[VRMMO] Dead One

"A group of lamias are terrorizing the merchants. Killing everybody and stealing everything. Find the lamias responsible for this and bring them to justice." – said ClownFrog while reading the quest description.

"The reward will depend on the number of lamias you have killed and if you manage to find the lamias hideout and report it."

"Huh."

"Lamias? Like the upper body of the beauty while the lower body that of a snake?" – said Shri.

"Yea. I read about them in the documents. Apparently, lamias lived her for long time and even served the queen Arrianhi Umil. However, after the queen was defeated, the lamias and other demi human monsters that served the queen were hunted down by the kingdom and still are to this day." – said ClownFrog.

"…"

ClownFrog looked around, inspecting the area around him, before then making a hand gesture for the others to come closer.

"Do you remember what I told you before? We need allies." – said ClownFrog with quiet voice.

"And you want to make lamias our allies?" – said GreyHunt.

"Yea. They served the queen once, so there is a chance that they would be willingly to join us if we explain situation for them. We are facing and entire kingdom. We need as many allies as possible. Be it players, NPCs or monsters. We need all of them."

"However the situation is bit problematic."

"Unlike before when we were doing the quest for the minotaurs, nobody knew existence of the minotaurs."

"However this time is different. People know about them and even worse, there is a quest that is literally about hunting lamias down. The players will definitely go after them! We can silence the NPCs but not the players."

"We don't know how long it will take for the players to catch up to us, so we need to hurry. We need to rescue the lamias before it's too late!" – said ClownFrog.

"Excuse me!" – said ClownFrog.

"Hm?"

"I noticed this quest, lamia extermination. We are kind of interested in fighting those lamias." – said ClownFrog.

"Do you want to accept the quest then sir?" – asked the adventure guild worker.

"No. We first want to judge their power first before accepting the quest."

"Could you please tell us the locations where the lamias attacks usually occurred?"

"Understand. Please wait a moment."

"…"

"Here." – said the adventure guild worker after taking out a map.

"The lamias are appearing at random and nobody really know when they will appear, but the most of the time where the merchants went missing or were attacked was here, here and here." – said the adventure guild worker while pointing several areas on the map.

"Hm…"

(Each of these spots are quiet far away from each other. Weird. I mean I know that trying to ambush people in the same spot over and over again is stupid, but the distance between each areas is quite big. Do they operate in the large area and have multiple parties laying in wait? Or do they have some form of transport?) – though ClownFrog.

"Hm…."

"Excuse me. How did lamias usually ambushed people?" – asked ClownFrog.

"Well, usually they just hid underneath the sand and when people would come closer, they would just jump from underneath it and surround the victims. Most of the times people died, but some were lucky to survive and run away with their lives."

(So, they use ambushes, huh? So, it's not like they have some sort of transport, they are just waiting for the prey to come.)

(Do they know when their pray will come? Or they just lay multiple ambushes in different locations?)

"?"

"Wait. Question. Are only the merchants being targeted? What about the mercenaries or military forces?"

"Well, so far only the merchants were the attacked. There were attempts made by the military or mercenaries, but so far there was no results."

(So, the lamias only target the merchants? Easy prey? Or they want something they have. Merchant usually travel while carrying a lot of goods, like food, weapons and other stuff. By any chance was that their aim?)

(However how they are able to identify if the target is a merchant or a mercenary? They are buried in the sand…. Do they have a scout? They could hide under the sand and only make their head stick out to see things, but then how they would inform the other lamias? Do they have some sort of communication skill that allows them to communicate from afar?

Or by any chance these lamias have a detection skill that allows them to tell their targets apart?)

"…."

"… Okay. Oron. Quick question. How much money do we have left?" – asked ClownFrog.

"Let me check…. We spend around 7000 gold out of our 14000 gold on the equipment and other necessary stuff and we earned back around 2000 gold. So, we have around 9000 gold left. Maybe bit more than 9000 but definitely not around 10000." – said Oron.

"Tch…. Fuck. I have maybe a plan than may or may not work, but we will have to spend money again. It maybe our only way of catching the lamias." – said ClownFrog.

"…"

"How much we are talking about here?" – asked Shri.

"Em…. Maybe a lot? Few thousands? – said ClownFrog.

"…Oh, for fuck's sake." – said Shri.

[2 hours later.]

"…"

"Damn. Boss, this isn't good. The merchants are no longer looking down on us and now are hiring a lot of escorts. Shouldn't we change our hunting grounds?" – asked the female voice number 1.

"No. If we try to hunt too far, we may end up entering the harpies territory by accident and the war between us two right now is the same as the death sentence for both sides. Unfortunately, we have no choice but to hunt here." – said the female voice number 2.

"But at this rate, our people will starve to death! Soon we will run out of the food." – said the female voice number 3.

"I know. But what can we do?! All we can do right now is to hunt any merchants outside the city. However, at this rate we will have no choice but to go after the guarded caravans, even if it means that some of us may die. This is the unfortunate truth" – said the female voice number 2.

"!"

"Boss! A caravan is coming! And I don't see any escorts or anything guarding it!" - said the female voice number 4.

"What?! Are you sure about that?!" – asked said the female voice number 2.

"Yea. The caravan seem to be quite big. I think it belong to one of those big merchant companies. What is your order?" - asked the female voice number 4.

"…"

"A big caravan with no escort? This is way too fishy. This maybe a trap, but…. We have no choice. We have to get supplies no matter what!" - said the female voice number 2.

"Get ready!"

A lone caravan that was being dragged by the sand running lizard was traveling through the dessert.

"…"

"Now!"

Suddenly, the in front of the caravan an explosion of the sand happened, scaring the sand running lizard and making it completely stop in the tracks.

After the first small explosion happened, several more occurred, all around the caravan.

Out of the spots where the explosion occurred, a group of weapon wielding monsters with a lower body of the snake and the upper body being that of a beautiful woman with what appears to be the cobra hood.

"You are completely surrounded. There is no escape so don't resist and we will make it painless!" – said one the snake woman that was wielding two swords.

"…"

"Well. I don't know about this." – said the female voice.

The caravan coach suddenly stood up and took out a whip while suddenly from the back of the caravan, the group of people suddenly jumped out with their weapons in hand.

"!"

"Shit! It was trap! Get ready!" – said the snake woman with two swords.

"No need." – said the male voice.

"?"

Suddenly, all the people that were just jumped out from the caravan as well as the caravan coach had dropped all of their weapons on the ground.

"???"

"We surrender. We just want to talk." – said ClownFrog.

"!"

"…"

"What are you playing at?" – asked the snake woman.

"Well, it depends. We want to use you and we will allow you to use us." – said ClownFrog.

"If you don't trust us. Look what is inside the caravan."

"?"

"…"

"Step back. And don't even think about picking up your weapons." – said the snake woman.

"Okay. Have it your way." – said ClownFrog.

The entire party moved away from the caravan while the female monsters kept their guard up.

One of the snake woman that was carrying two swords approached the caravan with caution and slowly looked what was inside of it.

"!"

"…"

"You…. What the heck is this?" – asked the snake woman.

"Well, food as you can see. If you are wondering if its poisoned, you can give us some and have us test it." – asked ClownFrog.

"…"

"You said you want to use us, what the heck do you mean by that?"

"Well, consider this as the bribe or something? We want to talk with your leader. If you still don't trust us, you can ties us up with something and blindfold us." – said ClownFrog.

"…."

The female monsters looked at each other with confusion, not knowing what to do in the current situation.

"…"

"What makes you think that we will allow you to meet our leader? We can just kill you and take the food."

"Pff. You wish. I can tell that you won't be able to carry all this stuff, so you need to use our carriage, however you probably won't be able to. You probably know the characteristics of the sand running lizards. The loyalty? You need one of us to drive the carriage the carriage if you want to get all the food in it.

So, you can either let us meet your leader and get all the food in here or you can kill us and only get some of it before somebody comes and find our carriage that was plundered by you and making it completely impossible for you to retrieve all of the food." – said ClownFrog.

"So, you want to risk it or not?"

"…."

"Okay. You win."

"!"

"But boss- "

"We need this food! I know the risk but its not like we have any choice!"

"But just so you know! Any funny business or anything and you are dead meat!" – said the snake woman with two swords.

"Don't worry. We need you, so we won't be trying anything." – replied ClownFrog.

The party boarded the caravan and began fallowing the group of lamias.

"…"

[Few hours ago.]

"You want us to pretend to be merchants?" – said GreyHunt.

"Yea. The lamias only go after the merchants, so if we pretend to be one then they may end up targeting us." – said ClownFrog.

"Hm… So, we have to buy a caravan and sand running lizard that will drag it? But you said that we maybe have to use all of our money. Do you want to buy something else?"

"Yeb. I want to buy food. Buy as much supplies as you can. The lamias must have the reason for targeting the merchants. It could be either food or equipment."

"However I think the lamias are after the food."

"Apparently the lamias were armed with the weapons, so they have already some weapons on them. If they have already some equipment, that only leaves the food."

"The lamias will definitely not trust strangers like us, so we have to bribe them with the food."

"However we need a lot of it and I mean like a lot. We have to bring enough food to the point where they cannot just take it and leave, we have to have enough food to the point where it would be impossible for them to carry everything. They will have to use us to ride the carriage with all the food to their hideout."

"The plan may seem good, but we will have to spend shit lot of money on the food if we want to succeed."

[Back to the present.]

(So far so good. We manage to meet the lamias as we planned, but we have yet to convince them to join us.) – though ClownFrog.

"Look sharp. We arrived." – said the lamia with two swords.

After fallowing the lamias for quiet long amount of time, the caravan accompanied by the lamias were slowly approaching the massive rock formation.

After a while, the caravan was finally got near the rock formation alongside the lamias.

"So, where do you want us to- "

Before Shri could finish speaking, a giant cobra monsters appeared out of nowhere and blocked the caravan path completely.

"!"

"Hold!" – shouted the female voice.

Shri looked up and saw on top of giant boulder a group of lamias with bows aimed straight at her.

"What is the meaning of this Alun?! Why did you bring somebody with you?! Explain your self immediately!" – shouted the lamia with short hair.

"!"

"Sis!"

"I didn't had a choice! This people carry so much food and there was no way we could carry it all by ourselves! We needed them to drive the carriage here!" – said the lamia with two swords.

"…"

"How much?" – asked the lamia with short hair.

"A lot. Enough to help out our people. However, in exchange for the food they want to talk with our leader. With so much food at the stake there was no possible way for me to refuse. I'm sorry but we both know how badly we need the food and they have a lot of it!" – said the lamia with two swords.

"…"

"For crying out loud. Fine! Jumu! Let them pass." – said the lamia with short hair.

The giant cobra monster that was blocking the path of the caravan suddenly moved away.

"Come. But if something happens, you will be held responsible." – said lamia with short hair.

"I know." – said the lamia with two swords.

The caravan finally entered the rock formation while now being accompanied by even bigger group of armed lamias that was keeping their guards up around the caravan.

The caravan traveled deeper and deeper into the lamia territory until the party unexpectedly found themselves in the hidden oasis that hidden inside the rock formation.

"Stop the caravan. Now." – said the lamia with two swords.

"?"

"What is it?"

"Alun came back, but there is also a caravan here?"

"Did she brough somebody here?! Is she crazy?!"

The lamias that were hiding in the hidden oasis began whispering among themselves as soon as the caravan alongside the armed lamias had arrived.

"What is the meaning of this?!" – shouted a female voice.

"!"

"Mother." – said the lamia with a short hair and the twin swords.

Some lamias began moving away, creating a path for a lamia with extremely long tail that had a unique golden and sand colored patterns.

"…"

"Alun. What is going on? Why did you bringed people here without my permission?!" – said lamia with long tail.

"Mother I- "

"She didn't had a choice." – said ClownFrog.

"!"

ClownFrog suddenly left the carriage and began walking to the lamia leader.

"Hold! Who are you?" – asked the lamia leader.

The lamias armed lamias suddenly pointed their weapons at the ClownFrog, not allowing him to take any closer to the lamia leader.

"Well, allow me to introduce myself."

"Greetings. My name is ClownFrog and I'm the guild leader of the Purple Hyena guild." – said ClownFrog while bowing his head.

"The people inside the caravan and the one driving it are my guild members."

"…"

"What do you want ClownFrog?" – asked the lamia leader.

"Well, I came here to talk with the lamias leader and I guess that is you."

"But first, a little gift."

"Guys! You can unload the stuff!"

The members of the Purple Hyena guild began unloading creates of the food from the caravan one by one.

"This is our gift per say. Each box has a food in it. It was the deal between me and that lamia over there. We give you this food and in exchange I get to talk to you."

"…"

"Is this true Alun?" – asked the lamia leader.

"Yes mother. I had no choice. There is way too much food and our people needs it. I know what I did was wrong, but I had no choice!" – said the lamia with two swords.

"…"

"You are not at fault my child. I don't know what his deal is, but considering out current situation, the risk was worth it. I would have done the same." – said the lamia leader.

"Now then, ClownFrog. Come. You earned your chance to talk with me. But you are coming alone."

ClownFrog fallowed the lamia leader along side the short haired lamia and two other armed lamias to the isolated spot.

"So, what do you want? You brough a lot of food so you could have a chance to talk with me?" – asked the lamia leader.

"Yeb. All this was to just meet you."

"…"

"Why?"

"Simple put. I want allies."

"…"

"You got to be joking right now?"

"Nope."

"And what makes you think we will become allies?"

The lamia leader took out a sword and put its blade right next to the ClownFrog neck.

"…"

"Arrianhi Umil."

"?"

"What did you just said?"

"I said Arrianhi Umil. We are planning on reviving the queen of the fallen kingdom of the Umil kingdom, queen Arrianhi Umil." – said ClownFrog.

"?!"

"Do you really- "

Before the lamia leader could finish speaking, ClownFrog took out the [Hearth Of The Forbitten Resurrection] from his inventory.

"?!"

"I have a tool that can help in her resurrection and I have documents and research that tells where to find the queen."

"Do I still look like I'm joking to you?" – asked ClownFrog with serious voice.

"…"

"Why do you want to resurrect her?" – asked the lamia leader.

"Well, I want to destroy this entire kingdom and revive the kingdom the Umil. I'm kind of helping the person that was wronged to take their revenge beyond the death." – said ClownFrog.

"Let me get some things straight right now."

"Me and my guild members are planning to revive the queen."

"However, even if we do revive her, we do not have army or anything. We need allies. We need to build an army."

"I know that the lamias living in this lands once served the Arrianhi Umil alongside harpies and sobeks."

"We will are planning on trying to recruit them to our side so once the queen will be resurrected, there will be a revolution."

"We are also planning on helping the people of the Umil kingdom that were turned into slaves of the Adernul kingdom."

"As of right now, you are the first group we had approached. However, before we came here, we manage to recruit the minotaurs tribe of the Crushing Hooves tribe to join our side. Their current chieftain has sworn to aid us in our battle against the Adernul kingdom when the war breaks out."

"!"

(He manage to convince the minotaurs to join him?!)

"…"

"However, as of right now there is a big problem. You are in danger. And I mean like a serious one." – said ClownFrog.

"!"

"What do you mean?" – asked the lamia leader.

"We are the adventures. Right, we are probably the only adventures here, however sooner or later different adventures will come and their numbers would keep increasing as the time goes by."

"In the adventurer guild there is currently a quest about hunting the lamias. The adventures that would took that quest will look for you"

"They will come. They will look around. And when one of them will find you, all of them will come straight at you."

"I want you to be our allies in the upcoming war, but I cannot have you dying before the war even begins. You need to run away while you still have the time."

"…"

"…"

"Hm…."

"This…. Is a lot to take it."

"Honestly… I don't know how to answer that."

"My grandmother used to serve the queen Arrianhi Umil, but us? Our generation? We never meet her or anything. We did heard the story of how kind and carrying she was to our race and how our tribe had fallowed her loyally."

"But now? I don't know."

"I know the stories that she was powerful enough to dominate the entire war back then before then getting stabbed by the cursed sword."

"Let's say that everything you said is true. You have the way to resurrect the Arrianhi Umil. You have recruited the minotaurs and that you are planning on recruiting the old servants of the Umil kingdom."

"Let's say we agree, but then what? You said that we need to run away before the adventures comes and find out about our hideout."

"But we cannot do anything right now. We don't know where we can run off to nor we know how much supplies we would use on our travels."

"We are just straight up stuck here."

"Hm…"

"Then this isn't good at all." – said ClownFrog.

(Honestly, there is no way we can abandon them, since we need all the help we can get. There was many lamias in here and I mean a lot. Losing them would hinder out plan greatly.)

(We cannot lose them no matter what.)

"It can't be helped. We will try to help you out. If we lose you then it will hinder our plan massively."

"However! If we do manage to help you, I want you to promise to help in the upcoming war against the Adernul kingdom." – said ClownFrog.

"…Why?"

"?"

"Why are you so willing to help us?" – asked the lamia leader.

"Well, we need all the help we can get in our current situation."

"We need your assistance in the war and you need our help in helping your people."

"I'm going be honest with you. I'm an asshole."

"However, we both need each other. So, I'm offering a fair deal with no string attached."

"If you agree we will help you."

"However if you say no, then we will leave you and won't help you at all, however we shall not disclose the information about your hideout."

"…"

"So, with that being said, do we have a deal?" – asked ClownFrog while extending his hand to the lamia leader.

"…"

"I…"

"…"

"Okay. I understand."

"!"

"Mother?!" – said the shocked lamia with short hair.

"I know! I know my daughter… But do we really have any choice?"

"I don't know if you will succeed in resurrecting the queen or not, but at least I want to have my people at least having a chance of surviving."

"You have your deal."

"I Amoloi Abni, the current leader of the lamia tribe of the Sand Cobra tribe, promises you to aid you and the queen Arrianhi Umil if you succeed in helping my people."

The lamia leader Amoloi Abni and ClownFrog had shaken hands as the sight of the agreement.

[The quest has been generated.]

[Rescue the Sand Cobra tribe.]

[Quest Rank: ???]

[The leader of the lamia tribe Amoloi Abni has placed her trust in you and your companions.]

[You have warned the leader of the Sand Cobra tribe about upcoming danger and had offered your assistance in finding a new safe place where lamias can hide safely.]

[Find a suitable place for the lamia tribe of the Sand Cobra tribe to hide and provide them with necessary supplies for the travel.]

[Failure condition: Death of the Amoloi Abni / Destruction of the Sand Cobra tribe.]

[Reward: Sand Cobra tribe shall assist you in the war / Favorability with the entire Sand Cobra tribe / Bonus rewards – depends.]