After failing to recruit yet another Beast Lord, the party had to accept that whatever happened with Victor and his two Beast Lords had been a massive outlier. It was now clear to them that the dungeon had never intended for them to recruit any of the lords, and this phase of the event was meant for them to meet the lords and plan for what came next. Even then, after the party had met the first few Beast Lords, they felt like there was no need for them to plan. The trio was strong enough to take on any of the lords blindly as long as they were careful during the actual fight. Nevertheless, the party had decided to continue meeting the different bosses as it would keep them busy. Otherwise, it would mean being bored and having little else to do.

  So even after failing to recruit Lory, the party knew they would continue trying to find other Beast Lords. However, before they could continue doing so, it was time to set up camp for the night, as they had spent quite a lot of time searching for the last few Beast Lords. Setting up camp was uneventful, and it wasn't long before the party was up and at it once again.

  As they were making their way into the lake with plans to continue searching for the Beast Lords. The party heard the loud splashing of water and people screaming in the distance. If the commotion had been any slower, they would have missed it, as the water of the lake was already to their waist and they had been preparing to dive. However, now aware of whatever this was, the party stopped to watch as the splashing grew closer. They even put up their shields in case something unexpected happened, as even if they were confident, it didn’t hurt to be safe, at least at times.

  The source of the screaming was soon made clear to the party as they could easily make out three men running in their general direction. Then, only a short time later, the trio realized why the three men were running so fast as they spotted a rather enormous crocodile swimming after them. In fact, the crocodile was the source of all the splashing as it split the lake apart while swimming after the three people.

  As the party watched the three people get closer, they began to question why the three men didn't run over to the shore of the lake. That was the smartest thing to do, and it would give them a tactical advantage and stop them from having to use their mana to run over the water. Of course, they couldn't really blame them, as from their appearance, the gator had already gotten hold of them a few times. They were bleeding from several bites all over, and their clothes were torn, which likely meant they were in a full-blown panic.

  “Help! You have to help us!” The three men yelled as they got closer, their voices mixing together in a jumble. More importantly, upon closer inspection, the trio realized they recognized these adventurers. They were the three men that Adriana had almost killed when they first started the lake event. From what they remembered, the three men were not the brightest, but considering they gave the party a little choice, since they were heading straight towards them, they had to intervene.

  Adriana began channeling her magic to slow down the beast that was chasing the men, only to find that it was actually a Beast Lord by the amount of resistance it was able to put up. Naturally, just because it was a Beast Lord, it didn't mean it would stop her from stopping it, and she had to spend some extra mana to slow the creature down. Not that the three men even noticed as they continued to run at full speed, even as the lord lagged behind them. Then, finally, right as they were about to reach the trio, they seemed to notice that the creature was no longer chasing them, and they came to a rough stop as they crashed past the trio's position, coming to a halt with a large splash as they sank under.

  Alex had gotten a mental message from Adriana that the beast was actually a Beast Lord when the mermaid had felt its power. Naturally wanting to avoid any problems, the elf had begun to make his way towards the slowing creature, letting the three men pass him by. He planned to hopefully talk down the lord while finding out why it had been chasing the three adventurers.

  Meanwhile, while Alexion went to speak with the lord, Adriana and Arctur turned to deal with the three men. It had taken longer than it should have, but they had finally stabilized after their crash, even if they still spluttered.

  “Are you three okay?” Adriana asked, getting the full attention of the three men, who, surprisingly, didn’t show much lust towards her. There was some admiration as they admired her beautiful figure, but only to the point where they found her attractive, rather than the lustful needs she had often felt men wanted to express.

  “Ooh, pretty lady,” The burliest of the three said, the disparity between his visage and voice getting the mermaid to smile.

  “Yes, we are fine. Thank you.” The shortest of the three guys answered.

  “You sure? You seem to be pretty roughed up, and you were running away from that Beast Lord,” Arctur added, pointing out the obvious as he gestured in their general direction.

  “Tis but a scratch, if anything, you are the ones who will need our help in dealing with that beast,” The one with the frizzy hair answered.

  “I don't think we will need your help; you were the ones just asking for our help,” Arctur told the three.

  “Nonsense, you must have misheard us, we were simply exercising by running away. Not that it matters to you. Which reminds me, if we did need your help, didn't we help you before?” The man with the bowl cut answered, now confirming to Arctur and Adriana that he was in charge.

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  “Yes, you did, but we paid you for that,” Adriana told the three, shutting down the possible implication that they owed the three men anything.

  “Who are you? I know we helped your two friends, but I don’t remember you,” The leader stated confidently.

  “Boss, wasn’t there a mermaid with them last time?” The frizzy-haired one asked as his two hands unconsciously grasped at nothing.

  “Of course not, Larry! I would remember seeing a mermaid, you idiot!” The leader said, using his staff to smack the back of the other man’s head even as a mermaid floated in front of him.

  “Either way, as she said, we did pay you last time, so we don’t owe you anything, sir?” Arctur said, letting the last word hang, hoping the man would introduce himself and his other party member.

  “Don’t you worry about who we are, what's more important is for you to tell us why your friend is over there, apparently talking with the beast and not killing it.”

  “Yeah!” Larry said, trying to back up his boss's statement.

  “He is trying to see why it was chasing you, and it would be helpful if you could tell us your side of the story, so we can help you if possible,” Adriana answered.

  “It would also be great if you told us your name. We know he’s Larry, but what about you two?” Arctur stated as he pointed at the burly man and the trio’s short boss.

  “What!? How did you know I am Larry!? Did you read my mind or something!?” Larry blurted in surprise and confusion.

  “No, you idiot! I accidentally said your name earlier,” The boss of the trio stated, trying to hit the man but failing as the man actually dodged the strike, though likely without intending to. Either way, after attempting and failing to reprimand his companion, the short man continued.

  “You sure seem to want to know our names, yet you have failed to introduce yourselves. However, putting that aside, we attempted to recruit the lord, but after he declined, we demanded recompense for the time wasted. However, it did not wish to give us its skin and then decided to fight us. Of course, we did not fight back, and it used that to its advantage to bite us and tear our clothes until we managed to escape from its grasp.”

  “Yeah, bad crocodile bit Urly,” The burly man added as his boss finished the explanation.

  Hearing the man’s explanation, and ignoring Urly, Adriana, and Arctur, instantly found holes in his story. First of all, one of the lords would not attack without more than proper provocation. Also, they had said earlier that they were merely exercising. Finally, the man failed to remember that Alexion was getting the lord's side of the story. However, since they had to wait for the elf, the duo decided to introduce themselves, which ultimately led to them obtaining the leader’s name.

  Billy had been chasing after the three men even though he had already laid into them. He had been expecting to be stopped by Dan, but after not receiving any warnings from the system or his boss, he continued to chase, looking to teach the three guys a lesson. And everything had been going rather well until he began to slow down as magic compressed the water around him, even overpowering his own control. At first, he had thought that the system had finally kicked in and was slowly making him come to a halt, but after inspecting the magic at work, it was not as absolute. Billy could actually fight back and continue on, something that he did, which only caused this magic to crank up until he was forced to slow down or waste more mana than he wanted to.

  Even then, the only reason he stopped was because he had seen three other adventurers, one of whom was even moving towards him. Billy assumed that these adventures were using magic to cause him to slow, though he questioned why they were trying to help the idiots, a question he planned to ask the incoming elf.

  “Heya, elf! What is the meanin of this?”

  Alexion had been expecting the lord to speak, but the accent it had was unknown to him, though it did sound relatively close to how farmers out in the countryside spoke. Still, Alexion needed to stay respectful and hopefully learn something.

  “I do apologize for stopping you, if that is what you are referring to. That is the work of my friend Adriana,” Alexion said, pointing out the mermaid. “As for me, well, am Alexion, and we were hoping to speak with you.”

  “Well, now, alright then. What is it you’re wantin'?

  “I was hoping to learn why you were chasing those three men?”

  “Ah, that’s easy. You see, I was just mindin' my own business, and along they come askin' me to join up with some ol frog named Ribbiton. Well, I wasn't havin' none of that, cause all I care to do is bite on things and do nothin' else,” The crocodile paused to make sure Alexion was listening, and after getting a nod, he continued.

  “Usually, that’s when you adventurers leave me be; however, they did not. Instead, they started callin me a fool! Now, callin me a fool was rude as all get-out, so I warned em to back off. But did they listen? No! Instead, the one with the wild hair, the swordsman, told the short one they might make some gold if they took my skin. So they tried to convince me that if I let em get my skin, I could join their group. Of course, that made no sense, and by that point, I was madder than a wet chicken. Still, I warned em once again, but instead of goin away, you know what they did?”

  Alexion sighed, already having enough proof of the three men’s idiocy, but he still asked the question, “No, what did they do?”

  “They started callin' me a fool again! Sayin I was a dumb gator, and that it made sense since lizards were dumb animals. Now, that made me real angry, and I lunged to bite one. Not hard, mind you, just enough to scare em. The problem was that by that point I was the aggressor, so they could fight back, and they did so, but they’re weak, and a few chomps later, they were runnin away faster than a catfish runs from a dogfish.”

  “I see, and nothing stopped you from chasing them?” Alexion asked, curious about why the dungeon hadn’t stopped the lord.

  “Well, they tasted pretty good, and once I get in a bitin mood, I lose my sense of reason. Of course, I still want to continue chasin em since it's a right good time, but not if it means fighting you three as well,” The gator said his words clearly, testing the waters.

  “Hmm, I will tell you what, you tell me your name, and I will let you continue on.”

  “Well, do beg your pardon, my name is Billy. And are you bein serious bout that?”

  “Yes, of course, please continue chasing them, they deserve it,” Alexion told the lord with a huge smile as he sent his two friends a telepathic message before the gator rushed forward yelling, “I’m comin for ya, ya useless twats!” which caused sheer panic to spread across the face of the three men, giving Dan another good laugh.