Back in town, the party approached a few of the normal frog folks.

  “Excuse us, sir, do you mind if we ask you a few questions?” Alexion asked the frogman.

  “No, but please hurry, I'd rather not be out here longer than needed. Ribbit,” the frogman told them.

  “Of course, and it's exactly that what my first question is about. How come there aren’t many townsfolk moving about?” Alexion asked, interested in why the frog folks were not out, after all, if it was the dungeon doing the whole event, it made no real sense to hide them.

  “Do you know of the conflict between Victor and our Chief Ribbiton? Ribbit,” the frogkin asked, and after getting nods from the trio, continued, “Well, for the moment we have been advised to stay inside in case the guards come to blows.”

  “Ah, I see, well, moving right along, have you heard of a powerful otter monster in the lake?” Alexion continued, after realizing that the entire scenario was meant to be somewhat realistic.

  “I have, yes, but not much. We normal frog folk don’t know much about these strong monsters. Ribbit. You are better off talking with the guards; they deal with such matters,” The frogman explained.

  “We will, and thank you for your time,” Alexion said, and after a few more pleasantries, the frogman went on his way.

  To make sure that they weren't missing anything, the party spoke with a few more normal frog people before finally heading to speak with the guards. The guards were still divided into two factions, but were not fighting or treating each other as if they were actually hostile. And to be fair to the dungeon, there had yet to be any actual fighting, both sides seeming to still be in the talking and preparation phases of their conflict.

  Approaching the guards, they made sure to specifically speak with the Ribbiton-aligned guards. This was mainly because they had aligned themselves with Ribbiton and didn’t want to trigger a betrayal quest or something of the sort if the dungeon even had such a thing.

  “Ribbit. Adventurers, how can I be of assistance?” The guard's woman asked once she noticed the trio approaching her.

  “Uh, yes, I was wondering if you could help us in our search for the strong monsters of the lake?” Alexion asked, continuing to speak for the team, and getting straight to the point.

  “I certainly can! Ribbit. Do you have a specific monster you are looking for?”

  “Yes, we have heard of a powerful otter monster and are hoping to find it first.”

  “Oh, I know who you speak of. We guards deal with the constant harassment of his type on the shell farms, yet we have not managed to deal with their leader. Ribbit. The main issue is that he is powerful, and his explosive magic makes the water turbulent, which makes it difficult for us to chase or deal any meaningful damage. Ribbit. However, that could be overcome if we guards could track him.”

  “Is he that elusive?”

  “Yes, he has no lair to call home and spends his time roaming around the lake. At most, we have only spotted him around a certain island where his kind likes to spend their time. Ribbit.”

  “You think you can give us the location of the island?” Alexion asked, hoping that their search would at least be made a little easier.

  “Sure, and since you seem to be helping our chief, I will even give you this,” The guard told them as she grabbed a piece of rolled-up kelp from a small bag on her side.

  Unrolling the melded kelp, the party found a relatively detailed map of the lake. The frogs had painted the map in various shades of green and black to show the islands, as well as the deeper or shallower parts of the lake. It was a nice addition to their search, especially when the guard pointed out the island she had spoken of.

  “Thank you. This will be very helpful,” Alexion told the frog.

  “Of course! Ribbit. Do you have any other questions?”

  “Yes, actually, how come the guards are not at odds with each other? Aren’t you all on different sides?” Arctur said, finally asking the thing that had been on all of their minds.

  “Ribbit. That is true, adventurer; however, for the moment, no real hostilities have occurred, and even if we support different leaders, as of right now, our first job is to protect our frog brethren,” The guard explained.

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  “So, what happens if you end up having to fight?” Adriana added, breaking her silence as well.

  “I am not sure that will be up to Sir Ribbiton to decide. Any other questions?” The frog answered, becoming a bit rigid.

  “No, that’s all, thank you for helping us, we will be on our way,” Alexion told her, and motioned for his two friends to follow.

  Making their way to the island, the party was surprised when no monsters interrupted their swim. They often forgot that that was possible within the dungeon, and that not every moment of every day would be filled with fighting.

  Making it to the island, they found it to be rather large, and it wasn't hard to quickly spot a few otters running around. That said, it wasn't the same island they had previously visited, and it definitely did not hold the same number of otters. Of course, there could be more of the fur balls around the island, but they only saw about five of them in their current vicinity.

  So, considering that it took 20 of the creatures to give the party a decent fight. The party confidently headed onto the island. For their part, the otters did not even wait long to start attacking them. Still, the party made it reasonably close to the island before they were noticed, and explosives were sent their way. Sadly for the fur balls, the party was incredibly overpowered and blocked all the attacks without issue, and without even using their Shields. From there, they approached the shore and began to absolutely demolish the explosive fur balls. At least until Adriana stopped them as they were about to kill the last one.

  “Wait!” The two guys heard in their minds. The mermaid had mainly been relaxing in the water as they worked, and after having an idea, she had called out.

  For its part, the Boom Otter looked traumatized after seeing Alexion and Arctur completely and otterly tear its companions apart without them even putting up much of a fight. The thing was so scared that it didn’t even move, even as the two guys turned to look at Adriana, who was floating towards them as she forced the lake's water to move inland around her.

  “What's up?” Alexion asked.

  “I just realized something. See, we have been treating these guys like monsters, because in a way they are, but aren’t they also beasts?” Adriana said, like that should make all the sense in the world, and it did, at least to Arctur.

  “So?” Alexion asked, still not getting it.

  “If they are beasts or beast adjacent, then we can probably talk to them,” Arctur pointed out, and realization finally hit Alexion, who looked toward Arctur.

  “Yes, I know, give me a second, you know I don’t like using that. Honestly, this is why we need someone who actually knows more spells,” Arctur told his two friends as he closed his eyes.

  With his eyes closed, Arthur tapped into his wild side. Not much, but just enough that he would be able to use at least one facet of its power without fully transforming. It didn't take long for his power to traverse his body, causing some features to manifest, but nothing like when he fully tapped into it.

  Meanwhile, his two friends watched as Arthur's green skin grew bits of fur all over. Then, finally, when their friend opened his eyes, they were more animalistic and had hints of yellow as his pupils partially reshaped, becoming more slitted, like that of beasts.

  “Can you understand me?” Arctur asked the otter, his voice sounding a bit gruff and beast-like.

  Actually understanding what the creature in front of it was saying, the otter's eyes widened before it hesitantly replied, its voice squeaky and scared, “Y-yes.”

  “Good,” Arctur said, giving it a predatory smile and showing his slightly larger canines. “Now, tell us, where is your boss?”

  The otter hesitated to say anything at first, but it only took some convincing, where Arctur told it of a worse fate than what its friends had experienced before it finally decided to cooperate, and the party found themselves on their way to the boss of the otters.

  Dan felt a bit bad as he watched the trio deal with the otter. And in full honesty, the entire thing was rather silly since even if they did kill the furry creature, it would respawn. However, Dan had ensured that his dungeon offered many options, which meant ensuring his monsters had distinct personalities. It also meant allowing them to feel fear and not necessarily act in accordance with how a normal dungeon monster would act.

  Essentially, he had ensured that his creations varied emotionally, as he didn’t need them to be creatures that did not fear death, unlike those he had encountered during his conquest of the area. That said, some of them still did not care about death at all and were willing to sacrifice themselves to deal a blow against an adventurer. Others did not like to die and tried to avoid doing so, but not by avoiding combat, since that was impossible. After all, though Dan had given them some measure of free will, he needed them to perform a job, and that job involved fighting.

  That said, some beasts did hesitate during combat, and others didn't. All in all, Dan found it hard to explain the intricacies of his creations. They were all alive and could feel fear just like the otter had. Of course, in that same boat, some could enjoy fighting and were better at it than others of their kind, regardless of the fact that they shared skills. There could also be kind monsters, who could possibly help or befriend adventurers if said adventurers ever deemed to actually talk to them.

  That was something that Dan had noticed since early on. For the most part, adventurers didn't see his creations as actual living things. Even if his creations showed emotions when hurt or even their intelligence when fighting, adventurers only saw them as things to kill, and often didn’t even bother talking to them. That being said, the exception to this was the humanoids, but even then, a good number of adventurers did not see them as anything other than puppets. These types of adventurers were in the minority, and often the ones with less than stellar qualities. However, for the most part, adventurers treated humanoids as fellows, at least more than they did his monsters.

  To this end, it was clear the two guys saw all of his monsters as monsters and hadn’t thought about them as anything other than things to kill. Luckily, their mermaid friend was different, and even if it had taken her a while to figure it out, she had, which Dan could appreciate. Now, Dan just hoped that her views would pass on to her two friends, and then hopefully, if slowly, catch on with everyone else. Granted, Dan had already planned for this, which was why he had a few areas where adventurers were forced to work with his monsters.