169 Distant Gaze

The distant croaking vanished as the frogs went further into the fog, presumably to go after more food. The shadows shrunk. Doevm yanked the rope's knot loose and distributed the Amphiboards and paddles to everyone. Elero scanned the area with a mist around both her eyes and ears. "They are still heading away from us. We can take a breath."

"No we can't," Doevm insisted as he hopped onto his Amphiboard. He pointed to the foggy sky, where the sun was nothing more than a yellow dot over the outlines of many mountains around them. "It is getting close to night. They are going to return to the shallower parts of the swamp, back our way."

Thomas took one step on his Amphiboard and nearly fell off. He coughed several times, supporting himself with only his paddle. Frey just stared at his Amphiboard and shook his head. Doevm cursed. "Both of you lay flat on your Amphiboards. We'll drag you along." As the two lay down, Elero pulled out the parts of her braces and shoved them back into her leg. As she dispersed her life essence, the gears clicked back into place, grinding at any slight movement. Doevm cut the rope in half and gave five feet of rope to Elero and five feet to himself.

Doevm and Elero pushed forward with their paddles. As the Amphiboards slowly gained momentum over the soil, Thomas coughed a couple more times. "So Frey, why were you looking at me like that? What did I miss while I was passed out?"

"You don't want to know whatever magic Doevm used on you," Frey said as he stretched his body out and crossed his legs. He stared at the dimming orange horizon and let out a long sigh. "I want to kill something," he muttered.

Doevm glanced back at him. "You should recover first."

"I know," Frey said, his gaze not leaving the sky. "But I still want to kill something." His body, while relaxed, held a certain tension. It was if, at any moment, he could lash out. The rest of the group pretended not to notice the shift as they went deeper into the swamp, towards the two mountains to the north. The swamp went back to its usual state, with the calls of countless ringing through the rapidly chilling air. It was only interrupted by Thomas's occasional coughs. Lengthened shadows constantly moved around them. After the better part of an hour, Doevm slowed, and Elero did the same.

"Do you see or hear them anymore?" Doevm asked Elero, who sat down and activated life essence around her ears and eyes. After scanning the vicinity, she shook her head. "Ok, we can slow down. Frey, Thomas, can I get the rope back?" He tugged on his rope but Frey didn't let go. "Frey, can you hear me?" Doevm said, louder. Frey absently nodded but his white knuckles didn't move. "Frey," Doevm hit him with his paddle. While it was a simple tap, it was just enough to make Frey topple into the water.

"We need to make a plan," Doevm said. "We can't just keep blindly paddling around and fighting whatever comes across our path. We need more information before heading in. We have a week to earn points and win this thing."

"Why are you so interested in the prize anyway?" Thomas asked as he slowly got to his feet and stretched his limbs out. "Don't we just get a bunch of animal carcasses? How come we are working so hard for that?"

"Those animal carcasses are extremely valuable," Elero said. "My father, a well-known merchant, would go to great lengths just to get a single Bullfrog. They can be turned into tough armor and weapons, sold for more than their weight in gold, or turned into potions." Thomas looked to Doevm, who nodded.

"So if we win, we don't only get to be the best," Thomas said. He waited for the others to nod before continuing. "We also get a bunch of good equipment. Doevm, will it be stuff like your spear?"

Doevm shook his head. "If you sold all the carcasses of this competition and got ten times the amount, you wouldn't get close to my old spear."

"Wait a minute," Thomas leaned forward, a mistake that almost got him drenched as the Amphiboard rocked under him. "Old? What happened to it?"

"Broke it," Doevm shrugged. "I guess it was just getting old. Back to the subject…" he glanced around at the swamp. "You will get cool gear."

"I can fight for that." Thomas pulled out his rose-like spear and frowned a little before putting it back into his spatial ring. "I like my weapon, but it is a bit…much. So what's the plan?"

Doevm signaled for everyone to sit as he unfolded the scroll which General Marble had given them. Scribbled across it were various numbers and labels. "This is the points system." He said. "From how it looks like, the more powerful the creature, the more points we earn per kill. The points start at five points for a creature with green life essence and multiplies by five in value for every stage above that."

"But it stops at copper," Elero said, pointing to the six-hundred-point value for a beast with copper life essence.

"It might stop there because there is nothing stronger than copper here," Doevm said. "Probably."

Thomas glanced up from the scroll, finding Frey hovering over a book. "Frey, I know you don't like these kinds of things but you should pay a little attention."

"I am," Frey said as he flipped through the pages. "I just want to know what this moo-tated thing is, and why the value for moo-tated creatures are doubt than regular."

"It's pronounced mutated," Doevm chuckled. "Those creatures I talked about earlier are mutated, changed in a way. It's like the Bullfrog that had growths and developed a full set of fangs. It is worth a hundred and twenty-five points since it was at the blue life essence level. Since it was mutated, multiply its value by two to get two hundred and fifty."

"Frey," Thomas pat Frey on the back. "Just multiply a hundred and twenty-five by two. It's easy."

"I can only count to ten," Frey muttered as he flipped through more pages of the book. "Just leave me out of this system thing. I don't care. When the time comes, point me at what I need to kill. I don't care if it is mutated," He squinted at the scroll. "Or an x 3 rare, whatever that is."

"Times three value rare," Thomas chimed in. "Multiply value by three."

"I don't care," Frey shrugged. "What are we going to do for a week? Where are we going to sleep? Are we going to fight other teams? That I can weigh in on. Numbers I absolutely hate." He lay back down on his Amphiboard and went quiet. He let himself drift a bit before jamming his paddle into the ground to hold himself still.

As the group watched his behavior, Thomas put his paddle in. Doevm however, stopped him. "What's with him?" Thomas asked. "I kind of want to punch him, but I don't know why."

"I've seen this only once before," Doevm said. "Frey, back when he was a squad leader filling in for Wade, made the wrong call. People got hurt and he took the punishment, picking roses for a day. He had that same look. He didn't talk to people for a few days and sought isolation whenever I tried to talk to him. Just leave him be for now. He'll be fine, eventually. For now, focus on the plan. The highest value targets are creatures who are both mutated and rare, which have a multiplier of six in terms of points. Our goal is them."'

"But how will we find them?" Thomas asked, half expecting an answer within his hopeful look at Doevm. "They are probably rare for a reason, and we do not know what lives where." He pointed into the fog. "We can't even see a hundred feet away. Miss Mech, you seemed to be able to see far. Can you teach us to see as well as you? Is there some sort of extra trick you use compared to the normal technique?"

Elero shook her head. "It is a matter of practice, not technique. It might be a better idea to find more of those frogs. We may have taken risks taking down only four, but now we know their weak points and their habitats. We can form a plan."

"Sounds good," Doevm said.

At the faint sound of dripping, their heads turned to see Frey paddling back. He closed his book and put it into his spatial ring: "So what's the plan?"

"Kick some frog ass," Doevm said. "But first, you had some good ideas. We need shelter, one that will last for a week. Fighting should be the last of our priorities. We might starve, get dehydrated, run out of steam and collapse, or be worn down because of lack of rest. We need a place to recover and supplies. Is everyone in agreement?" Everyone nodded. "We either need a large collection of trees and solid dirt or a cave. Let's go." Everyone stood up and paddled down the stream, searching for any type of cover. Doevm kept to the back, occasionally glancing backwards, at the rippling water trailing behind them. After a few minutes, the rippling stopped. Doevm took a deep breath and sealed his mana. 'Bullfrogs aren't the only creatures we should look out for.'