"Dude, I still have some fries left. Why are you in such a rush?" Blue replied.

"I'm not int a rush. I'm excited. We are in the MAZE. Let's go explore and do something," he said.

"Leo, I'm excited too. But we need to eat. If we went out now, we would need to come back to eat in just a few minutes. Using our supplies because of that seems a waste," Hera said.

"You know, it's hard to see your point when you have frosting on your nose. How many cupcakes did you eat?" the man asked.

"Just two..." Hera looked away.

"Lies, that's your fourth. But I can understand why. These purple chocolate cupcakes are amazing," Alex said.

"It doesn't matter, can we just go?" Leo asked.

They were in a dinner at the edge of the Lepidolite district, where the city had most of its restaurants and simple stores. There were a few other customers inside the dinner that stared at the man urging the three women to go.

"Leo, can you sit? Please? We are almost done, I promise," Hera said.

The man grumbled and sat back into the free chair. He looked away while the rest of the group finished their meal. Hera tried to ask what was wrong and why he was in such a rush but got no answer.

Ten minutes later, they left the dinner and were already heading towards the city gate. Leo was walking at a fast pace, fast enough to make Hera and Blue regret having such a big lunch.

As they reached the gate, they noticed a couple of guards with metal helmets armed with spears by the entrance. They seemed to be watching everyone who was pa.s.sing by. Out of curiosity, Hera activated her [Observe].

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Stanley

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Timothy

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She only focused on the guards, but a two explorers who arrived in the town stared daggers at her. Hera blushed, seeing their reaction. She had forgotten that there were people who could tell when they were being observed.

She was still intrigued by the guards. Could they be people from the outside working here? Or would they be denizens of the MAZE?

They pa.s.sed through the guards and walked towards the path that leads deeper into the purple forest around the city. In the road they used, there were a few groups that looked like explorers. Not only the weapons seemed to have designs that they have seen around the guild, but most of them carried the guild issued tablet in a holster.

The forest was incredible. Not like the one Hera saw during her test. Every tree here was unique, even if they were all the same type. Young trees, old trees, trees that grew in odd ways, trees that grew around rocks, trees that swayed with the wind and trees that seemed to be as st.u.r.dy as a wall. Hera could also hear life, not just the leaves rustling in the wind but small bugs and critters moving about.

"Hera, can you move? Every few seconds you stop to look around, we have stuff to do," Leo complained.

Hera apologized and focused on the path, not wanting to delay the group, but Blue rebuked her.

"Don't you dare apologize, Hera. We are all enjoying this. And Leo, can you just take that stick out off your a.s.s?"

The man argued for a while, but they never stopped walking. After twenty minutes of walking, they reached the area where they would find the frogs. Hera had her tablet open on the map and quickly checked the quest.

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Introductory mission

Frog hunting

Kill giant frogs in the forest outside of town. Due to its fast resp.a.w.n if not kept in check, the frogs can spread its territory, which causes problems for Brinefront.

Hunting has a set reward. However, in most cases, the target monster also has valuable materials that can be sold at the guild.

The frog has three well sought out materials by the guild. The value of said material varies depending on the state they are delivered.

Pair of legs - up to 20 gold

Tongue - up to 28 gold

Eyes - up to 10 gold each

Objective:

Hunt 10 frogs for each member of your party:

0/40

Reward:

50 gold

Giant frog basic compendium

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"It's a shame we don't get the compendium before hunting them," Hera said.

"Yeah, but my guess is that this is a bit of training they are giving us. We won't have information on everything we fight," Alex said.

"That's true. If it were something really dangerous, I doubt they would hold back information," Hera a.s.serted.

"Hera is right. After a certain level, every mission that involves hunting monsters gives us a compendium about the target. And the basic versions usually are pretty cheap, so there is no reason not to buy them," Blue explained.

"How do you know that?" Alex asked.

"What do you mean, how? Mr. Greyson told us that during cla.s.s."

After thinking for a moment, Hera exclaimed, "She's right. I completely forgot about that,"

"Bonnie is not going to believe this. Blue remembered something from cla.s.s," Alex heckled.

"HEY!" Blue complained.

The three girls laughed but were cut off by Leo, shus.h.i.+ng them and pointing forward. After a few bushes, there was a large frog, about the size of a poodle. Its back was black, almost as if it was covered in tar, but its belly had a light green color.

"Ok, this must be the frogs. We should check if there are any more around. Just to be safe," Hera said.

Before the explorer finished speaking, Leo jumped forward and stabbed the frog with its spear. Piercing through its stomach, the man pulled his weapon back and stuck again, this time aiming for the frog's head.

With the creature clearly dead, Leo grabbed his tablet and started to look for something.

"What the h.e.l.l, Leo?" Blue yelled.

Leo just waved her off and kept doing something on his tablet.

"Leo!" Hera called.

"Leo!" Alex followed.

"What?" he said, annoyed by the yelling.

"RUN!" the three women yelled.

Leo looked back and saw a giant frog coming out of the bushes. It looked just like the one he had just killed, but it was the size of a Great Dane. In all four, it could easily reach Hera's shoulder.

Just as the hunter started to run back to his group, the frog opened its mouth, and the sound of a whip snapping roared in the forest. Leo tumbled forward. The frog's tongue hit his back and started to pull his cloak.

Seeing her friend fall, Hera froze. She wasn't expecting the frog to be so big. At her side, Alex looked at the creature in shock, her hands shaking at the sight of it. Blue charged in, grabbing Leo and helping him get up. The frog kept trying to pull its prey back.

"Hera, Alex, help me out here!" Blue yelled.

Coming out of their stupor, Hera jumped forward in Leo's rescue. She went past the man and used the handaxe to slash at the frog's tongue. The blade slid across the thin muscle, making the frog let go of the cloak. The tip of its tongue dangling outside its mouth with blood coming out of it.

Hera wasn't expecting the attack to be that strong. She glanced at the weapon and mumbled, "Thanks, Iris," before helping Leo move towards Alex.

The frog didn't attack right away. Blue kept glancing over her shoulder to watch out for any attacks, but he was just staring at the group. She tossed Leo over the bush at the same time the frog let out a loud croak.

Spinning around, the controller got ready to defend against any attack that was coming her way, but the frog just kept staring at her. Hera helped Leo to hide behind a tree before turning to the a.s.sa.s.sin.

"Alex. Help, Leo!"

Alex shook her head and looked at Hera and Leo.

"G.. got it. Go help Blue. I'll be right there."

Hera rushed back just in time to see other two frogs coming out of the bushes. Thankfully, these were about half the size of the one they were already fighting, but their underside was light blue instead of light green.

"Blue..."

"I don't think we can run. Can you distract one of the small ones? I'll manage the other two," Blue said.

"Ok, just try to hold them off. When I'm done, I'll help you."

In synch, the two jumped towards their targets. Hera aimed at the smaller frog on the right while Blue went straight for the big one.

Hera tried to move around the blue frog, hoping it would have problems turning around. Before she was able to get out of the creature's line of sight, the monster opened its mouth, and with a crack, its tongue went flying off towards the explorer.

When the frog started to open its mouth, Hera ducked and swung her chakram up. She felt the creature's whip-like tongue brush her cheek at the same time that her slash connected. The frog recoiled, giving Hera an opening to move to the side of the creature.

The frog had to jump at an angle to start to reposition itself, but Hera was faster. She took another step making a circle and slashed at the monster legs, trying to hinder its movement.

The handaxe hit the joint and made the frog lose part of its foot. Trying to keep the momentum, Hera aimed the chakram at the creature's throat. But instead of cutting it, she ended up shoving the weapon inside the frog's mouth. Having the monster stuck to her, she raised her handaxe, aiming at the neck of the beast. As she brought down her weapon, she heard Alex screaming on the other side.

"You disgusting, slimy, useless, piece of garbage! Just f.u.c.king die already!"

The yelling was enough to distract Hera, messing with her aim. She heard a loud clang noise when Iris. .h.i.t the edge of Mayura's feather, removing the top of the frog's head. She quickly pulled her weapons back and saw a small mark on the chakram. Making a mental note to fix it, she turned to help her friends.

Alex was mounting on the blue frog, slas.h.i.+ng at its back even with the creature clearly dead. Blue, on the other hand, seemed to be in a tug of war against the big frog who had grabbed the controller's wrist with its tongue.

Unsure on how the frog was able to attack like that again, Hera quickly scanned the area. Only to find that the tip of its tongue had grown back while the part she cut was sitting on the floor at the frog's feet. Thinking about how to deal with a monster that could regrow its limbs, she saw a thick twig on the ground. Quickly grabbing it, she wrapped the branch with Yarnball and tied the string around a nearby tree. Hoping her relic was strong enough, she dashed towards Blue and stabbed the twig in the middle of the frog's tongue.

The creature let out a loud croak, different from the one it used before, and retracted its tongue, but it was stopped midway by the twig embedded on it. As the beast pulled back its tongue, the twig was making it rip in half. A large flow of blood was coming out of the hole made by the makes.h.i.+ft stake.

"Nice work, Hera!" Blue complimented.

"It's not dead yet," Hera said as she ran towards the beast.

Unable to run or to use its primary form of attack, the frog was killed quickly by the explorers. After confirming the creature was dead, Hera rushed back to the tree where she left Yarnball.

"I'm so, so sorry. I'll try never to let go of you again," Hera said as she untied the string.

"Are you really talking to your gear?" Blue asked.

Hera put Yarnball back on her belt after cleaning it up.

"Yeah... why?"

Seeing the look on Hera's face, Blue just said, "Nothing. It's cute."

Alex was still stabbing at the corpse of the blue frog.

"Alex? Are you ok?" Hera asked.

The woman jerked her head up; her eyes were wide and bloodshot, but she seemed to calm down after seeing her friends.

"Yeah... sorry. I just hate frogs."

"Noted, are you going to be able to deal with this quest? We can see if there is something we can do," Blue said.

"Yeah... I have to do this. Shock therapy, right?" Alex said.

"Ok, but if you need to stop, let us know, ok," Hera asked.

Alex just nodded as they saw Leo getting up and rubbing his shoulder. He tried to carry his lance on the should hit, but it was clearly not able to hold it very well.

"Where are they? Are you ok?" he asked.

"Perfect, we need to talk to you. Actually, does anyone want to take this, or can I do it?" Blue asked.

In response to the question, Alex stomped towards Leo and grabbed him by the collar.

"What the f.u.c.k do you think you are doing?" she yelled at him.

Blue and Hera glanced at each other.

"Did she just awoke something?" Blue asked.

"I guess so," Hera said as she looked towards Leo, who seemed even more shocked than the two of them.