Chapter 22- A Plan

I calmly raised my arm, and as I did so, I pulled back the bowstring with hardly a sound. Letting out a slow breath I twitched as my fingers let the bowstring free. The arrow flew true and at a blistering speed flying through one of the torso-sized holes of my soon-to-be former base.

Sparing a glance at my target I let out a small sigh as blue wisps entered my chest. A few more amphibians were picked off in the same manner, in a minute or so I let out a sigh of relief. The last time I tried this I almost died, it seemed round two went to me. Well, it's not like I was surrounded this time.

I motioned to Ivar as I took out one of my earplugs and leaned against the stone wall. Of course, making sure that I'd pick off any bipedal frogs that could get close and interrupt our decision.

"So, we need to agree on how we'll begin searching for the floor boss and or the way out of here" I began as I looked over to my companion who was playing the role of 'lookout' on the other side of the ruins. I almost let a tear fall as my modified crossbow was in his grasp along with the bolt quiver on his waist.

I'd miss my weapon but it wasn't like I hadn't upgraded. I'd already explained to Ivar the weaknesses and strengths of the bullywugs. To deal with them easily a decently strong ranged weapon was needed to either kill them or disable their croaking ability.

"I have no idea honestly, usually I would've gone for a landmark... but we're at the only one I saw" Ivar said as he shrugged as if agreeing to whatever I would decide.

"I had a theory about that. We're drawn to whatever is out of the norm as it is eye-catching, but what if this ruin was just a distraction or a trap? Most people would grow curious about the odd cellar door." I began explaining my idea of how this floor might work.

"A trap…..For 'nudes' as you would say, right?" Ivar replied completely seriously after he thought it over, I staggered in confusion and embarrassment. 'I never taught him that word….. Where the hell" I began racking my mind if I had a slip of the tongue before I realized the problem.

"Noobs….. They're called noobs ivar. But yes, inexperienced or greedy people like you or I had jumped down there without hesitation. Surely they weren't all as lucky as us" I replied remorsefully as I couldn't even imagine the number of 'noobs' that had died to the deathless ogre. Deaths aside I quickly got back on topic. "The waterfalls"

Ivar raised an eyebrow as if asking for a more detailed explanation.

"We saw hundreds, where I'm from it's rare to find a single waterfall. It would've been eye-catching if there were fewer but they were just part of the landscape on this floor" I began explaining. "Waterfalls are known to sometimes have caves behind the water, I feel that is our best bet with the information we have now." I decided as I waited for my companion to either agree or not. "The waterfalls also seem like hot points for the bullywugs" Further proving my theory was this fact. Surely the boss room would be protected.

"It has merit." Ivar trailed off as he thought over my plan. "It's the best plan we've got. Hopefully, these hearing tools you created will ward off those annoying croak attacks" Ivar said as he spotted the biggest flaw of this plan, could the boot-leg earplugs I made ward off our greatest problem? Certainly, there would be a decent amount of bullywugs at each waterfall we travel to and I greatly remember how infested that especially large waterfalls had been.

"Either it works…. Or we'll have to rupture our eardrums" it was an extreme route that we had both already agreed on. It didn't matter what happened to us as long as we beat the floor boss, I was sure that the 'Holy Arc' could heal us from anything.

With our course settled we left the ruined town that I now named 'Orgnar's ruin'.

There were truly hundreds of waterfalls, and just after ten minutes of walking we discovered our first. Seeing as how the ruins were east we decided to continue traveling east until we reached the wall of mist that surrounded this swap. If we found nothing along the way we would travel along the edge of the swamp until we reached the giant mountain we arrived from.

If we still didn't find anything we would travel inward towards the center, which was arguably the most infested and dangerous part of this vast expanse. Which might be the most likely place for the floor boss to be but nothing was ever set in stone.

There were around thirty bullywugs in this particular waterfall, but I doubted that was all. Surely there were a few hidden in the riverbed. 

I crouched low behind a decent-sized mushroom and readied my bow. I noticed Ivar splitter off towards a bush a few meters away from me. A new and improved lightning-enchanted bolt loaded and ready in the modified crossbow in his hand. Courtesy of my crafting abilities that continue to improve.

Modifying the lightning-enchanted arrows proved to be my greatest challenge to date. Around two hundred poor donor arrows sacrifice themselves for me to figure out a way to turn them into crossbow bolts. The struggle was that I had no idea at first so I just cut them in half with my dagger, and received the shock of my life for my foolishness.

Dark blue runes appeared as if I had fired the arrow the moment I cut it in half. But I persisted and after a few shocks and a couple of frustrated episodes, I figured out a process. To cut or modify an enchanted item I believe you need an item of equal or higher rank. But that was just the beginning, you couldn't cut on the runes, the same runes that only appeared after the arrow was fired or in my case tampered with.

But after a few hundred arrows I managed to find the perfect spot to cut them where the runes ended. 'Crafting skill has reached uber mythical divine rank!' I intoned to myself with a chuckle as I doubted a skill system like that even existed. After my chuckle was finished I was smacked in the face.

The offending item seemed to be a pebble that fell at my feet, but it flew so hard that I was left rubbing my forehead with teary eyes. I looked at the perpetrator with confusion as I noticed Ivar still crouched behind the bush with one of his hands in the air. Just from his posture and annoyance on his face, I could tell what he wanted to yell to me. 'What the fuck are you doing daydreaming this close to an infestation.'

I awkwardly rubbed the back of my head as I realized I got distracted.