Pulling apart their two party members hadn’t been too hard, and before long, the two adventurer parties were heading their own way while filling their overly horny friends in on what they had discussed. Of course, it went without saying that before they parted ways, Arctur and Inzia, the lizard woman, had exchanged information so they could find each other outside of the dungeon. As a result of this exchange of information, the rest of the party members traded contact information, since they were likely to meet again in and out of the dungeon.

  As they swam away from the other party, Alex and Adriana couldn't help but stare at Arctur, and after a moment, their green friend confronted their stares.

  “What?” He said innocently.

  “What? What!? How can you be oblivious to that!?” Alexion exclaimed incredulously.

  While Alexion was brash, Adriana was a bit more reserved, and her words failed her in the end. “I know sometimes things happen to me, so I can’t judge too much, especially since we know how you get around, uh, certain transformative or the general population of the beast variety, but…”

  “But, we were having a full-on conversation! Not that she isn’t just as much at fault!” Alexion interjected, annoyed with Inzia as well.

  Realizing what his friends were talking about, Arctur actually flushed with embarrassment, his green cheeks turning a deeper green as he looked away. “I, uh, yeah… Sorry. It’s just that she was looking at me, and did you see her tail? Damn…” The green man spoke his last word in a mutter of awe as he was no doubt remembering something.

  “Arctur!” Alexion shouted, trying to bring his friend back to reality.

  “Oh, you can't be mad at him, not with how you get,” Adriana told her elf, giving him a slight slap on the shoulder.

  “I am not that mad, it's just annoying when I was talking to the woman, you know?” The elf told his mermaid.

  “Its fine, we ended up recruiting them, and getting the information we wanted,” Adriana replied calmly.

  Having come back to his senses after hearing Alex shout his name, Arctur butted in. “Yeah, what she said. Also, like I was saying, it's just the way she was looking at me, and how good she looked triggered my more bestial instinct, so I couldn’t help it much.”

  Giving his friend a smile, Alexion could only agree with the sentiment. “I know, I know, and am not really that mad, especially since you deal with our nonsense all the time.”

  “Exactly, it's kind of hard dealing with you two, and resisting Adriana’s appeal constantly wears me down sometimes, and I just need to randomly make out with a hot lizard lady,” Arctur pointed out.

  “It’s nothing we haven’t discussed before, after all, it was easier when our relationship was open, and we could just do whatever, whenever. Sadly, for you, that door is now closed forever,” Alexion told Arctur teasingly, all while his hand moved to smack Adri’s mermaid butt, which got him a light slap of admonishment from the mermaid even as she leaned into it.

  Hearing his friend's words and seeing the exchange, Arctur smiled. He was happy for the two, but that didn’t stop him from throwing something back. “And you can keep her. It was fun, but I am not too big on a permanent relationship, at least not yet. Also, though I am happy you're working on yourself, Adri, you know I like my ladies crazy.”

  “I know, and I told you, I will speak with a cousin of mine, maybe she will join our dungeon run next time, or the time after.”

  “Sounds good, so, how about we return to trying to recruit a few other teams?” Arctur asked, looking at his two friends for confirmation, and they gave it with simple nods.

  During the next few days, the party hung around Fraggle’s as they attempted to intercept a multitude of adventuring parties. Most of these were on their side, but for some reason, a couple of them belonged to Victor’s team. They knew this because when they attempted to recruit these parties in the defense of the town and village, they were told off in the nicest way possible, at least most of the time. A few times, they were rudely waved off, but they didn’t retaliate. Mainly because it simply wasn't worth the trouble, and because there was no rule saying the enemy parties couldn't still roam the lake. It also helped that the recruitment was going rather well, and though some parties needed extra incentives to be convinced, many more were happy to help the frogs after all; they were adventurers.

  Not that being adventurers mattered much inside the dungeon, since none of it was real, but it at least still showed they had some heroic spirit. Additionally, it helped a great deal when they learned that if they protected the town and village, they were more likely to win the event. A reason that really was the tipping point in favor of the trio’s side when convincing other adventurers.

  Other than recruiting people, which wasn’t much of an interesting thing to do, only two other eventful things happened. One was the recruitment of another Beast Lord, while the other was their meeting with the only other elite party in their faction. Out of the two, the one that was most eventful was, rather surprisingly, the second one. At least for their party, it was.

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  The Beast Lord that was brought in was the catfish Beast Lord. A giant, round beast with long whiskers and gray skin that was marked with white stripes. The lord had sustained many wounds, but so had the two teams of adventurers that had brought it in. The sight had been a stark reminder to the party of how strong they were, considering they had brought in three lords with relative ease. And although getting another lord to further even the odds was something to celebrate, the party of adventurers they met and their story was also a very fun and memorable experience for the trio, especially Arctur.

  To begin with, the overpowered trio had seen the snake woman wriggling across the water with her long tail. Seeing her, they knew that her party was the one who had recruited the snake Beast Lord. It was also due to her that the experience was so memorable for Arctur. The woman was obviously related to snakes, likely from a naga lineage if her humanoid upper body was anything to go by. That said, upon seeing the snake woman, the party chose to approach their fellow adventurers, hoping to hear the story of how they recruited the lord, while making friends, and hopefully recruiting another adventuring party.

  As always, their approach caught the other party's attention, and as they got closer, the two groups inspected each other. The snake woman, who had obviously garnered Arctur’s attention, had the upper body of a human. She had pristine chocolate skin and dark, flowing hair, with a heavy chest kept hidden and in place by a single yellow loop of cloth. Yellow cloth that matched both her yellow slitted eyes and the waistband around her hips, which kept hidden the part where her smooth skin melded into the scales of her lower body. A lower body that was mostly covered by black scales, except for the underbelly composed of much lighter-toned yellow scales. Finally, the woman wore a short sword at her waist, held in place by an additional leather belt that sat atop her yellow cloth waistband, as well as a quiver and longbow on her back, which undoubtedly made her a long-range fighter.

  Even if the snake woman looked striking to Arctur, she was the least unique outside the party’s clear leader, at least when compared to the rest of her companions. The party leader was a young dark-skinned man with compact curly hair and striking amber eyes. And though Adriana found the man incredibly interesting for nefarious reasons, he was, for the most part, a normal man. He was well built, as most warriors are, and wore chain mail armor while wielding a shield and sword. With this in mind, it seemed like the man was attempting to maintain his party’s striking appearance by wearing colorful clothing underneath his chain, primarily of the lighter green and blue variety.

  The last three of the other party’s members were the real head turners. First was the biggest of the party, a half-troll man wielding a large two-handed sword. This absolute trunk of a warrior had a tall, bulky build with particularly long limbs. Limbs tipped with dark nails, which were more akin to claws than anything, and matched well with his dark spiky hair, eyes, and brows, as well as his particularly thick and deep purple skin, which was only covered by a well-kept pair of brown shorts.

  After the troll was the flame man. The trio was sure he was of Ignikan descent, which put him in the worst possible place for someone with his heritage. He had a slender build and was of average height, but his fiery colored hair, bright red eyes, and light red skin were odd to see so deep underwater, or really near water at all. If truly of Ignikan descent, which was at least half true if the man’s short pointed ears were anything to go by, then the man was incredibly far from anywhere with heat or fire. And almost as to compensate for being far from any fire, or perhaps because that was his style, he wore a set of basic orange, white, and red clothing.

  Finally, the last member of the group was the most intriguing and likely nefarious of all of them. She was a two-foot-tall lady with plenty of curves and proportions even for someone her size. As she moved, she left a trail of pink and white behind her, which complemented her well, given the fluffy, short, and sparkling dress that matched her hair and, to some extent white eyes. Then, as if that wasn’t enough of a tell to her heritage, her pointy ears, as well as the set of translucent, sharp, thorny wings on her back, which left a said trail of sparkles, were a definitive giveaway. Obviously, the lady was of fey origin, likely a Hilari, as those half mixed with the fey were often called.

  With their inspection of the other party completed and having arrived within speaking distance, the trio did the polite thing, which they had forgotten to do with the lizard lady’s party, and properly introduced themselves. Or at least Alexion did as he swam forward to speak with the other party's leader.

  “Hey there, hope you guys are doing well. We heard about your accomplishment with the snake lord and were hoping to speak with you for a minute. By the way, I am Alexion,” he said, pointing at himself. “She is Adriana,” he pointed at the blue and pink glimmering mermaid who waved, and finally at their green friend who was still eyeing the snake woman, “And he is Arctur.”

  “Nice to meet you all, and sure, we would be happy to speak with you guys. We have heard a few rumors and seen you around, but we have yet to properly talk. By the way am Nassor,” The other party leader said.

  “He is Rhaka, sorry about him, he tends to be a bit quiet,” The leader said while pointing at the half-troll, who nodded at the trio, but kept his eyes on the beautiful mermaid.

  “You can call me Bayle,” The fiery man said with a smile.

  “And I am Mia!” The obvious half-fairy squeaked.

  Everyone’s eyes turned over to the snake woman, waiting for her introduction, but found she was having quite the stare-off with Arctur, which made Alexion sigh.

  “Uh, Prada, you there?” Nassor asked, clearly confused at his party members' behavior.

  “Yess, yess, s-ssorry. Do you need s-ssomething?” Prada asked as she painfully tore her gaze from Arctur to look at her party leader.

  “What's going on?” The dark-skinned warrior asked with evident worry.

  “Huh? Nothing, but jussst to make sure. We are s-staying in town for a while, yesss?” The snake woman asked, her predatory eyes snapping back to Arctur and looking him up and down like he was a piece of meat.

  “We are for a few hours, yes, why?” Nassor asked, somehow still not getting what was going on even as everyone except the half-troll was, and only because he was still staring at Adriana, who was annoyingly hating and loving the attention.

  “Great! I will be back in a while!” Prada said as she shot forward, wrapped her long tail around Arctur’s body, and dragged him off. For his part, the green man did not resist at all, his smile as wide as could be as he waved goodbye to Alexion and Adriana, who smacked their faces in embarrassment, shock, and sheer disbelief.