As the trio's attack was coming to an end, the dungeon's magic must have activated because once everything was said and done, only two things were left behind. One was a round piece of flesh, while the other was what looked to be the eel's tail. The party had seen one or two of the previously killed eels turn into a blade or pelt, but they had not been expecting Jelty to drop an item herself. And to be fair, they hadn't killed that many boss creatures in comparison to normal beasts, so it was easy to forget that they could get items from bosses as well. Especially since the more normal dungeon beasts did drop items more regularly, even if the party rarely paid attention to them. Not to say they left the dropped items behind, just that they didn't really bother to identify them. Of course, with this boss having dropped an item, the party decided to take a look at it.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  Name: Jelty’s Tail Blade.

  Item Rarity: Rare.

  Item Rank: D.

  Enchantment: Sharpness. Sturdy. Lightning Attuned.

  Ability: Hold Lightning.

  Description: The tail blade of Jelty, the boss of the eels in Frog Lake. Though no longer attached to the boss after her defeat, the tail still holds some of its previous power. The blade is sharp, sturdy, and attuned to lightning magic. As such, it can hold a small amount of lightning within. More importantly, if taken to the right crafter, the blade can be further enhanced and eventually wielded as a proper electric blade.

  Instructions: Take the blade to a crafter versed in weapon smithing or enchanting to unlock the blade’s power.

  ??

  Based on the information provided by the system, this tail blade didn't seem like a bad item, and it was possible for them to sell it and get a reasonable price. Another possible use would have been for Alex to use the blade to then create some weapons for himself, but the elf enjoyed fighting with his fists way too much for that. So, like many other items the trio came across, the blade was put in storage for later use. After all, they could always use some of these items they had collected to maybe bribe some adventurers to help them with one thing or another. This was especially useful considering that they had to convince some of their fellows to stay and protect the village or town.

  With the eel lord now defeated, and much like they had discussed, the party headed back up to the surface so they could rest for the rest of the day and continue their quest the next day. At this point, finding a place to camp wasn't very hard, and, as they had gotten used to they set up camp. After relaxing for a while and eating some good food, the night came, and with it, eventually, the morning.

  It didn't take long for the party to go through their morning routine and head back out into the lake. To start their day, they had discussed going to the turbulent areas of the lake in order to search for Tigress. The party had not forgotten the boss, considering it was one that had actually wanted to fight them for the sake of fighting. Of course, it also helped that Bean the Beam Gar was in the same area as Tigress, which was greater motivation for Adriana than anything else.

  Arriving at one of the turbulent areas deep in the lake with the same magical setup as last time to allow for easier travel, the party began searching for some of the dungeon monsters. Unlike last time, and thanks to the one time with the otters, they realized that they could always talk to some of the fish and try to find the bosses that way. It was a tactic they weren’t really used to, one that Adriana brought up.

  Like the last time they had been in the turbulent waters of the lake, they were attacked by some tiger fish and beam gars. However, getting information from the monsters proved much more difficult than usual, not that they had too many experiences doing so other than with the otters. That said, after a few attempts at conversation and watching Arctur grow some fur and manifest slitted bestial eyes, the trio eventually found a tiger fish willing to talk, even after or likely due to their display of power. Each encounter effectively was the party dismantling the enemy one by one, allowing Arctur to speak to them until either one of them spoke, which they didn't, at least until now.

  “We are looking for Tigress. Do you know where she is?” Arctur asked the tigerfish seriously, already tired of having the same conversation with the monsters.

  “I do, yes,” The tigerfish, a male with particularly dark streaks on his scales, answered gruffly.

  “Great! At least this one is willing to talk,” Arctur told his friends before continuing the conversation with the fish. “Okay, where is she?”

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  “She is in the lake somewhere,” The fish answered without hesitation.

  “Oh great, we got a jokester, Adriana, if you please,” Arctur said, making sure the fish understood while he motioned Adriana to crush the beast.

  “No, wait!” The fish in question quickly replied, his mouth snapping fast as it became agitated, and Arctur halted the mermaid with a mental tug.

  “Yes?” Arctur asked, his patience at the edge.

  “She is in a town, some adventurers took her, something about frogs,” The fish answered, while eyeing the mermaid.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, yes, a big group of adventurers came a while ago and took her.”

  “Damn!” Arctur said, allowing both the fish and his friends to understand him, yet leaving them worried for two completely different reasons. The tigerfish was worried he was going to get killed, while Alexion and Adriana knew he had likely gotten bad news.

  “What is it?” Alexion asked.

  “According to the fish here,” Arctur motioned at the struggling fish still grasped by Adriana’s magic, “A large group of adventurers came and took her, probably after a fight, and since we haven’t heard anything, that means…”

  “The other team got her,” Adriana finished.

  “Well, that’s not ideal, especially since we were hoping to fight her,” Alexion added, a bit disappointed at missing out on fighting such a powerful lord.

  “Ugh, well, let's just ask about Bean, maybe she is still around,” The mermaid said, annoyed, but letting her magic go and watching the tigerfish blur off into the darkness of the water. She then brought the beam gar closer to Arctur, and her green friend went through the same process.

  “Yeah, it seems they got her as well,” Arctur finally said after having a much more pleasant conversation with it, mainly because the fish had calmed down once it saw them release the tigerfish.

  “Shit! Maybe we should pay Victor a visit,” Adriana said, clearly angry and frustrated.

  “Though it would be interesting to take on a village full of guards, adventurers, and bosses, I don’t think it is the best idea,” Alexion told his girlfriend, hoping to get her to see some reason.

  It took Adriana a few seconds to calm down, but eventually she sighed and accepted the situation. “You’re right, plus it might break the event, and we might not get the magical line for Rob.”

  Hearing the mermaid, it was always silly to find that she cared more about the event and Rob than about the potential danger posed by the threats mentioned. Nonetheless, Alexion and Arctur agreed with her for the sake of moving her down another path.

  “Yeah, the event might malfunction,” Alexion said, knowing that it likely wouldn’t, since they would, in a way, be completing the objective by still recruiting or killing the lords. After all, it didn’t really say they couldn’t go take on the other team’s Beast Lords, at least while still in their current stage of the event. Though it probably helped that no one had the confidence to even try.

  “For sure, I mean, if we don’t get the line this time around, it means we have to repeat this whole thing,” Arctur told the mermaid, adding another valid point to the reasons they should not storm a village filled with lots of D Rankers and Beast Lords.

  “Alright, so what now?” Their mermaid asked, unsure of whom to visit next.

  “What about that snake?” Arctur asked, remembering the snake lord they had to drag out of hiding.

  “That sounds good, if I remember, she didn’t like us very much either,” Alexion stated, remembering the destruction they had brought to the kelp forest.

  “Yeah, I think that’s good, though, there is a good chance we will end up killing her,” Adriana stated.

  “If that’s what happens, then that’s what happens,” Alexion shrugged, and they began their swim out of the turbulent waters.

  After leaving the wild waters, the party began their swim towards the kelp forest they visited last time when speaking with the snake Beast Lord. It would take them the better part of an hour to get to the location, and it made them wonder whether they would even find the lord there at all. From the looks of it, the event in the lake was coming to an end as both sides were making the final push to recruit the Beast Lords. So, there was a very good chance that they would arrive in the kelp forest, and even after mowing it down, there would not be any snake to recruit. At the very least, as they swam through the much calmer waters of the lake, their luck improved when they saw a particularly large shark.

  If the size of the shark hadn't been a clear tell that it was a lord, then the many other sharks swimming with it were an obvious detail that told them it was indeed a Bast Lord. Only a few seconds after the party spotted the shark, the shark spotted them, and to the trio's delight, instead of a slow approach to allow for recruitment, the sharks instantly turned toward them, their intent clear. A few of them began glowing with a light blue color as they sped up ahead of their group, leaving around a dozen sharks with the lord. Then, once these sharks had made some distance towards the party, the rest of the group followed suit.

  Smiling at incoming sharks, the party got ready to fight as they brought up their shields to first test what their new opponents would be capable of. To their disappointment, the sharks that had pulled ahead were easily dispatched as they had no range attacks, and once they got close enough, the trio easily overpowered them. Hoping that the larger group would prove them wrong, the party waited for their arrival as the many sharks approached.

  The trio was really hoping they would have another decent battle at hand with a few more mini-bosses to throw around. However, they weren’t confident about understanding the dungeon's odd difficulty spikes, which were throwing them off. The most prominent example was the fight with the eel lord, which didn’t have any mini-bosses. It really made them question exactly what was going on with the dungeon's odd behavior and whether it was intentional.

  Still, those were thoughts for another, and as the monsters approached, they either summoned blue shark maws made of water or simply used their movement abilities to close the distance. And soon the party realized there were no mini-bosses among them, which told them everything they needed to know about the upcoming fight.