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The next morning, the four of them set to work. Not gathering more wood or creating a boat… No, they created defenses out of the sand and rocks as best they could. The monsters seemed to have no issue with their house or the rocks they used to make cradles yesterday, only targeting the cut wood.
If they were going to defend their boat, they needed to have fortifications.
They debated building the boat inside the house to try and block the monsters, but they settled it wasn’t worth the risk. Its defensive enhancements were still mana-powered, not Genesis Energy-powered, and much like Matt’s talismans, that meant they were far too weak for this floor, when every skill and ability was supercharged a hundred times over.
While Matt could make some minor repairs, if a monster actually broke through their house defenses, that would be a problem for the rest of Minkalla. Really, any defenses they made that were too direct ran the risk of simply being destroyed by the monster’s overpowered attacks.
So, they built themselves a fortification with a single entrance that they hoped would funnel the frogmen into their blades.
It took so long that they only had a few dozen pieces of wood cut, stripped, and dried when night fell.
Two hours after the sun fell, the first of the frogmen crawled their way out of the water, and like mindless zombies, they walked over to the wall they had built.
To their relief, instead of climbing over or attacking the wall, they started walking over to where Matt, Susanne, and Liz’s elephant stood waiting.
Susanne and the elephant stood about ten feet in front of the entrance, where they made a rock funnel while Matt defended the tunnel itself.
She whipped her greatsword around in an arc that sliced through two of the frogmen before sidestepping one of the monster’s lunges. They were limited without spells, but both of them were strong and well versed in their favored weapons.
It also helped that the monsters were about as smart as a mindless golem, just slowly closing the distance without any independent thought. They had no spells of their own, and weren’t particularly strong, so Susanne was able to cut the endless stream of monsters down for an hour without even breaking a sweat. It also helped that the elephant was swatting frogmen backward with impunity. It didn’t kill them, but its physical size helped keep Queen from being overwhelmed.
At the end of her hour, she was starting to breathe heavily. Without their enchantments, spells, and general boosts, they were forced to fight with just their bodies. As Tier 11s, they could fight for hours without issue, but during their planning, they chose to only take the front position in hour-long increments to ensure that neither of them got too tired.
Susanne was better off than Matt, as reserve spells didn’t actually spend their Genesis Energy, only reserving it, while Matt only had the channel versions of those boosts at his disposal.
When Susanne’s time came to an end, Matt smoothly stepped forward and took her place.
His longsword was shorter than her greatsword, but he was larger, so he was able to cover about the same range, though he did rely on the elephant for help positioning and controlling the area much more than she had.
Matt quickly fell into a groove as he cut down frogman after frogman. It was a good thing Minkalla reclaimed the bodies of its fallen monsters, as in just his single shift of an hour, he cut down over a thousand of the creatures.
Over that time, he even earned a decent portion of Genesis Energy, which made a part of the night’s bloody and repetitive actions worth something.
They switched on and off every hour until midnight, when a light appeared further inland.
Liz, working in their shelter to cut the logs into shape, took off in that direction with Matt as Susanne kept her spot alongside the elephant, with Aster jumping in to assist.
When they arrived at the spot, they found a chest slowly rising out of the ground.
A voice that sounded like the woman drank broken glass with every meal said, “A long time ago, I buried my treasure on this very island when I was forced to escape from my mutinous crew. To those scurvy-ridden frogs, I cursed for all eternity to be worth nothing more than toads stepped on by those stronger than themselves. To those who find this, feel free to plunder this prize before taking your leave. I did worse yet to people in my time. I can’t complain about someone returning the favor. But before ye do, I ask that ye hear me out. In me travels through the twelve oceans and four seas, I found a treasure map that led one to Misty Island, which I have inscribed on the lid of this here chest. I ask that you take this treasure chest there before you open it. It be my last regret not making it to Misty Island. But ye not need do it for charity. They said there be a treasure greater than any other awaits those who reach its shores and solve its mysteries. I had gathered everything the legends said I could possibly need, but I was betrayed just days before reaching its shores. Do what I never could. Please.”
Matt looked to Liz as the voice ended.
It seemed Minkalla had a deeper meaning to this ruin. Most of the information was flavor speech, but there had been bits of information he interpreted as truth.
If his understanding was correct, they could open the treasure now and escape, or sail to the hidden island for greater rewards.
Liz reached down to grab the chest and pulled back her hand, surprised. “I can’t pull it into my ring.”
Matt looked through the forest and sighed as he said, “And of course, the frogmen captain’s vengefulness cursed them. Something tells me they want this prize just as much as they want our boat.”
Bending over, Matt grabbed both handles of the chest and flexed hard to lift the chest.
- Writer
