Amidst the suburbs of the country, a peculiar party of two lizardmen, a young human man, a rabbit-eared beauty, and a tall ice giantess packed with muscles walked across the streets. Night had already fallen and after having a kick lunch in a nearby food stall, they continued their search for clues and information about this country's history, or anything to be honest. Drake wasn't picky, anything would had done.
However, across their small journey for investigation, the peculiar party had come in front of a an even more peculiar rumor… or well, something more like a legend. And that legend was quite interesting, which made the rabbit-eared spirit druid really want to seek for her.
"It is said that there's a witch living around somewhere in the suburbs, yeah… Well, some say that she lives in the Salty Swamp, a small swamp to the northeast…" Sighed a street vendor who had just made a sale to the party. "Though, customers, I don't recommend you getting there just for that, the swamp's filled with monsters because there's a dungeon in there. I've also heard some bandits have their hideouts in that place!"
The pufferfish-faced mermen seemed scared of the Salty Swamp, a monster-filled area which even had rumors of bandit groups making their nests in there… to make things worse, a dungeon, which had not been cleared in years was overflowing the place with monsters.
"Isn't it too dangerous for a dungeon to exist in this island? Why hasn't it been cleared yet?" Hector wondered, as a former guard of his village, he had to always fight monsters that threatened his home and the threat of dungeons was quite clear.
The Orange Forest Duchy was at least responsible enough, making it so they sent sect members and adventurer parties to clear the dungeon monthly so it wouldn't overflow with monsters.
In a closed space such as an island, such a thing was even more obvious to do, yet nobody was ever doing it? Every person in the party wondered why they were being so irresponsible.
"Yeah! It is very dangerous… Years ago, when I was just a tiny little fish, the swamps were a safer place where I went with my papa to gather medicinal herbs and catch some clams and snails… But now that the new Queen appeared, she completely stopped investing money into clearing the dungeon, which was done monthly, or even twice a month!" The pufferfish-faced mermen complained. "Since she showed up that our country has become more and more insecure…"
"I see…" Pekora sighed, she looked back at her friends. "Seems like this place is worse than we imagined."
"They really do a good job at pretending everything is fine in the port town and the capital areas, where everything seems clean and peaceful, but the entirety of the rest of the country is struggling to get by!" Kraxka complained.
"Hm… Thank you for the information." Larzak quickly gave the man a few more coins as an extra, as the whole group continued walking across the streets.
"Should we report this to Lord Drake?" Hector wondered.
"He should already know, he listens to most stuff with this tiny guy." Laughed Trisha, showing the group a small green slime that was sitting over her shoulder.
"Can you guys go check the swamp for a bit?" The slime spoke with Drake's voice. "I'll catch up to you guys later. Don't explore too deep, just give me a small glance at it."
"Alright boss!" Hector agreed immediately.
"Lord Drake, do you desire to meet that witch, by any chance?" Asked Larzak.
"Yeah, if that woman is really a witch living in seclusion which this country seems to abhor, then I bet she's a good ally to make. If she has lived as long as they say, she must know even more about this place than the civilians." Drake said.
"Alright boss, got it." Larzak nodded.
"Then let's get to it." Tisha said.
The party quickly moved to the Salty Swamps, which was right at the border of the suburbs, which were only protected by a large wooden wall. The moment they jumped off the wall, jungles greeted everyone's sight… and at the distance, several ruins of ancient, fallen temples could be seen.
This island seemed to have more secrets than anybody could imagine at first glance.
…
Within the depths of the ocean right below the port streets of the suburbs, a man was torn apart and burned alive, now slowly falling unconscious as the ocean's depth swallowed him whole. Eustace, a shark-type merman with an egocentric personality never expected a little girl would bring his ultimate demise.
In fact, even as he was in the verge of death, it was all thanks to the sword he held, which created a protective barrier strong enough for Benladra's dragon breath to not completely annihilate him… Nonetheless, with half his torso gone and so all his limbs, there was no healing magic he knew about that could completely heal him now.
"Ungh… Damn… it…! That damn kid… These damn commoners…!"
Hate began emerging from within his soul, overflowing from within his heart and then reaching the sword, which was still stuck to his body, the sword quickly absorbed this energy, waking up from its exhausted slumber.
A sinister voice whispered to his very mind, it seemed sinister and dark.
"Useless… You're such a useless and pitiful vessel…"
"Even as I am merely a small fraction of the power of my true body, I cannot let that dragon get away with this…"
"How dares she gets in my domain and do as she pleases…!"
"Death! Death is what she'll get!"
"Fine… Let me harbor your hate, I will give you one last chance, do not disappoint me, slave!"
F L A A A A A S H!
S P L A S H!
A gigantic creature suddenly emerged from within the depths of the ocean, terrifying the people of the suburbs once more.
