Chapter 168: Human-faced Fish (1/2)

The fifth day of the swamp fishmen’s rampage.

The Players’ strength was not to be doubted, especially after the Fishfolk Island event had ended—almost every Player had an idea about highly-effective measures for wiping out the fishmen.

Moreover, although the swamp fishmen were a subspecies of fishmen (almost like what the drow elves were to forest elves), they shared the same vitals in their anatomy.

As such, not only were the Players easily replying the hordes of swamp fishmen assaulting the Lancaster aqueducts and slaying as many of those beasts they could, they were also destroying the nests of the Hogwash Rats that were seeing a resurgence in numbers as well.

Still, there were still many swamp fishmen at large outside even though those in the aqueducts were cleared away.

Naturally, the Players were raring to go with hundreds of thousands worth EXP waiting outside.

However, the problem was the city watch that the Lancaster mayor supervises as well as the Holy Corps that the mayor forced the various churches to dispatch were everywhere, and were also slaying any swamp fishmen almost as efficiently as the Players did.

With the Church of Games needing to stay unexposed, though the Players could blend their way in if they ran into city watch, the little operation to cull fishmen would directly escalate to a religious war if they run into the troops of hostile churches.

Therefore, both Old Vanke and the smarter Players repeatedly warned the other Players not to farm monsters in the wild.

But despite their good intentions, there were no lack of Players who enjoyed stirring trouble.

“If we can’t farm them in the wild, how about we head straight to the swamp fishmen spawn point and get rid of the last Boss?” Marni suggested, drooling at the sight of the rich EXP rewards.

Being a top player who simultaneously held the titles of ‘Valiant Hero Who Fought the Ocean’ and ‘Explorer of the Seven Seas’, Marni had considerable reputation amongst the Players, which was why that suggestion naturally drew much supporters.

One should also note that Edward was busy with a quest he had accepted from Lady Kinley, the town alchemist, only to fail in his search for the potions requested nearby. Hence, with the battle cry of ‘no quest is too hard for me’, he took Joe and Eleena with him to the Trinia Forest, and therefore wasn’t a part of the swamp fishmen culling.

Indeed, whenever the Players found something that interests them, they only ever burst out in unimaginable drive and passion.

***

Marni had taken out his treasured merchant’s map. Some rangers had marked the whereabouts of swamp fishmen in the wild on the copied map, and with some discussion as well as comparison, they soon singled out Seira Marsh as the ground zero of the swamp fishmen outbreak.

“We would have to make a detour to avoid running into the advancing city watch and the Holy Corps, and move along the neighboring county of Codo Bosra…” Marni said as he drew up the routes for the Players’ advance. “Try to blend in if we run into either of those groups, and try not to fight even if you get caught, just prioritize escaping.”

“But if the fighting starts, we would have to wipe them out in the shortest time possible without trying to pick up item drops. Some church could track their own equipment, and it’s better to put some item drops of the fishmen there and have them be our scapegoats instead…”

At that, Marni noticed that one of the Players had raised his hand. “You got a question?”

“What’s this circle near Codo Bosra?” The Player pointed curiously at an oval sign on the map.

“That’s the hunting grounds of the nobles. The city watch tend to patrol around it, but we’ll be fine as long as we don’t get too close,” Marni simply replied. “Anyone who doesn’t really know the way, just follow me—we could depart as soon as everyone is ready. By the way, the Boss is first come, first served, so do not steal kills!”

The Players murmured replies of ‘got it’, ‘hurry up, hurry up’ or ‘can’t we use the System maps instead of hand-drawn maps’ without any harmony.

Nonetheless, having determined their standard operating procedure, the Players started to depart after partying up.

***

“Whoops.” Mufasa turned off his map and mumbled in annoyance. “We seemed to have ended up inside the noble hunting grounds where we’re not supposed to go.”