Morning at the guild. The party received the reward and informed Helia about the events. She nodded.
After breakfast they looked for a job.
"Let's see. The quest board hasn't changed much. There are some new hard quests. Still no easy ones. As if monsters knew about our debt. But… there's still this one."
Meyuna looked.
"No. My blade wants a real battle with powerful monsters. Why do you wanna go down there?
"Believe me I don't. But we've got a proven method to deal with it. Besides, at least she won't cause a first fire there.
"Will you leave it alone? I'm not that bad."
"Don't underestimate yourself."
"You're a real bastard."
"Comes with experience."
*********
It was a dank stinky place. The sewers were an integral part of the town as they supplied the local wells with fresh water.
"How did I stoop low?"
"Don't worry. Think about what important work we're doing. Those filthy disgusting evil rats make life hard for good hard working people."
"You're always so positive."
"No matter the problem, there's always a solution."
"Exactly. Now let's find the rats' nest and our money problems will go away."
As they went deeper into tunnels they spotted no sign of the rats.
"Isn't it where the rats were supposed to be?"
"Yeah, but there is nothing. Maybe they moved somewhere else."
"Maybe. Let's make sure and get back."
"Good idea."
They went deeper and deeper as they found a cave in sewer tunnels.
"What's this place? Wait, this place looks like the rats lived here, but nothing's here. But it smells horribly."
"Could something have eaten them?"
"Great, so it means our job was done for us. At least my blade will stay clean."
"Hey, don't talk like that. You'll only bring bad luck."
"Look. There are bubbles coming out of the water."
They were observing the bubbles coming from down the water. From below a dark mass was appearing as it jumped out and showed its massive size. It had the head of a fish, a giant pair of mouths ready to swallow anything and tentacles around its body.
"What is that? Where did it come from? We gotta run."
"Shut up you coward. This is way at least something better than some rats and me and my blade are going to slay it. You vile monster, my name is Meyuna and I challenge you to fight. I'll be the one to end your underground reign. Prepare to…
The monster slammed the ground with tentacles. Meyuna dodged it and landed on her feet. She stayed on the hard ground looking for an opening.
"Yuna, don't fight it! Let's run!"
"I won't back down. Not when there's finally a real monster. When it attacks, I'll jump on a tentacle and run on it!"
"You finally have a good idea. But we should… "
Wait a moment.
"Why are you standing? We should help her."
"No, no need. Just let her be herself."
"Go, Yuna go."
As the monster slammed its tentacle again Yuna jumped on it and with her battle cry she ran straight for the head. She jumped in the air pointing katana at the giant creature, ready to defeat it in one single move. Then… At this very moment… the monster lashed its tongue out and wrapped it around her and pulled her in. Leaving only legs hanging outside.
"Yuna, no."
Ha ha.
With Yuna hanging from the creature's mouth its focus was now on the rest. Before they could reach any safe distance it caught Sekalia.
"Hinota, burn it! Burn it!"
Kota was drawing his bow. She was throwing fireballs. The creature looked at her. Ready to catch her next.
A tentacle was going at Hinota. Kota jumped in its way. Getting wrapped and joining the girls. Only the legs were dangling from the beast's mouth. Astonished and scared, Hinota started throwing a fireball after another after another. Finally the monster gave in, released the trio and submerged underwater.
Getting back on the ground, wet and covered in slime, they gasped.
"There's your great monster, happy now?"
Yuna looked at him with anger.
"Screw you. I didn't think it'd caught me like that."
"What's that collar for when you can't avoid the danger?"
"Is everybody alright?"
"Yes. But. My katana… Where's my katana?"
Meyuna looked around concerned.
"Probably stayed in the monster."
"No. I can't allow it."
She was going in the water again. Kota put hand on her arm.
"Stop. What are you doing?"
"This monster took my precious weapon. I won't let it stop me in my path."
That crazy girl.
"It almost ate you. Look, you can make a new katana."
She got on her knees, grabbed me and cried.
"Don't even say that. This is my weapon. My. My."
The slime-covered Sekalia hugged her.
Someone pulled my sleeve.
"Thank you for getting in the way of this tentacle. It would have been bad if you didn't do it."
"Don't mention it. Let's just leave this place."
"What about my katana?"
"There, there. We'll come here and find your weapon. Just let Kota come with another clever plan."
"Using tricks again?"
"Hey, my methods work! If you want you can look for it yourself."
*********
In the afternoon they walked through the town covered in slime. It was a sight both for citizens and other adventurers. After using their dwindling funds to get a bath they went to the guild.
"We got the job done."
Helia put money forward.
"But there weren't any rats. Instead we encountered some big creature with a fish head and tentacles."
"Oh, that probably was a zeugl. But since you've slain it, the money is yours."
Should we tell her?
"Not exactly. The zeugl is still there and it stole one of our weapons."
"Oh, since the sewers weren't cleared from monsters the quest stays on."
Damn it. She's too honest. But it probably wouldn't have worked either way.
The party had the cheapest lunch that they shared together.
"Do you have a plan, great hunter?"
Kota was looking at the table.
"I don't know."
"I can use my magic to kill it with the power of lightning. It's in water so it should be a powerful shock."
"Great idea. But since it's in the water it's gonna kill us too, you genius. We gotta take some manual labour. Unless Sekalia can ask spirits to lend us some money. "
Hinota pouted.
"No, they don't possess anything material."
"You can talk with spirits?"
Hinota asked.
"That's right. The forest spirits are very helpful. May I add some spice to this meat?"
"Sure."
"Sekalia. What do you have in your bag?"
"Oh, various plants, spices, culinary and alchemy ingredients like salpeter, sulfur, salt, phosphorus.
"Sulphur, salpeter… Big monster…"
Kota suddenly stood up.
"I think I've got it. But it's gonna take the rest of our money and one big fire."
Hinota smiled.
*********
Once upon a time there was a dragon. It lived in a cave and was dangerous to the local town and herds of cows and sheep and young virgins. Many knights tried to slay it. Many knights failed. There was but one clever shoemaker. He put a ram in front of the dragon's cave. The monster ate the offering and felt burning in its throat, not knowing the ram was full of sulphur. It drank the water from a nearby river till the dragon bursted. The story became a legend and the shoemaker got a great reward.
"I hate the sewers. It's stinky and wet."
"We'll leave when the monster comes. It's all we can do. Remember the plan."
The party left the tied pieces of meat covered in delicious spices and various alchemical ingredients before the cave. They hid waiting for the monster.
"Now, we need to wait."
After half an hour.
"Where is it?"
"Hunting requires patience. And we can't leave anyway."
"I hope you're right."
After half an hour.
"Maybe it doesn't like meat?"
"It wanted to eat us."
"Maybe we need to call it out?"
"I doubt it, but we can try. Who wants to call out the monster?"
"Please, let me do it."
Sekalia went out of hiding and started bleating.
"What are you doing?"
"We're pretending we have a sheep, so maybe the monster needs to hear it."
"I don't think it knows how a sheep sounds."
"I'll do it. I want my weapon back."
Yuna went out and started shouting at the water.
The bubbles were coming out.
It works. It works?
"Yuna, hide. We're doing the plan."
With a spell Hinota disguised the meat as a sheep. The monster looked at it, took the bait and swallowed it whole. Then hid under water.
"Did it work?"
"We have to see."
Feeling pain in its stomach the zeugl came to shore to rest. Meyuna came before it.
"You monster. You took something from me and I'm back here to what's mine."
She yelled at the top of her lungs. The monster looked at her and did the same, but it failed with pain in its belly. Yuna yelled again. The zeugl tried again and failed. Yuna yelled again. Finally the monster opened its mouth and shouted with all its might.
Yuna was shouting back.
"Now!"
Hinota threw a huge fireball in the giant mouth of the zeugl. With no time to react the monster took the fireball inside and exploded, shaking the cave. Triumphant Meyuna was again covered in water and slime.
"You could have hidden. You know."
"No, I deserve it."
They looked at her surprised.
"We had to use dirty tricks to win. For that I deserve to be covered in slime."
I wanna leave her.
"You're worrying too much, Meyuna. Thanks to our efforts the evil beast's been defeated. Now, let's find your katana."
"Now where is it? Is it still in the monster?"
Yuna had a serious expression.
"The monster took my katana and I'll take it back."
She approached the monster.
"Maybe it's in the water. You can use that perception necklace."
"Yeah, maybe you're right… Wait, I see it. It's stuck between the teeth.."
Yuna climbed into the zeugl's mouth and pulled her katana out. She raised the weapon in the air, put it in the sheath, posed, showed her usual serious expression and got swallowed by zeugl's slowly falling mouth.
Kota and Hinota burst out laughing. Sekalia chuckled.
The party rushed to raise the monster's mouth and pull coughing Meyuna out.
"Not a single word."
"All right."
She stood up with her serious expression.
"Pfffffff…"
"What?"
"I can't look. When you make that face. Ha, ha, ha."
"You can look at my blade if you dare ."
With trained and quick pull of katana the slime fell on them.
The trio bursted into laughter.
After a while they calmed down.
"All right, let's burn this monster. We don't wanna be responsible for any plague here."
"Good thing you thought of that, Kota."
Yeah, watching anime is useful.