After swimming around for quite a while, the party began to think that the otter was taking them on a random swim around the lake. However, right as they were thinking of stopping the fur ball to have a conversation with it, the trio noticed a pack of otters not far from them. The pack was made up of eight otters, and one seemed to be slightly larger than the rest.

  At first, the trio thought that they would have a fight on their hands, especially when their otter hurriedly swam to the pack. However, as they approached the pack of otters, they all seemed to be communicating, their eyes focusing on the party. In response, the party decided to wait and see what would happen.

  Finally, after a minute of waiting, the otters seemed to finish talking, and the slightly larger one began to swim their way. Considering that the otter didn't seem to want to fight the party, they were happy to wait, though they were surprised when it arrived near them and spoke, its voice rather squeaky.

  “I hear you idiots attacked my friend over there.”

  The party had encountered their fair share of speaking beasts due to a variety of reasons, but it was still surprising to find one in the dungeon. That said, what truly took them aback was the way that the otter addressed them. It was one thing to be able to speak, but something completely different to be so rude, so much so that the party had to take a second to take in its words before they could respond.

  “Well, that’s rude!” Adriana told the otter, sounding slightly offended.

  “I will admit that you have the right to be mad for that, and we apologize for attacking your friend,” Alexion said, remembering that they were there to recruit the otter.

  “Deadly in combat and speech, not what I would expect from such cute creatures,” Arctur added.

  “Damn right I have the right to be mad! And don’t call me cute!” The otter bristled.

  “Alright, alright, we apologize for that as well,” Alexion said, looking at Arctur with an expression that told him to shut up.

  “Yeah, whatever, now, what do you want?” The otter answered, calming down.

  “We were hoping to speak with you about helping some of the frog folk. In return, you will be able to have as many shells as you want,” Alexion told the otter, trying to be diplomatic while leaving the party out of the equation.

  “Ha! Like I would ever help those fools! And even less for shells! We already take all the shells we want!”

  Hearing the mocking tone in the otter's voice, the trio had to hold back a response, and Alexion continued, still trying to bring the otter to their side.

  “Alright, is there anything that would interest you in exchange for helping them?”

  “Maybe. How about they make me their leader? In fact, I will do it if you three become my minions.”

  “Are you serious?” Alexion asked, hoping it was joking.

  “Yes, I am serious, and consider it a kindness, since you adventurers aren’t worth much,” The otter said condescendingly.

  “That won’t do. Anything else that you might want?” Alexion said, his patience starting to run out.

  “No. And considering you have all been rather useless, I do not care to speak with you anymore. Now leave before I retaliate for attacking my brethren.”

  Hearing the otter, the party almost tore it apart right then and there, but decided to hold back. They had all been specifically instructed that this stage was only intended for talking, and they didn't want to accidentally fail the quest if they got into a fight. As such, the party quickly turned around and swam away from the infuriating otter, starting a mental conversation as they did so.

  “We are going to kill it later, right?” Adriana asked, somehow conveying that she was grinding her teeth via telepathy.

  “Oh, absolutely, quest or no quest,” Arctur declared with certainty.

  “Yes. Consider it dead,” Alexion said, already looking forward to teaching the otter a lesson.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Good,” They heard the mermaid say rather coldly.

  “So, what's next? Should we look for another boss?” Alexion asked his friends.

  “Yeah, and if I remember correctly, there is one that should be fairly easy to find,” Arctur said, thinking about Pepe’s words of a beaver-like monster.

  “Which one are you thinking of, because there is one or two who seem rather easy,” Adriana asked, remembering Pepe’s description of a weird-looking platypus.

  “I was thinking about the beaver,” Arctur told them.

  “Yeah, that seems good, then maybe we can do the platypus?” Adriana replied.

  “Sure. What do you think, Alex?” Arctur asked his friend.

  “That works for me, though I am also interested in the tigerfish. It seems like they are a strong contender if their weaker versions are anything to go by.”

  “True, true. Well, it's not like we can’t do all of them; the problem is actually finding them.” Arctur stated.

  “Should we head back to the town then? Pepe told us the beaver is in the southern part of the lake, but we don’t know where exactly,” Adriana pointed out, and with confirmations from her friends, they began making their way back.

  On the way back to the town, the party received another surprise when they ran into some monsters that they had not expected to run into. For some reason, they had thought that the catfish and the snakes would not be swimming around the lake, but they were wrong. Not that they could be blamed, since they hadn't really encountered them before, considering how big the lake was. Either way, they did run into some catfish and snakes, which they promptly ripped apart since they didn't provide much of a challenge.

  Then, once back in town, the trio began speaking with multiple guards as they tried to find information on the various Beast Lords. To start with, they got information about the Beast Lord that Arctur was interested in. According to the guards, it was a beaver beast and was one of the easiest Beast Lords to get to.

  “You can find it here. Ribbit,” The guard told them, as he pointed at a spot in the southernmost area of the lakeshore. The area seemed to be mostly cut off from the lake, except for a small channel that connected both bodies of water, at least it used to.

  “Wait, so it's always there?” Arctur asked.

  “Yes. Ribbit. It doesn’t really roam, and calls that small lake its home,” The guard explained.

  “So how come you guys haven’t killed it?”

  “It doesn’t bother us. Ribbit. The Beast Lord is passive, and so are its minions, unless they are provoked, so we let it be.”

  “Hmm, alright, well, thanks for your help,” Arctur told the guard, then moved on to the next one. They would have loved to get all the information from only one, but the party had found that most guards were, for some reason, limited to answering questions about one or two Beast Lords at most.

  “Yes, it is a weird platypus. Ribbit. And no, we don’t know why it's colored that way,” The frog guard answered, after Adriana had asked why the platypus was colored in such a manner.

  “I see, well, can you point out those locations you told us about?” The mermaid continued.

  “I certainly can! Ribbit.” The frog woman answered, pointing at about two dozen locations around the lake. Each area was apparently a spot where the platypus Beast Lord was known to stop throughout the day. According to the guard, each cave was a nesting ground or home to many platypuses, and their leader was known to check in on them.

  “And you’re sure that they won’t attack?” Adriana asked, confirming whether the platypuses were like the beavers, and would leave them be.

  “Yes. They haven’t attacked us frog folks, well, unless we try to head inside. Ribbit.”

  “Wait, what about us?”

  “They might attack adventurers. Ribbit. We find that many things are willing to fight you all.”

  “Alright, well that’s good to know, thanks for your help,” Adriana answered, and swam away from the frog guard, who waved them off with a “Anytime! Ribbit.”

  “So, what do you guys think?” Adriana asked her two friends via telepathy.

  “I think that the beavers might be willing to fight us,” Alexion told them.

  “Yeah, though, I think there is a balance in all this, and some monsters might attack us regardless. After all, it seems like they all have different personalities, like normal creatures,” Arctur said, as he thought back on the otter Beast Lord and its underling.

  “True, I mean, if the humanoids have different emotions and act like us, I don’t see why the beasts can’t,” Adriana added, as she thought back on all the dungeon people they had met so far.

  “I have to agree, however, don’t forget that there is a chance they also can’t disobey the dungeon. After all, at the end of the day, we are meant to end up fighting them, so even if some can be passive, there is a good chance that the dungeon forces some to fight us regardless,” Alexion added, remembering that there was a large force behind their entire experience so far.

  After the conversation about the dungeons and its monsters, the party continued on to find information about the third beast that they were aware of. And like they had expected, the tigerfish Beast Lord would be much harder to find than the other two Pepe had told them about.

  A conversation with a frog guard let the party know that the Tigerfish Beast Lord could only be found in the most turbulent waters of the lake. This did narrow down the scope of the search, but it still meant that the party would spend a couple of hours trying to find the lord. Because even if they could track the currents and find the turbulent areas, there were still a good number of them, and they did expand from the bottom to the very top of the lake's surface.

  That being said, after gaining all the information they could about these three bosses. The party decided that they had been underwater for long enough.

  Heading to the surface, they fought some sharks and catfish that decided to interrupt their swim, and after dispatching them, they continued without issue. At the surface, they found that it was mid-afternoon and decided that it was best for them to take a break from questing, at least for the rest of the day. So, they found a good spot near the shore and set up their camping gear to have a small feast, with plans to continue their search for the Beast Lords the following day.