After the combat ended, the frogmen became extremely wary of the newcomers, and raised their weapons at them.
“Identify yourselves!” one frogman barked.
Phoenix took a step forward, raising her hands to show she had no ill intentions.
“We come in peace. We just want to help.”
“Then why do I smell the blood of our brethren on your friends?!”
“We were attacked by some of your kind on the way here. We only defended ourselves.”
Phoenix had elected to lie to them, lest they had to fight their way through after taking the time to defend them. She hated losing time, but their situation required it.
Astaroth kept mostly quiet, but he clicked his tongue rhythmically every second. He was already trying to use his new skill.
The Hypnosis was slowly lowering the aggressivity of the frogmen soldiers, and their officer seemed about to lower his weapon. But before the skill could completely take hold, Phoenix stomped his foot.
She wrote to him in chat to stop.
‘What if using that skill marks us as enemies to the others when it stops working? This is already plenty.’
‘Sorry, I hadn’t thought about that. But was it necessary to crush my foot?’
‘Stop whining. I know that barely hurt you.’
‘Tsk!’
While they were having this silent conversation, Phoenix continued to convince the Gripplis they were friendly. The first part of Astaroth’s skill had lowered their mental resistances enough for her to work her shrewdness.
After talking with them for another minute, the weapons were finally lowered.
*Ding!*
*You have discovered the hidden dungeon quest ‘Save The Kingdom!’.*
Save The Kingdom:
Tasks:
Fight your way through the Lizardmen invaders and save the soldiers.
Reach the castle before it’s too late. (1 hour)
Save the King from being slain.
???
Rewards:
Bonus Exp: 1 million/player
One piece of equipment from the royal armory/player (maximum elite grade)
5000 gold pieces/player
???
ƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm
If they were not mistaken, all this was apart from the normal dungeon rewards, which were already plentiful. Adding this much to it would give them an immense boost.
There was no doubt online that dungeons had some hidden quests, but if any player had found one, it had yet to be leaked on the forums. But everyone knew why dungeons were being monopolized by guilds.
Phoenix was still talking to the frogmen, asking them how the party could be of help, while she read through the quest. She started making plans about the dungeon and how to maximize their gains from it after this.
After a bit of back and forth, the Grippli soldiers finally agreed to lead them inside the city, to help repel the invaders.
Phoenix sighed in relief, as the timer had already started counting down when the quest popped, and it was now down to fifty minutes.
The party followed behind the soldiers, as they pushed inward the city. They battled many times on the way there, with the lizardmen’s forces becoming more numerous with each battle.
By the time they reached the castle, they had a small army of frogmen leading the way, and the timer was under five minutes. Fortunately for the players, it stopped counting down as they entered the castle grounds.
Astaroth looked at the quest window.
Save The Kingdom:
Tasks:
Fight your way through the Lizardmen invaders and save the soldiers. ✓
Reach the castle before it’s too late. (1 hour) ✓
Save the King from being slain.
???
He was satisfied with their progress. But now came the harder part.
Further inside the courtyard, the primary force of the Lizardmen was pushing into the castle from the gaping hole in the wall. What seemed like the royal guard was barely containing them, and many Lizardmen were slipping through.
When the Grippli they were marching with saw their brethren in danger, they howled a battle cry, and charged into the lizardmen’s formation from behind.
The only frogman that stayed behind was the first officer they had saved. He looked at the party and nodded.
“We can deal with their forces here. Please head inside the castle and protect the king. Your power will be more needed inside.”
After saying that, the officer joined his troops in battle, leaving the party behind. Phoenix looked at the situation and agreed with the frogman’s assessment.
But as she chose to go inside, three players from their group refused. Silent, Athena, and I’die insisted they would be better used out here.
Phoenix didn’t have time to rebuke them, and angrily nodded, before turning around and dashing toward the castle’s new entrance.
Athena rapidly climbed onto a vantage point, before raining down arrows on the lizardmen. I’die summoned a Marshland under the fighting troops, suddenly giving an advantage to the frogmen, and impeding the Lizardmen’s advance.
Silent Light ran around the battlefield, smacking away enemies with his flail, which he had not used yet in the dungeon, and pulling wounded Grippli soldiers aside to heal them.
In the meantime, Phoenix, Violette, Gulnur and Astaroth had slid inside the hole, fighting their way through the lizardmen. Once inside, the four of them did not know where to go, so Astaroth did the only thing he could do to help.
He melded with Morpheus, planning to use the bat’s natural echolocation abilities to navigate the halls. His brown hair turned pitch black, as did his eyes.
His already long ears became thicker and slightly longer, and wings sprouted on his back. The leather of the wings was a dark shade of brown, and the fur on it was dark as the night skies.
Phoenix shivered at his current appearance. Violette only looked at him with wide eyes, while Gulnur gave him a thumbs up.
As soon as the transformation was finished, which only took around five seconds, Astaroth opened his mouth. A powerful subsonic wave left his mouth, which only he could hear.
It bounced off the walls of the castle, travelling further inside, giving him a mental image of what the castle looked like. It also showed him where lizardmen and frogmen were fighting.
Once he had found what looked like the fortified throne room, he took flight, telling the two girls and dwarf to follow him. He dashed into the halls, making sharp aerial turns, sometimes flipping and using his feet to ricochet off them.
They quickly made their way down the first enormous hall on their way to the throne room, but couldn’t proceed further yet.
At the end of the hall, they entered a ballroom, and there were enemies everywhere. And they weren’t alone.