Kia and Lily strode ahead with the two young adventurers, Raf with his short sword and shield, and Vethey with her bow strapped to her back and hunting knife tied to her leg. Their voices rising and falling in animated bursts. From the snippets Bell caught, it sounded like they were competing—each story more dramatic than the last. A "giant snake with fangs as long as my arm" was quickly topped by "a wyvern that nearly bit my head off," and so on.

Beside her, Zane let out a low chuckle. Bell glanced over, one eyebrow raised.

He swept a hand toward the four ahead. "You'd think they were ten years old, the way they're trying to one-up each other—not the actual adults they are."

Bell smirked, then turned to her other side toward Alaric. "How old are those two?" she asked, nodding toward Raf and Vethey.

Alaric chuckled. "Well, I'll give Zane this—they are acting like ten-year-olds. But they're both twenty-four."

Bell nodded. "So they're all about the same age, then."

The path ahead narrowed, the air growing heavy with the scent of damp earth and stagnant water. The chatter faded naturally as the ground grew softer underfoot, each step accompanied by the muffled squelch of wet soil.

Twenty minutes later, they crested a low ridge, and the swamp spread out before them—a sprawling expanse of dark water and twisted, moss-draped trees. A faint mist clung to the surface, curling and shifting in the breeze.

Bell's shoulders tightened. Playtime was over.

The swamp was already alive with sound—croaking frogs, buzzing insects, and the distant plop of something large slipping beneath the water. The air was damp enough to cling to Bell's skin, and every breath tasted faintly of moss and rot.

"Alright," Alaric said, flicking ash into the murky water as though the swamp floor were his personal ashtray. "We go in, we get frogs—big frogs—and we get out. You lot just keep the hungry things off our backs."

"Sounds easy," Bell said, scanning the treeline. "Which means it won't be."

Raf adjusted his short sword and half-cylinder shield, stomping into the shallows without hesitation. "Frogs don't catch themselves."

Vethey was already stringing her bow. "Try to keep the noise down until we find the first few. No point attracting trouble early."

Zane snorted. "In a swamp like this? Trouble's already here. It's just waiting for the opening act."

They split naturally into their two roles. Group 1—Alaric, Raf, and Vethey—fanned out along a stretch of mossy bank, scanning for the telltale ripples of giant swamp frogs. Group 2—Bell, Lily, Kia, and Zane—formed a loose perimeter, weapons ready, eyes on the shifting tree line.

The first frog capture went smoothly enough—Raf lunged with surprising speed, scooping a football-sized frog into a net Alaric conjured from shimmering water. Vethey darted forward to tie it off, the frog croaking indignantly.

Then the water ahead exploded.

A sleek, dark-scaled swamp lizard, all teeth and claws, surged toward the frog collectors.

"Contact!" Bell shouted. Her bow came up in one smooth motion, mana thrumming through her arm as she loosed a Basic Powered Shot. The arrow struck the lizard's chest and detonated in a burst of force and heat, sending it tumbling back into the water.

+10 XP blinked briefly in the corner of her vision.

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From the left, two more lizards slithered out of the reeds. Lily pivoted, her movements fluid, almost dance-like. Her blade shimmered blue as it cut through the first one's neck in a spray of water and blood, Raindancer skill adding elemental force.

+12 XP

Kia's voice rang out behind them. "Group Heal—now!" A wave of soft golden light spread from him, knitting a shallow gash on Zane's forearm before it could start bleeding badly.

"Thanks," Zane grunted, shifting into Defensive Stance as a horned swamp boar barrelled toward him through the muck. He took the impact square on his braced arms, letting the stance soak the worst of it, then drove his knee into its jaw. Bell's arrow finished the job.

+9 XP each

The attacks came in waves after that. For every frog Group 1 captured—slippery, strong-legged things that fought with as much determination as the predators—Group 2 had to fend off another set of swamp dwellers.

Two long-bodied swamp snakes tried to slip in under the cover of reeds. Lily snared them both mid-strike with Group Snare, locking them in place just long enough for Bell and Vethey to put arrows through their skulls.

Three darting swamp imps emerged from the fog, chittering and spitting gobs of acidic muck. One glob landed near Kia's boot, hissing as it ate into the leather. He responded with a targeted healing burst on Bell's shoulder after a second glob grazed her.

Zane—with his weapon stuck in a log—grabbed a fallen branch, smacked one imp out of the air, and stomped on its chest until the health bar blinked to zero.

The XP tally kept climbing: 58… 92… 134…

They were halfway through bagging another when the swamp itself seemed to rise. Out of the water lumbered a massive turtle-like beast, its shell coated in moss, two ridges of jagged spines running down its back.

"That's… bigger than I like," Raf muttered, tightening his grip on a squirming frog.

Bell's Piercing Shot punched clean through the turtle's foreleg, making it stagger.

Lily darted in, blade glowing with waterlight, and slashed across the exposed tendon. "Really wish Tarn was here to do this sneaky backstab crap," she yelled over the din.

Zane was already circling toward its head. "Come on, ugly—I'm big and tasty!" he shouted, narrowly twisting away from a set of jaws that could've bitten him in half.

The turtle's massive back leg swept out like a felled tree. Claws tore across Lily's side, launching her into a mangrove with a sickening thud.

Kia didn't hesitate—half-running, half-wading, he dropped to his knees beside her, one hand pressing against the wound. Targeted Heal. Golden light flared under his palm, sealing the gash even as Lily grit her teeth.

Bell drew, aimed, and fired—an explosive arrow right down the beast's gaping maw.

The detonation shook the swamp, scattering ripples across the water. The turtle groaned once, then collapsed into the murk with a hiss of bubbles.

By the time Alaric declared, "Last frog's in the bag!" Group 2 was standing amid a churned patch of mud littered with bodies—lizards, snakes, imps, even that stubborn turtle.

Bell glanced at her log. 190 XP gained. Not bad for a few hours' work.

Alaric lit another cigarette off the smouldering tip of his old one. "Good guard work. None of the frogs got eaten, and I didn't get bitten. That's a win in my book."

Zane grinned. "And here I thought I'd just signed up for frog-watching duty."

Kia wiped swamp muck off his face. "I still say the frogs looked at me funny."

"They're frogs," Lily said, prodding the newly healed skin at her side with careful fingers. "If they start laughing, then you can panic."

Raf and Vethey just stared at her like she'd started speaking in demon-tongue.

Vethey found her voice first. "We didn't expect the monsters to be so… aggressive. Or so high-level."

Raf, still blinking, added, "Yeah, and—hold on—what level are you guys?"

Silence. The kind where everyone was clearly waiting for Tarni to open his mouth and say something bizarre. Then they all remembered he wasn't there.

Lily, grinning like she'd just stolen everyone's dessert, said, "We're all level eight. And Zane doesn't even have a class."

Three jaws dropped in perfect sync. "WHAT?!" Raf and Vethey blurted together, loud enough to startle a small lizard back into the swamp.

Raf spluttered. "We're level nine, and Alaric is level ten! How in the void are you this strong at level eight?"

Zane didn't miss a beat. "I guess it's our Good looks and charm."

Lily groaned. "More like dumb luck and a ridiculous healing bill."

Kia added, deadpan, "Mostly the dumb luck."

Bell didn't say anything—just shook her head in the long-suffering way of someone who'd heard this routine a hundred times before.

Before Raf could fire off another question, Alaric cut in, cigarette bobbing at the corner of his mouth. "It's rude to ask about skills and stats."

Raf rubbed the back of his neck, muttering, "Yeah, yeah, I know."

With the frogs secured and the monsters scattered, the two groups started their slow, squelching trek back to solid ground—one side of the swamp a little emptier, and the adventurers richer in XP.

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