes were completely soaked through, and clung tightly to her body. The shape of her small chest could just barely be seen through the fabric, and the flushed look on her face made it seem quite erotic.
For a second, Q stood there not understanding why they thought it was inappropriate for her chest to be exposed like this, when she remembered that she was a girl. “OH! I uh… I saw something in the water. I’ll go investigate it first.” Q said, retreating into the water.
As the rest of the players all began talking amongst each other, Q slowly swam to the bottom of the small lake. Just as an experiment she tried casting [Spark] by reciting it in her mind, and to her surprise it worked! I guess you can invoke a spell in your head if you have the intention to use it when thinking of its name… Or is that just a thing that happens because we can’t talk underwater? Q wondered as she reached the thing she noticed earlier.
What had caught her eye was something shining at the bottom of the lake, and upon reaching it she saw that it was a small metal box. Picking it up, she made her way back to the surface and got back onto the island. Once she was back on land she quickly unequipped and re-equipped her things, then addressed the box.
“Is this what you saw?” Brie asked as she poked the box.
“Wow, I’m surprised that you noticed that.” Fortis said as he looked at the box.
“I have good eyes remember?” Q said with a laugh. With a bit of investigation Q found a small keyhole on the side of the box, but no one had a lock-picking skill so they decided to leave it with Q for now.
The island didn’t have anything special on it so the players were all confused, but suddenly they felt the island start to shake. Everyone was knocked onto their butts and struggled to find a place to grab onto. The shaking slowly became more and more violent, and all the players were shaken off the island. Q went to support Kukis as the shaking island began to make violent waves.
Suddenly some flat rocks began falling from the ceiling! Those rocks made natural platforms, and all the players quickly swam towards them. Once they had all found (somewhat) solid ground to stand on, they heard a huge groan, as if the earth itself was moving. They all watched incredulously as the island itself began to rise up out of the water, the soil on it moving to reveal a pair of large eyes and glinting teeth.
“Hahaha… no way… no way can we fight that.” Melun muttered, seeing the size of the creature.
“How… why is this thing here?” Verne stared at the the creature.
“Who cares?” Kukis said with excitement. “All this means is… BOSS FIGHT!!!”
[Lure Island] - Level 30
*ROOOAAARR*
The Lure Island let out a powerful roar, creating waves in the water and causing the players to temporarily lose their balance on their rocks. As everyone else struggled to stay on their rocks, Q and Brie were incredibly calm in comparison as they didn’t have a lot of difficulty balancing on their rocks.
“Well then…” Q pulled out her dagger and let out a grin as she stared at the boss. “GAME ON!”
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A/N: They're called Lures... but what are they trying to catch?
Anyhue, how goes it everyone? This chapter is slightly shorter than usual (6 pages instead of 7+) but I think everything is summed up nicely. New rewards, more levels, a setup for a boss battle, etc. etc. So... anyone think about how crazy the level of this creature is compared to that of the players? Consider the idea that there are 8 players averaging at about level 13-14. And... well... I dunno.
Thanks for reading! As always, leave your thoughts/criticisms/encouragement/humor/sarcasm/suggestions in the comments below. (I do appreciate your comments even if I don't respond to them. Thanks everyone!)
(Not so) Fun-fact: When certain types of Angler Fish mate, the female absorbs the male's body into itself.