By the time the party arrived at the cliff, there was already no one there.
“Welp, we’re gonna fail this mission.”
Joe carried his greatsword on his shoulder and continued regretfully, “The guy who hid here earlier already fled.”
Croakatoa that had been rushing the fastest had finally managed to catch up with the party, panting and kneeling on the ground and feeling as if he were going to dry out in the next moment.
Then, he looked at Joe who didn’t have any visible signs of exhaustion, and started to doubt himself. He was the greatest warrior in the frogmen tribe, but he couldn’t even be compared with a human that was going to die?
And according to what he heard them say, this human called Joe had just become a warrior…So what kind of monsters were these humans!
“There are no traces on the ground, and although it’s not impossible that he had escaped, but just in case…” Edward looked towards Gou Dan.
Gou Dan immediately knew what the former wanted him to do and squatted down on the ground, starting to create an orb the size of a ping pong ball in his hands.
Upon seeing this, the other players all covered their ears, leaving Croakatoa confused.
The next moment, Gou Dan stood up and clammed the orb into the ground.
Suddenly, a deafening boom sounded out as the orb exploded, and the sound was so loud that the party even saw sound waves vibrating in the air.
This skill was called a Sonic Boom Orb, which was an extension of the Hundred Huntings skill series that was unique to the ranger class. In short, the skill was one that could be used to create orbs in response to different hunting situations, and other than the Sonic Boom Orb, there were Dye Balls, Poop Orbs and Flash Bombs, and more.
Because rangers could also make explosives the height of half a human to build traps, the players from the other classes called this skill the Fourth Dimensional Pocket of the rangers. (Players don’t have an inventory to store their items, and could only carry those with them, because Xi Wei couldn’t create storage space for them out of thin air.)
Other than attracting the attention of enemies from afar, it could also cause a petrified status for whoever wasn’t prepared, and could even shake out the earthworms in the ground…
Now it seems that the skill was quite effective, because other than Croakatoa who had been stunned and fell onto the ground like a real big frog, another guy was blasted out from underground!
This magician from the Society of the Secret Eye seemed to have used some magic spell to make the soil like liquid, and to him, the originally solid earth turned into a wide and calm ocean where he could sneak into and hide.
Unfortunately, this plan that he thought was foolproof was still solved by Gou Dan. The power of the Sonic Boom Orb was definitely strong, and he was so scared that he couldn’t even maintain his magic, leaving half of his body stuck underground.
“Uhm…” Looking at the players that were coming towards him with an evil glint in their eyes, Albert broke out in a cold sweat and smiled bitterly. “Is it too late now to surrender?”
Because they wanted to learn useful information from Albert, Edward and the party didn’t decide to kill Albert on the spot.
That being said, when they caught him and dragged him out of the ground and left him with just a pair of boxers, the system judged that they had succeeded the first stage of the Frogman Guardian quest, and immediately issued the next stage in the quest series.
The second stage was simple, which was to let the party go back to seek aid from the players back at the starter village. Once Albert, the strong magician failed to report back to them, the Society of the Secret Eye would definitely attack the frogman village with greater forces, and even use all of their resources in the Valla Empire branch to do so.
Basically, it was unrealistic to block the next wave of attack by the Society of the Secret Eye with just six players and some incompetent frogmen.
The players that arrived at the village and joined the defense against the Society of the Secret Eye would all get corresponding rewards.
The players huddled together, discussing how to deal with the following events.
“We would probably need one day to get back to the unnamed town and back to the frogman village, and who knows when the Society of the Secret Eye is going to attack again…” Edward analyzed calmly. “If we don’t get back here in time, then the village is going to be destroyed without question. Therefore, most of us have to stay, while only one or two of us go to seek help.”
“Let me do it, I’ll set out immediately!” Vela took up the mission without any hesitation. “I’m the weakest within everyone here, after all, and I wouldn’t be much help. Leave this sort of mission to me!”
The unnamed town had been attacked by revenants not long ago, and Vela who hadn’t even believed in the God of Games back then would never forget the hope that bloomed in her heart upon seeing the players save them.
And now, it was time to bring hope to this frogman village that didn’t even know how to speak.
“Alright, then.” Edward nodded, and Vela set off for the unnamed town immediately.
“Also, I have an idea.” After Vela left, Edward continued talking with the other players.
“What plan?” Jessica asked curiously.
“Make the frogmen believe in the God of Games, and turn them into players too.”
This suggestion made the others look at the others in doubt.
“This, would be quite hard, wouldn’t it?” Gou Dan asked unsurely. “The frogmen definitely have their own god, or else why would they worship Eleena as someone sent by their lord?”
“So we just tell Eleena that their deity changed his name!” Edward continued without any hesitation. “Their deity didn’t lend a hand to save them in the first place, and it’s great to believe in the God of Games!”
After that, he paused, and continued, “Also, we can get rewards from the regular quest and get a little more EXP rewards…”
Gou Dan and Jessica: “…”
Hey, isn’t that his real motive?!
On the other side, Joe felt that it was hard to follow up with the conversation because he wasn’t that smart, and so he just sat at a side and ate grilled salted fish.
Even though the salted fish made by the frogmen looked ugly, but because they lived by the sea, all the ingredients used were caught fresh, and resulted in the salted fish having a delectable and even fresh taste.
“Warrior, can you still eat…?”
Croakatoa waddled over and sat next to Joe, looking at the young man that was eating fish with no problem as if he had grown a third eye.
Joe who had no idea that the misunderstanding hadn’t been solved thought the frogman didn’t have any appetite because he was worried about the upcoming battle.
“Why not? It’s times like this when you have to fill up your tummy!” Joe exclaimed, himself a firm believer on not battling on an empty stomach.
“I see, so you don’t want to pass away with an empty stomach…” Croakatoa stared at Joe pitifully, which made the latter quite uncomfortable. “How much longer can you live?”
Joe was stunned by this question. Didn’t they say that the players were allied with the frogmen? Why did this guy want him to die so much?
But then, he came up with a reason by himself. Croakatoa’s Shumonian sounded quite weird, so perhaps it’s just a grammatical error caused by him not learning the language well. Maybe he was asking about how long the lifespan of a human was?
“Maybe sixty or seventy more years?” Joe replied nonchalantly.
“You dry-skinned…Humans can live another sixty years like this?!” Croakatoa was completely stunned by the revelation.
“Well, it’s probably thirty to forty years before, but now that I believed in the God of Games, my life is probably going to be longer…” Joe sighed in awe.
“Then you can even get a wife and children!” Croakatoa exclaimed. “Humans can last so long after finally dying?”
“Yeah of course, and maybe even get grandchildren too!” Joe didn’t know what Croakatoa meant by the second half of his exclamation, but he still said proudly.
Croakatoa sat there in awe, before he finally croaked out…
“Humans are awesome…”