Moments after the lightning bolt had been unleashed, the party summoned their shields. The attack hadn't gotten close to hurting any of them, since it was a warning shot. However, considering that they didn't know what the eels could do, it was better to be on the safe side. Not that they were worried about the eels being a threat, but the party would rather avoid a repeat of the Tigerfish situation.

  For their part, the eels were not attacking; instead, after emerging from the holes and cracks, they kept a watch on the party. The eels looked mostly the same, with black, leather-like skin, their bodies moving in sync as they curved back and forth while swimming in place. It was strange not having them attack, and the trio wondered when they would move.

  “I think we aren’t a threat, at least not yet. It seems they are waiting to see if we will cross over into the area they deem as part of their nesting ground,” Adriana stated, having deduced the eel’s motives.

  “Yeah, I am with you, that was a warning shot telling us to stop,” Arctur stated.

  “That’s nice and all, but we are here to fight them, so, should we cross over?” Alexion pointed out and received nods of agreement.

  Watching the eels carefully, the trio slowly moved forward, and as they moved, the tension in the water seemed to increase until finally the party crossed over some invisible threshold and all the eels burst into motion.

  Around a dozen lightning bolts were unleashed, and the party instantly countered, canceling the attacks with their own. Of course, that wasn't all, and the eels that hadn't stayed in place to discharge their attacks morphed as they swam. The bodies of these eels became flatter and flatter until they were almost paper-thin. Somehow, the change also increased their swimming speed, and they erupted forward with renewed speed.

  Sadly, that's where all the surprises the eels had to offer came to an end. These flat and speedy eels didn't accomplish much. Though blocking their attacks took some mana, it was not that bad. The flat eels were trying to cut through their shields, and if it had been another party, they might have been in trouble. However, when no new surprises came from the monsters, the party got bored.

  It didn't take long for the eel’s valiant charge to defend their nests to be turned into a complete slaughter. Sure, the Discharge Eels unleashed some more bolts of lightning, and there were many of the Razor Blade Eels, but they were simply not a problem, and it didn't take long before the party had dispatched the monsters.

  After clearing out the first nest, the party moved on to the second, third, and fourth. In total, they checked around 13 of the nests, finding many were empty, while some had very few eels, and others had as many as the first nest that they had gone to. And yes, there were more nests, but considering the party was not going to get renown from the quest since they didn't even get a quest, there wasn’t much point to clearing the nests. So, they had quickly headed back to town and told the frog lady that they had cleared a number of nests, which she seemed happy about. Then, considering she didn't give them an actual quest or any other information, they assumed they had done a good job as adventurers and moved on.

  Thus, the party had gotten back to the normal questing they had been doing before they had run into the odd hatchery quest. The trio continued clearing the same repetitive quests so they could continue earning renown. Not that they ended up doing it for too long, since in the end, it was about two days of questing before something finally changed in the lake.

  They weren't sure if maybe the event had been delayed by something, or if it was simply the starting time for the event. After all, from what they had gathered, all the events were slightly different, and things could vary from reset to reset. Either way, the party was making their way down to the town early in the morning, looking to start another day of questing. However, they quickly realized that the mood of the town had drastically changed overnight. Only a small portion of the town's folks were moving about, but more importantly, when they got closer, they realized the guards were wearing different symbols.

  Previously, and something that had become part of the setting were the symbols that all the frog guards wore. Their arm bracelets, which had always had a symbol of a frog's webbed handprint, had now changed. Instead, the guards now wore two different symbols. One was the picture of a frog's extended leg, while the other was the image of a frog's face as it expanded mid-croak. Examining the two symbols, the party was unsure which symbol represented which faction.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Because at the very least, they knew what was going on, and it was nice for the lake event to begin. That being said, they had to make sure to pick the right side so they could kill two monsters with one sword. After all, they needed to get the string from whoever the leader of Fraggles was, and also make sure they won, so they could win the event. And yes, it was rather obvious to them that they would be asked to pick a side. There was no way the dungeon had set the entire thing up and not have them pick a side.

  In fact, as they swam into the town proper, one of the guards wearing the symbol of the face that had the frog croaking approached them.

  “Aha! Just the adventurers I was looking for! Ribbit.” The guard told them, confusing the trio.

  “You were looking for us?” Arctur said, pointing to himself.

  “Yes! My liege, Sir Ribbiton Croaker the Third, wishes to speak with you. Ribbit. He has heard of your many deeds helping his people and hopes you will assist him with an urgent matter.”

  “I see, any chance you can tell us what this matter is?” Alexion questioned, even if he already knew the answer.

  “I believe. Ribbit. It's best if my liege explains; he would do a better job of explaining the situation than a lowly guard. Ribbit. If you could visit the royal house when you are ready to hear him, that would be wonderful. However, he asks that you don’t make him wait too long.”

  “Got it, we will make sure to speak with him soon,” Alexion said, already knowing the royal house was the most prominent building in town.

  The frogman, upon hearing Alexion’s answer, saluted and swam away.

  “Well, what do you guys think?” Alexion said, turning to look at his friends, who never got to answer.

  “Adventurers! Glad I found you! I do hope no one else got to you first! Ribbit.”

  “Hey, uh, who are you? And how do you know us?” Alex asked, already knowing what was going to happen from the frog leg symbol the guard was wearing.

  “Me? Ribbit. I am just a lowly guard, and you might not remember me, but I remember you! You three helped save us from those Tigerfish back in Ribbit,” The female frogkin told them, her eyes practically shining like she was meeting her heroes.

  “I see. Can we help you with something?” Alexion continued, his two friends happy to let him deal with everything.

  “You must certainly can! You see, when I informed my liege about your deeds, he knew you were the right people to help him achieve his dream! So, he has sent me here to recruit you!”

  “Uh-huh, and who is your liege?”

  “The great Victor Croakster!”

  “And where is he? So we can meet his greatness?”

  “Uh, well, you see, he is back in Ribbit,” The frog guard answered, sounding a bit embarrassed.

  “Ah? Well, that’s fine, we will meet him soon, if it's fine with you?”

  “Of course! Hope to see you soon!” The frog said, almost lunging for a hug before she caught herself, blushed, if a frog could blush, and swam away.

  “I like her, if only we didn’t need the stupid line,” Adriana said as soon as the frog guard was far enough.

  “Yeah, it's definitely weird seeing her with so much spirit. It almost makes me forget where we are,” Arctur added, looking at the screen that had popped up.

  “I would agree, if it wasn’t so weird to be approached with two different recruiting offers, one so close after another,” Alexion said while also reading the event pop-up.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  ?? Event Details ??

  Name: Frog Conflict - Part 1.

  Description: Unknown to you, a conflict has been growing within the frog kin population. This conflict seems to be reaching its climax and has finally sparked a full-on clash. After being approached by the two factions around which the conflict revolves, you have been asked to choose a side.

  Visit the Royal House to speak with Ribbiton Croaker the Third.

  Or.

  Head back to Ribbit and speak with Victor Croakster.

  Warning: You have a limited time to speak with the two leaders. If a side isn’t joined, then this quest will fail, and you will not be able to continue the Event.

  Reward: Magical Item.

  ??

  Though larger than every other building in town, the royal house was not any different. It followed the same open structural layout as most buildings in the town. The only real difference between it and other buildings was the sheer number of guards. After all, living underwater made defensive walls almost obsolete, and the frogkin had to compensate with sheer numbers, considering the house held their leader.

  The trio was stopped as they approached the royal house, but they were quickly let through once they identified themselves as adventurers looking to speak with Ribbiton. From there, they were quickly brought into the royal house and taken to the frog equivalent of a royal entrance hall. Except that instead of wood or stone, the throne was made of coral and shells, with plants tying the entire thing together.

  The party waited for a few minutes inside the throne room before the leader of the frog people finally swam in, along with a dozen more guards.

  Ribbiton had deep green skin and wore a simple shell crown. Also, like the rest of the frog folk and opposing many fancy frogs, he wore a simple loincloth, though his shell armor was better put together and touched up with metal bits. All in all, from what the party could tell, the chieftain of the frog folks was a warrior through and through, which was something they could respect.