As their routine indicated, and after having slaughtered dozens of catfish, the party headed up to the surface for a break. Unlike their other breaks, the party didn't spend too much time on the surface. The break was mostly for Alex and Arctur to begin with, since Adriana was fine being underwater all the time, not to say she didn’t enjoy the sun on her skin. Still, after eating and breathing some fresh air, the party headed back down. They knew they were on a timer, and we're trying to get as many quests done as they could.

  The thing was that the party was not sure if different quests gave different amounts of renown. After all, they hadn't noticed any changes with the frog folks, so they weren't sure if their few quests were even contributing much. Was renown changing how the frog folks saw them, or was it simply some sort of measurement for whatever was happening in the lake? The dungeon didn't really tell them any of this, and all they had to go by was the word of other adventurers to keep doing quests. Honestly, at that point, they weren't even sure why people seemed to be repeating the event of the lake. However, considering that nothing major had yet to happen, the party was forced to continue doing quests.

  Back in the town, they began doing whatever quest they could get their hands on. This, of course, meant repeating many of the quests that they had already done. And since there were only so many types of quests, it meant they had basically done most of them. This meant that they completed the quests much faster, since there was no longer a mystery to them.

  The party even ended up going to the second village, which was much like the first. In said village, they redid some of the giant lobster, lily, and otter quests. Though the second time around, they found that they were only up against a couple of otters and not 20 of them. This led them to believe that the whole thing had to be a test that would pop up every now and then.

  All in all, the parties spent two more days on the lake doing various quests that they had already done. And due to their speed, they managed to do a good amount of them even after taking several breaks. That being said, there was one quest that the party had not taken yet, and when they did, its reward turned out to be rather useful, even if the quest wasn’t really a quest.

  They got the quest when a blur of movement swam out of one of the buildings the party had identified as a hatchery. They knew it was a hatchery because of the small tadpoles and frog people swimming around it. Anyways, not long after the blur came out, a frog lady swam out and began yelling while shaking her fist up towards the murkiness of the lake.

  “Damn eels! Ribbit. Taking our eggs!”

  “Everything alright?” Adriana asked as she swam to the frog woman.

  “Huh? Oh, yes, adventurers, everything is fine, well, not really, some eels snuck into the hatchery again, and ate some of the eggs,” The frog lady replied, acknowledging them.

  “Does that happen often?” Adriana questioned, hoping to get a quest.

  “Yes, though this time they took one of our enhanced eggs, which is a bigger loss. Ribbit,” The woman answered, sighing.

  “Anything we can do to help?” Alexion asked.

  “I am not sure. Ribbit. You adventurers always want payment, and I don’t have much to offer.”

  “No worries, there. We are happy to help. No payment needed,” Arctur said, finally speaking.

  “Really?” The frog asked, looking at them doubtfully.

  “Really!” Adriana answered cheerfully.

  “Hmm, alright. Ribbit. If you want to help, then you would have to get rid of the eels. Ribbit. The thing is, they are hard to find, though I can probably help with that, even if you don’t end up getting rid of all of them, clearing their nesting grounds should help.”

  “Wait, so you know where they are?” Alexion asked, surprised that they hadn’t gotten a quest screen yet, and unsure how the quest was going.

  “Yes, we do, the guard tries to clear their grounds. Ribbit. But with how things have been going lately, they haven’t done much. So, the thefts have increased in frequency.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Wait, what do you mean by how things have been going on lately?” Arctur asked, curious about the statement.

  “I guess you adventurers wouldn’t know, but there is a rift growing between us frog folk. Ribbit. One group wants to head to the surface, while the other wishes to stay underwater. Of course. Ribbit. There have always been those who push both sides, but lately things have been getting tenser, and things might get serious soon, hence the guards stopping some of their duties,” The frog lady answered, trying to keep her voice down, the topic clearly being a point of conflict.

  “I see, well, thank you for the information, and I hope everything ends well,” Arctur replied.

  “Yes, thank you for that, it's good information to know. However, back to your problem, you were telling us about eels, and if you don’t mind us asking, what are these enhanced eggs?” Alexion said, continuing the previous conversation.

  “Oh, yes, I can give you a map to the nearby nesting grounds. If you can clear some, it might lessen the thefts. Ribbit. And I don’t mind you asking. Ribbit. The enhanced eggs are special eggs we empower with a special alchemical solution so they grow to become generally stronger frog kin; often, they are used as guards.”

  “Really? How come you don’t empower all the frog folk into these eggs?” Adriana asked, genuinely curious, forgetting that she was in the dungeon.

  “Ribbit. Well, mainly supply, see we don’t know what is used for the solution, the only reason we have it is because The Alchemist trades us for it,” The way the frog lady said The Alchemist was with such reverence that the trio instantly remembered a certain quest.

  “Hold on, you know who The Alchemist is?” Adriana responded, adding the same tone of note-worthiness to the title.

  “Not exactly, she is a bit odd, it’s the first frogkin we have seen with blue dots patterned on yellow skin. Ribbit. She comes occasionally, seemingly at random, and trades us the solution for alchemy materials, then leaves. Ribbit. We have yet to learn her name or where she lives.”

  “So, she might not live in the lake?” Arctur questioned.

  “Exactly. Ribbit. Or at least not in the town or villages, since she would be easily recognizable,” The frog lady answered.

  “That makes sense. Otherwise, everyone would easily find her. Still, why don’t you give us that map so we can be on our way?” Alexion told her, and she happily swam inside with a ribbit of approval.

  Minutes later, the trio had received the map and were on their way to the first nesting ground. However, as soon as they left the hatchery, they addressed the yellow frog in the room.

  “Well, this has been the most useful quest, which isn’t a quest, quest,” Adriana stated.

  “Indeed, I can’t believe we learned so much from that. It's good to finally get a solid hint at what the event will be about,” Arctur added.

  “Yeah, and even if we aren’t any closer to finding the alchemist, the quest updated,” Alexion said, looking at the wandering alchemist quest and reading the new lines added.

  ‘By speaking with the head of a frogkin hatchery, you have learned that The Wandering Alchemist is a female frogkin with blue dots patterned on yellow skin.’

  “Are we going to try to search the lake for her?” Adriana asked.

  “I don’t think so, her being in the lake would make things too easy, I would bet good money she is going to be in another area of the dungeon,” Arctur stated confidently, and the other two had to agree.

  “By the way, now that I am thinking about it, Pepe did tell us something about the frogkin issue. We just didn’t think it would be relevant to the actual dungeon event,” Alexion pointed out.

  “Huh, I guess he did. By the way, do you guys think Pepe is doing okay?” Adriana said, catching the other two off guard and having them turn to her, their faces showing confusion at the unexpected question.

  “What!? He was a good frog; he helped us out a lot,” Adriana added defensively.

  “Adri, you do know that he can’t die, not really,” Alexion stated.

  “Well… Yeah, but still, he has feelings,” she said meekly.

  Hearing her, the two friends smiled at each other before answering.

  “Yeah, I am sure Pepe is fine,” Alexion told her with confidence.

  “Yup, he is probably relaxing back at his frog home,” Her green friend added as they continued swimming.

  Watching the trio, Dan couldn’t help but appreciate the mermaid. Sure, she was a menace, but the girl really liked being in his dungeon, and he had to admit that made him happy. It was also hard to dislike her when she cared for his creations, even when it didn’t change much. After all, plenty of npcs had already died, due to adventurers or monsters, Pepe being one of them. Not that Dan would tell the sweet mermaid that, if anything, he might bend the rules of his dungeon, so that she could make some more friends.

  Honestly, after watching the party, Dan had come to understand what Adriana was going through and the reason why she loved his dungeon so much. And though Dan was a fallen Eldritch God with primarily human memories and feelings, at least for the moment, he was happy to help some adventurers if he could.

  Of course, that was for emotional help, and not even that good, since Dan was sure he had scarred plenty of adventurers so far, and still planned to give the trio of overpowered friends a good what-for.

  It didn't take the party too long to arrive at the nesting area. The place was located on an odd cliffy area of the lake that stretched rather far across its floor. Following the map, they quickly arrived at the first nesting spot, finding that it consisted of about two dozen holes and cracks on the face of the cliff.

  Due to the murkiness of the water, algae, lake weeds, and other plants, the entire area seemed deserted. At least until a lightning bolt shot out from one of the holes, and the party was quickly greeted by several eels emerging from their homes.