575 Helping Root Level Up
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“Swamp number eight, really?” Asked Lucifer. “Couldn’t you dwarves come out with a better name?”
“Come on Lucifer, don’t be rude now.” Brunhild told her brother.
“Hey you damn lizard!”
“This name wasn’t even decided by us, it was the conqueror of the dungeon!”
“Yeah!”
“And who was it?” I wondered.
“Oh, that’s Lady Aquamarine.” Said Helga.
“Eh?!”
We were all a bit shocked after hearing those news. Apparently the old grandma was a rather active Dungeon Raider in her younger years, and she conquered this Dungeon by exploring it all and subjugating the Boss.
“Yep she was a pretty famous beauty back in her youthful years, like over a hundred years ago though.” Laughed Helga.
“She’s a really old lady now.”
“Yeah, a mummy.”
“Can’t believe she’s still kicking…”
“Oi don’t disrespect her after what she has done for us!”
Blackard once more called out the dwarves. I had grown accustomed to their snarky remarks already, they made the place lively anyways.
“For now we should give you a little roundabout. This place’s the home of several Amphibious monsters. Half of them are poisonous so we often don’t eat them. Those giant frogs you see there, the ones that are over three meters tall? Those guys are named Greater Poison Frogs. They’ve got a morning star-shaped tongue covered on poison spikes, they hit with them very hard so we always need a tanker to deal with them to take on the hits.” Said Helga.
“And that’s without even including those damn Dart Fishes that show up whenever we try to lure the Frogs out of the swamp!” Said Blackard.
“Those damn fishes jump out of the swamp water and will immediately try to pierce through your head or your chest whenever you get closer to the water, be careful of those!”
“Their evolved form, Arrow Fishes, are even deadlier and might even have poison.”
“This is honestly the toughest place of the dungeon.” Helga said. “Each Swamp difficulty rises more and more. From the first to the third swamp the monsters are not that big of a deal, but from four and below, things get extremely difficult, that’s why there’s not many people here.”
“It was the only swamp us bottom of the barrel could get into, sadly.” Sighed Blackard.
“We had a hard time but we always made it out, sometimes we almost died.”
“Helga almost died once, she was poisoned and we had to use all our savings to spend on an Antidote… we had it rough.”
“Because of the lack of Alchemists, healing items are incredibly expensive here.”
“I see…” I sighed. “Well, we’ll try to mass produce potions and antidotes more, we could sell them off as our guild product, profit from it and at the same time help others Dungeon Raiders that can’t afford the insane prices. How about it?”
“That sounds amazing!”
“Yeah!”
“Lady Maria’s always with her amazing ideas.”
“All hail Lady Maria!”
The dwarves began kneeling before me and praising me as if I were their goddess… it felt embarrassing.
“Anyways, for now, the best way to lure the frogs here is using some bait.” Said Helga. “Usually we use shrimps or fish, they love those and-“
“Let’s go Root!”
“Gyugyu!”
“Veredorr, can you help us?”
“Sure.”
Veredorr quickly began freezing the water of the swamps I stepped over, as we were all able to walk over it with ease. We could had just flew over it but Takeshi and Laura can’t fly normally unless I give them some help.
“Ah, I guess… You can do that too.” Helga sighed.
“Ahahahah! Of course our weird methods wouldn’t work with them, Helga!” Blackard couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are you guys waiting there? Come on! Maybe you can level up by slaying monsters here too?” I wondered.
“Sounds like a plan!”
“I’m in!”
“Wait is the ice safe to step- Ah I already stepped over it…”
“It is as solid as rock, don’t worry!”
As the dwarves began exploring the frozen swamp, we found Root’s first victim, a Great Poison Frog who got frozen in the ice, half of its legs were, so it got stuck there.
“Gerooooo! Gerororo…!”
“There you go Root, your first victim! Go for it little guy!”
“Gyuh! I shall feast on the blood of the weak!”
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POOF!
“Gerooroooooo!”
The frog began making annoyed noises, as Root quickly began using his Wooden Needles and several tiny slicing leaves over the Frog’s head.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
“Take this! And this! Gyugyuuuh!”
Root continued fighting and fighting…
And fighting…
And it was always several minutes and the frog was as alive as ever, only barely having some bruises that were only bleeding a tiny bit over its head.
“At this pace your tree is never leveling up…” Sighed Lucifer.
“Maybe we should weaken the prey first?” Asked Partner.
“Our attacks are so strong that even a normal slap might kill the frog…” I sighed. “Oh! You guys!”
I quickly called the dwarves, most of them were sliding around the ice, having the time of their lives.
“Yes Lady Maria?”
“Can you guys chip down the HP of the frog for me? Use little attacks, nothing lethal.” I asked nicely. The dwarves quickly feel pumped up.
“Oh, that’s a good idea.”
“Maybe we can finally be useful!”
“Yeah, let’s!”
They took out their knives and began stabbing the big and fat frog. The frog was over two meters big and had very fat skin, alongside several capes of fat all over its body. It was very tough.
But thanks to my Analyze Ability, I was able to see through its stats, the HP was going slowly, like by -4% with each stabbing attack.
“Go on, go on!”
“Gerorororooo!”
The Frog cried more and more, as its HP reached single digits.
“STOP!”
The dwarves stopped at my command.
“Now Root, go for it!”
“Got it, master! Gyugyuuuuuh!”
Root suddenly jumped into the air, as his legs shaped into a sharp stake-like tip.
CLAAASH!
And he stabbed right through the frog’s skull!
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