“Is this what you wish to ask of me?” Perry, the semi-aquatic mammal of action, asked them, clearly confused by Adrianas' words.

  “No, it isn’t, I apologize for my friend,” Alexion told the Beast Lord while glaring at Adriana, who was trying her best to seem remorseful.

  “We wanted to ask if you would be willing to help the frog people of the lake? Of course, they would grant you adequate compensation,” Arctur spoke up, considering Alexion was still trying and failing to reprimand Adriana.

  “Ah, I see, that seems more along the lines of what I would expect; however, I must decline. The frog folk have nothing my kind needs nor that we can’t acquire ourselves.”

  “So, there is nothing that they can possibly offer to change your mind?” Alexion asked, continuing the conversation.

  “I don’t believe so, no. Now, unless there is something else you wish to speak on, I will be on my way.”

  Perry waited for a few seconds and, seeing that the trio wasn’t saying anything, began to turn around. Meanwhile, the moment the platypus had finished speaking, the three adventurers had begun a telepathic conversation.

  “I am going to ask it for a hug,” Adriana told them.

  “What!? No!” Alexion quickly intervened.

  “Why not?” The mermaid asked sweetly.

  “Because.”

  “Because what?” Adriana said, pushing her boyfriend for an answer.

  “Because it’s a Beast Lord,” Arctur added, knowing that meant nothing to the mermaid.

  “Because what if it gets offended by the request?” Alexion finally told her, having thought of a reason.

  “You think it will? He sounded more confused than anything. Come on, it will be fine.” Adriana said excitedly, as if she knew it for a fact.

  “Fine,” Alexion answered with a sigh, earning a chuckle from Arctur, who promptly got a glare from the elf.

  “Perry!” Adriana called out to the lord, who had only managed to get a few feet away.

  “Yes?” The lord answered as it swam back around.

  “Can I, uh, Can I-” The mermaid began, but got tongue-tied, for whatever reason.

  “She wants to know if she can hug you,” Alexion said, sounding defeated at having to speak the words.

  “Why?”

  “Because she thinks you’re cute,” Arctur told the lord, deciding to get straight to the point.

  For his part, Perry went quiet as he floated in place pondering the question, then finally he answered, “I don’t see why it would be a problem.”

  Alexion and Arctur had barely enough time to register the words before Adriana shot forward with a squeal, quickly arriving at and wrapping her arms around the Beast Lord, rubbing her face against its fur.

  A couple of minutes after the hug, which turned to a cuddle of sorts, began, the Beast Lord finally decided it had had enough, and it pushed itself away from the mermaid. Adriana, deciding to take her win, didn’t resist and gave the lord's fur one final stroke before swimming back to her friends.

  “So, what's next?” Adriana cheerfully asked the two guys as she practically vibrated with happiness.

  “I believe next will be the tigerfish Beast Lord,” Alexion stated.

  “Alright, sounds good to me,” Arctur agreed, then he and the elf turned to look expectantly at Adriana.

  “What?” The mermaid asked, confused, her mind still stuck on the feeling of Perry’s soft fur.

  “Currents,” Alexion answered, like that word was enough, which it was as the mermaid began working her magic.

  The party knew that in order to find the tigerfish Beast Lord, they had to head towards the most turbulent areas of the lake. Of course, finding these areas came with a slight bit of difficulty. The most problematic aspect was the actual travel time, while the second issue was finding a current that would lead them to the different areas.

  From what the party understood, there were two different types of currents that could be found within the lake. The first were the large currents that traveled around the lake, and the ones that the lily pad monsters often used to push themselves around. From these large currents, smaller ones branched off and spread throughout the lake, merging and splitting, ensuring that the lake never became stagnant. These currents were effectively everywhere and often came to an end in the most turbulent spots of the lake, unlike the larger ones that never deviated or interacted with these areas.

  So, the idea would be to track one of the branching currents all the way to its source, hoping that its source was a merging point that caused it to branch out from one of the turbulent areas. This was problematic because they didn’t know how many points a current had branched off, which technically created a new one to track. So, due to this, Adriana couldn’t really track one current all the way back to its source, since doing so would drain her out of mana depending on the travel length of the current, and two, there was no real way to know when its source was a turbulent area or just a split-off point.

  Adding to the problem was the fact that currents could travel great distances without encountering any obstacles due to a lack of spatial restrictions. This allowed a current to loop around in a large circle multiple times before changing direction. So, when it came down to it, finding the turbulent area where the tigerfish Beast Lord could be found came down to a lot of travel time, mana expenditure, or hoping they got lucky.

  Luckily for the trio, Adriana had a lot of mana to spend, and their underwater speed was rather fast. Even then, it took them a couple of hours of tracking a current, which would merge and split, causing the party to backtrack when they found that the branch they took didn’t lead anywhere, or it merged with one of the main currents. All in all, the entire thing was a pain in the ass for the trio; however, eventually, they did manage to find one of the spots they were looking for.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Following the current, Alex and Adriana quickly noticed the slight shift in the water. Due to the currents, the water in the lake was in constant movement. However, this movement was incredibly difficult to notice, as it was a slow and passive process. Yet, as they had been following the current, the two friends, with their attunement to water, began to notice a slight increase in the force the water around them was exerting on their bodies.

  “Guys, is it me, or is the water getting agitated?” Arctur asked them a few minutes after they had noticed the change.

  “Yup,” Adriana answered.

  “Yes, it has, good to see you finally noticed,” Alexion said a bit teasingly.

  “Hmmph,” Was Arcturs only response as he played into their joke. After all, the trio wouldn’t actually let any one of them get caught off guard. However, as a way to keep themselves sharp, they often waited before pointing out certain things. Arctur was usually guilty of this when they were out in the forest, where his senses overtook those of his two friends.

  The closer the trio got, the more currents started re-convening in the area, and the force exerted by their movement quickly increased, making it harder and harder to move through the water. Well, it would have if it weren’t for their mermaid, who spent mana without issue to keep the area around all three relatively stable. However, as they pushed deeper into the turbulence, the situation worsened, and eventually they knew it was time to change their approach.

  Honestly, it was a surprise that the trio had yet to be attacked, as the deep, dark, and turbulent waters were perfect for any fish-like monster to strike. For one, the party’s movements were limited, and as if visibility wasn’t already poor underwater, the currents brought in incredible amounts of small particles that created an underwater fog, further limiting the party’s perception. So, deciding it was time to prepare for an ever-imminent attack, the trio adjusted their roles slightly.

  Arctur was placed in charge of their defense, and his eyes became orbs of green light as he created a translucent green barrier around them. Then he enlarged the space his shield covered to be right below the barrier. Essentially, allowing the party to be warned of an incoming attack as the barrier shattered, yet also helping them block whatever attack made it through by using Arcturs shield.

  If Arctur was their party’s defense, then Adriana would be their offense. The mermaid dropped the magic that kept the waters around the huddled trio calm, and instead she began sending out pulses of energy that would allow her to detect and crush any enemies that got too close to the party.

  Finally, Alexion took what was arguably the most important job. He had been waiting for the moment Adriana dropped her water calming magic, and the moment she did, he activated his technique, infusing plenty of pure and godly mana into it.

  “Blessed by Water.”

  The effects of his magic were almost immediate, and just as Adriana’s magic was beginning to fade, the water around them was getting rougher by the second; his technique's effects started to kick in. Granted, the mermaid's magic was much better than his, as it was something she could constantly keep up due to her ridiculousness. However, his technique was only worse in that he had to reapply the effects, and in general, it made travel underwater slightly rougher than what his girlfriend could provide. Even so, their decision to keep the beautiful mermaid on the offensive was a smart one, as only a few minutes after beginning their descent into the depths, they were attacked.

  The attack was rather anticlimactic as it had only been some tigerfish, and though the sharks had been a surprise, Adriana had still crushed them before they made contact. After the first attack, the party experienced one or two more, which also ended with Adriana crushing the attackers, turning more tigerfish and sharks into bloody pastes.

  By this point, the party had begun to feel comfortable in the environment. Sure, they did question how a normal party would be able to traverse the turbulent waters with the constant attacks by monsters and the water itself. Still, overall, a large enough number of adventurers would be able to overcome the difficulties the area had. In fact, the only real issue the party might have was mana expenditure since there was only so much area they could cover. Of course, right as they thought they had a handle on things, the dungeon threw something new at them.

  The attack began like the previous ones, except there were many more tigerfish and sharks in the water. Enough that a few would make it to the party’s position before Adriana could kill them. Even so, it wasn’t anything the party was worried about, at least until they saw four white flashes in the darkness. These flashes were then followed by lines of white, which arrived on them before they could do much of anything. Even then, the attacks themselves were not that worrying as they had Arcturs barrier, which had yet to be touched.

  Things changed when the barrier didn’t do much. Four beams effortlessly passed through the barrier, only leaving minor cracks on it and Arcturs shield. Thankfully, the resistance created by the shield and barrier was enough to nudge the beams slightly, causing the four attacks to only graze the trio instead of legitimately hurting them.

  Thanks to the shock provided by the beams, some of the fish manage to arrive at the trio's location, and they easily tore through Arcturs barrier. Some even managed to bite into the green man's shield before Adriana promptly crushed them. For his part, Arctur quickly erected another barrier, and not long after, there were another four flashes of white. This time, however, the party was able to get a good look at their attackers, who were momentarily exposed in the darkness of the lake.

  The fish were long, lithe-looking creatures with long, slender mouths. Sadly, there weren’t many details that the three friends could spot aside from the large but quickly dimming scales across their bodies. It was obvious that the creatures had quite the range and, more importantly, strong magic. The four beams they released once again easily pierced through the barrier and shield, but unlike last time, the three friends were able to dodge them. What was even more important than anything was that the party now knew of their query who had stayed right out of the range of Adriana’s pulse.

  Adriana increased the range of her pulse and found that their four attackers had moved, having become incredibly hard to spot once the light they gave off was extinguished. It was clear to her and her two friends that, though powerful, these new monsters had an obvious weakness. Naturally, they wouldn’t expect any less from the dungeon, as it was only fair for such powerful creatures to give themselves away when they attacked. And things only got worse for them once their prey could track them without issue.

  ”So, they are called Beam Gars,” Adriana told them, having killed two and brought the other two closer for inspection.

  “They seem rather normal to me; the only real thing putting them apart is their glow when they unleash their attacks,” Alexion noted.

  “True, also, you guys noticed that they took some time to attack after unleashing their beams? You guys think they have some sort of recharge time?”

  “Seems like it,” Alexion stated, further understanding why such creatures had been given the ability to easily pierce through shields.

  “You all seem quite strong,” A new feminine voice said out of nowhere, startling the party, especially Adriana, who had stopped sending out her pulses as they all chatted.

  Sending out a pulse, Adriana easily found the speaker. An incredibly large tigerfish had managed to get too close for comfort and was basically on top of them. Granted, once they connected a few dots, the party easily figured out that the large fish was the tigerfish Beast Lord.

  “Thank you, we certainly try,” Alexion answered, having been the one to make the connection by the simple fact that only Beast Lords could speak under their own power.

  “Is there any particular reason you adventurers are traveling through these waters? After all, it is rare to find your kind in these dangerous areas,” The lord said, her voice having a slight growl to it.

  “We were looking for you,” Alex told the lord, the other two letting him do the talking.

  “Really? How come?” The lord asked, apparently surprised at Alexion’s answer.

  “The frog folk of the lake asked us to come recruit you in the hopes you would help them. Naturally, you would be well compensated.”

  “Hmm, the frog folk, huh? They are decent warriors. I even sent my kin to test themselves against them. Still, it is a shame they didn’t come themselves. However, I will make you a deal: fight me, Tigress, Queen of the Tigerfish, and if you win, I will go with you.”