Knowing where you are heading and what monsters to expect makes exploring easy. The opposite made it dangerous.
Since they were now going blind, they had to change their party formation. Athena would have to go ahead of the group, acting as a scout, while the rest of them clustered closer.
She nodded her head and climbed into the trees. From there, she closed her eyes and used her new item's ability.
She opened her mouth, and the silent pulse emerged. The echoes that came back to her showed her the path ahead and the monsters' forms, but it came back shorter than her first use.
That made her frown.
She jumped back down from the tree to explain what she had seen, and Phoenix connected the dots.
"Now we know why it's called Jungle Maze. This place is a magical maze. That means it changes as we advance," she said.
This blew up their plan of using Athena as a scout. Now they were in a bind.
They instead decided to stay more conservative and grouped up in a thigh formation. They walked ahead slowly, making sure they were looking everywhere around.
Athena used the echolocation skill every minute, just to make sure they weren't heading in an ambush. She could see some monsters at the edge of the range, but since she couldn't see much further ahead of them, she didn't know how many there really were.
Their mini-map slowly revealed more and more of itself, making their path known for now. But they did not know which way led to the boss room, and which way led to a potential death trap.
After walking for ten minutes, they reached the cluster of monsters that Athena had detected. They approached cautiously, making sure they stayed undetected for as long as they could.
What came into view was a group of big multicoloured frogs. They looked cute and harmless, but all the players present knew better than to judge by appearance.
They were still too far away to scan what the monsters' names were, but they soon understood one thing about them.
One frog had an eye spinning around, and then it suddenly spat out its tongue blazingly fast, catching a small creature passing near the tree line.
The tongue immediately grasped the poor little thing and brought it back into the frog's mouth. When the critter was trapped in its maw, Astaroth and the others could hear a very distinct hiss.
The small part of the creature that was still hanging out of the frog's mouth started sizzling and melting.
pαпdα-ňᴏνê|·сóМ 'Shit. Acid.' was the thought they all had at the same time.
This wasn't inherently dangerous, damage-wise. But acid damage burned through armor durability at an accelerated pace.
Fighting against an acid creature for too long would almost guarantee the armor you were wearing would break. There were ways to prevent this, of course, such as oils and acid resistance spells and potions.
But no one had brought any of those, since they weren't expecting any acid monsters in a jungle dungeon. They started whispering amongst each other.
"What do we do? Do we find another path?" Gulnur asked.
His armor was the most vulnerable to acid since it was pure metal.
"I saw another path earlier, but I think there were more monsters there," Athena replied.
"We could lose a lot of time if we switch paths and the next group of monsters also has acid attacks," Phoenix added.
"What about razing the whole clearing in one attack? You could use your fire tornado, and I can boost it, as we did against the bats," Astaroth said, offering a plan.
"It won't work. My fire magic is weakened with all this humidity," Phoenix answered.
"Umm… Exc—-" Violette tried saying, before being interrupted by I'die.
"Maybe I could capture all of them in a bog spell? They wouldn't be able to move,"
"That wouldn't work. They could still attack with their tongues," Athena said, shaking her head.
"Excu—" Violette tried interjecting again.
This time, Gulnur cut her off.
"I really don't like the idea of having my armor melt on me. Or my shield, for that matter."
"Pard—" Violette tried again, cut off by Phoenix this time.
"We should go see if the other path is safer. Maybe it—"
Before she could finish her thought, Silent smacked his cane on a nearby tree.
*Thwack*
Everyone stopped talking at his outburst. Silent had been mostly, as his name suggested, well, silent.
"The girl wants to talk," he mumbled, before going back to his stoic face.
The party members then turned to look at Violette. Her little cheeks were puffed and red.
Phoenix was the first one to apologize to her. Then all the others followed suit.
"What were you trying to say, Violette?" Astaroth asked her.
"I was going to say that I might have a spell that can help us. But it would mean I can't attack and can't be disturbed while I'm channelling it," she answered, her cheeks still slightly puffed.
"Can you elaborate?" Phoenix asked, now intrigued.
"When my master was teaching me the basics of water magic, he told me about its use against acid. He taught me a spell that can negate the acid damage to durability."
"The spell is called Water Skin. It creates a thin layer of water on your body and armor, washing away the acid when you are hit by some. The problem is that it is a single-target spell."
"Are you saying you can cast it on all of us?" Athena asked, befuddled.
She was not a mage, but she knew maintaining that many spells at the same time was a ludicrous claim to make.
"I—" Violette started responding, looking unsure, before Astaroth interrupted her.
"I believe you can do it," he said confidently.
"So do I," Phoenix chimed in.
Violette looked at them with a beaming smile.
"I think I can," she said, nodding her head.
"But I'll have to stay behind everyone, so I don't get attacked."
"I'll cover her in the back line," Silent Light said, stepping next to her.
Astaroth nodded at the man and nodded back.
"Then we have a start of a plan. Let's keep this ball rolling," Phoenix said, leaning into the group.
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