They didn't need to swim long to find a quest. In fact, a quest found them. The trio was leisurely swimming through the village after dealing with the three adventurers when a young-looking frog person approached them. While young, the frog person struggled to swim through the water due to his large pack. Even more interesting was that his rather bright green skin was covered in mud.

  Staring at the young frog who stopped right in front of them, the party waited to see what would happen.

  “Hello! Ribbit. Are you adventurers? Must be, since you don’t see many of your kind down here. Ribbit. Thought I must admit, never seen one like you before,” The young frog said in good spirits while its large eyes stared at Adriana in wonder.

  “That’s not surprising, you don’t usually find mermaids in lakes, at least not my kind,” Adriana told the young frog, not detecting any lust in his stare and happy to make conversation.

  “Yes, we are adventurers. Can we help you with something?” Alexion followed his girlfriend's words, curious about what the frog man wanted.

  “Mermaids, huh. Well, you see something new every day nowadays. Ribbit. And yes. Ribbit. I would like your help with something. I am willing to pay, too, if you don’t mind being paid for stuff in something other than the gold your kind uses. Ribbit.”

  “Pay is no issue. What is it you need help with?” Alexion told the frog, which was true, since the party only wanted quests and renown.

  “I would ask that you escort me to the surface. Ribbit.”

  “To the surface? I didn’t think you frog folk liked it up there,” Arctur asked, realizing they hadn’t seen any frog people up there.

  “True. Ribbit. We prefer it down here, at least most of us do. However. Ribbit. We can live up there without issue; some are even trying to change our ways. Still, that’s not important. Ribbit. Will you escort me up there? I am a shore gatherer and must head up to do my job. Ribbit.”

  Of course, after the frog man finished speaking, a quest popped up.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  ?? Quest Details??

  Name: A Risky Job.

  Description: Your party has been approached by a frog person who looks to hire you. The frogman is a Shore Gatherer, a job only a few of the frog folk are willing to take on due to the risk. The gatherers, as their name implies, head to the shore of the lake in search of materials and thus require protection from the many monsters lurking about. Will you safely escort the gatherer to the shore and back, or will your quest end in failure?

  Reward: Increased Renown with the Frog Folk and a better understanding of the lake, among other things.

  ??

  Reading the quest, the trio found it interesting that they could fail the quest. At least according to the description, they could fail it, which brought up a good point. What would have happened if they had failed their previous quests? So far, all their quests hadn’t pointed out the fact that they could fail, for example, if they simply did not do them and left the dungeon. It wasn't something the party had considered because they didn't see themselves failing any quest. That being said, they hadn't heard of anything bad happening from failing a quest per se, just that they could fail events and not gain the rewards. Honestly, the dungeon didn't seem to really punish people for failing quests.

  With that being said, the party did not believe they would fail this quest either, and they took it on. On the way out of the village, the party had a quick telepathic conversation regarding the speed of their frog friend.

  “I don’t want to be rude and just use magic on him; he has been very nice so far,” Adriana told her two friends.

  “I understand, but if he says no, finishing this quest will be a bother. He is so freaking slow. It would be faster to throw him into a bubble and zoom up to the surface,” Arctur complained.

  “Look, let's just ask, I don’t see why he would say no, in the end it would be beneficial for him,” Alexion suggested, and the other two agreed. However, before they could say anything out loud, the frog man spoke.

  “By the way, I didn’t catch your names. I am called Pepe, happy to make your acquaintance! Ribbit.”

  “Am Adriana, he is Alexion, and the green one is Arctur,” Adriana quickly answered, pointing at herself, then the other two.

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  “Alright, well, good to know. Ribbit. By the way, is this your first time in the lake?”

  “Well, not in the lake. We have been in the lake a few times, but it is definitely our first time in the lake area,” Alexion answered, getting a playful slap from Adri at his dumb joke.

  “Oh, okay. Ribbit. So, you guys don’t know much about the lake, then?”

  “We don’t, no, so anything you can tell us would be helpful,” The elf said, now interested in what the frog kin had to say.

  “I would be happy to share some of my knowledge. Ribbit. As a gatherer, I have to be aware of a lot, so let me start by…”

  Ultimately, the party decided not to hurry the frog man along. Instead, they had Adriana put a protective barrier around him as they slowly made their way to the surface. After all, the longer they took, the more the frogman could tell them about the lake. And he told them a lot.

  The frog knew all sorts of things about the lake, though mainly revolving around monsters and materials. He could tell them about all the different materials he found around the lake shore as well as in the depths of the lake. More importantly, the young frog had a wealth of information about the various monsters that called the lake their home. It wasn't necessarily detailed information about their capabilities, but their names and what they might look like. Even then, sometimes the young frog knew certain abilities other creatures had access to. All in all, everything they learn from the frog man was not learned in their single trip towards the surface.

  For one, the frog had a lot of information. Although he didn't know much about the situation with other frog people, he had some insights. Furthermore, the young frog had heard a lot of rumors about strong monsters around the lake, and some of the locations to avoid so they didn’t run into these monsters. Something that the party planned to do the complete opposite of. However, out of everything, monster attacks cost them the most time and, therefore, information. There had to be something about the quest because on their trip to the surface, and even on the surface, the party ran into more monster attacks than they had dealt with in the dungeon so far.

  The first attack, which was also the main indicator that it definitely had to be a quest-related attack, was done by a fish that the party quickly identified as a suckerfish. The fish had been hard to spot in the murky water of the lake, but even more so due to their small size and dark colored yet patterned, scaly skin.

  Now, the party hadn't killed any of these sucker fish yet, but they were able to identify them due to having heard about them from the attacks during the farm quest. Apparently, as the party confirmed, the sucker fish had weird, almost humanoid-looking lips. Of course, when they had heard such things, they didn't want to believe them. Yet the suckerfish quickly proved this to be true. Not that the lips were the weirdest thing the party had seen, but it certainly was uncomfortable to see fish with such realistic lips.

  Normally, the party would have placed the attack as a random encounter in the lake. However, what set the attack apart was that the fish targeted the frogman specifically. That had been the warning the monsters gave the party, and though the attack wouldn't have killed the frog man, it would have definitely injured him. Naturally, that had been odd, because why would they attack a frog person over the adventurers, and much less as a warning? After all, the fish hadn’t known about Adrianas' protective shield, so they were targeting the frog kin with intent. Thankfully, the shield had been in place and had stopped the pressure bullet that one of the monsters had unleashed.

  Needless to say, as soon as the pressure bullet had hit Adriana’s shield, the party had gotten ready for a fight. A fight that began with the mermaid sending out a pulse of water to see how many monsters they were against. Typically, the spell covering such a large area would have taken a good bit out of her, but it was mermaid time. Using the pulse, the party found that they were against about a dozen of the fish, which was surprising, since that was the largest number of enemies they had yet to encounter. Of course, where others would have been worried about the fight, the trio were excited instead.

  More bullets of pressurized water came from the darkness, targeting the trio and the frog man. This quickly pointed out an issue for the party: even though they could see reasonably well underwater, it was much harder to identify moving creatures that were adept at stealth. Things became even more annoying when they had to protect someone, or at least for a normal party, it would have been. The frogman was as safe as can be behind Adriana’s shield, which didn't even buckle under the pressure of the water bullets. As for visibility issues, the mermaid also took care of that as well.

  The two guys knew Adriana wasn't dumb and waited for her to do her thing. Her thing in this case came when all of their attackers were highlighted in nice, obvious, bright blue light. Finally seeing their attackers, they tanked another set of pressurized bullets before finally striking back. Strikes that were even easier to land when their favorite mermaid caused the very water the fish swam in to suppress their movement. Thus, beams of green energy, wind, and water bolts easily found their marks. Needless to say, though, the fight had taken a bit to ramp up. But when it did get started, the fish began dropping fast, and their frog man came out without a scratch.

  “She is so overpowered! What the fuck is this!” Dan yelled, his words only heard by the monsters resting inside the cave with him. He had sent the creepy things he had created, the so-called suckerfish with odd humanish lips to give the trio a good what for, but it had done nothing.

  Usually, the quest regulated how many monsters harassed an escort party to ensure it wasn’t too easy. However, this time, Dan had intervened, sending more than any party ever received, and yet, the freaking trio handled it without issue.

  Forcibly calming himself, Dan decided to go watch a party that was struggling. He quickly found one; it was the same three guys who had run into the mermaid.

  “Ha! See, that’s more like it!” Dan said, happy to see the three idiots struggling to do the lobster quest. Apparently, the lobsters did not like them, and currently, one of the guys was being chased by a herd and was somehow only barely staying ahead of them. The chase continued until finally, the man swam into a pen trapping the lobsters inside before leaving out one of the holes in the domed fence.

  “Well, I guess that’s one way to catch them,” Dan said, somewhat impressed at the idiotness of it all.