Chapter 8 New nitwits.

[Pov change: Gustav Yorish, Level 25 Scout, Scout of the Expedition]

This island is a right mess, if the overleveled monsters weren't such a problem you would think it would be fine, that was my thought until I got here.

It turns out the monsters are so overleveled for a reason, the Environment is actively hostile, so the residents had to adapt or die.

In that bloody swamp alone the amount of hidden pools of mud which can just swallow you whole is ludicrous, It wouldn't be so bad if the greenery here didn't have the trait to just grow on the surface of both solid ground and the bloody mud pits making them indistinguishable from solid and liquid.

Then there are the gasses present, luckily their visible but due to both their poisonous and Flammable properties make touching either highly dangerous especially with the monsters around.

The monsters in this Swamp can be described as simply annoying, not annoying in that they are irritating but annoying in that they are magically immune to Nature(poison) while having a critical weakness to Elemental fire, they have that weakness due to being the source of the Flammable gasses.

It's like they're mocking you to just use their weakness against them before blowing both itself and everyone around it to the next world.

Luckily me and my lads don't rely on Elemental Fire and were not suicidal, so outside of having to snipe the buggers from range and having to watch our steps, we reached the dungeon mouth.

Being able to rest In a Know safe space is highly appreciated after that Hike, luckily, we didn't lose anyone. 

"Now that we are here and we have cached our breath, do you think we should go back and report the dungeon or should we have a look around." Lewis the party's warrior says from under a rag which he used to cover his mouth.

Each of us eye each other and easily see the greed in each other's eyes, without a word we get up and turn towards the dungeon. 

The Sand-floored room we are in has 3 paths including the entrance so we have some choice of movement, but I can see one of the paths leads directly to another room, and the other leads down a hallway.

I peer into the other room from the edge of the passage the rest of my squad stays silent waiting for me to determine the danger present.

The room itself seems empty but with my keen senses I can tell there are slight tremors in the sand floor indicating movement, taking a caltrop from my pouch I throw it lightly into the room away from the floor.

I hear a slight poof as the caltrop hits the sand then the sound of something burrowing to check the caltrop.

What appears from the ground is a pair of grey pincers-like claws and a pair of eyestalks attached to a small mask-like head. Seeing the appearance of the creature I'm able to use one of my scout skills to analyse it.

[Level 3 Anorith, Elemental(Rock)/Body enhancement(Bug) Pro: fast, Con: Brittle]

To be honest when I analysed the monster some information it presented even as weak as my analysis skill was ground-breaking.

First, never heard of an Anorith before so maybe a new species.

Secondly, it's on the first floor of a dungeon but has more than one magical category, it's a fact in most research circles that category cross-contamination is unheard of at such low levels, it only occurs past level 45.

Lastly, it's common knowledge that dungeons have a theme for the monster set-up, they get more variety when they grow but the idea that a new dungeon has a monster with multiple magic categories signals the dungeon is not normal in the slightest. 

I return around the corner and whisper some details to my squad, the rest of them take the information with less impact since some of these details are only common in recon classes which have access to analysis, but a monster with a magical category regardless is more dangerous than a basic monster, Still, the level difference is still 20+ so they should be easy to take down.

My squad form up and we charge into the room, upon our entry the small grey monster turns in the sand towards us and lets out a weird cry of 'Ano!' it goes to buy itself into the sand, but I nail it with a bolt from my wrist-mounted Crossbow.

The bolt breaks through its exoskeleton killing it instantly, upon its death the ground in the room also rumbles as 3 sources of burrowing are heard.

We take a defensive formation as I reload my crossbow, for a moment we wait, and our patience is rewarded as the three monsters make their appearance jumping from the sand floor around us and bearing their claws.

I'm not worried about them attacking and ready to pincushion another one, now you might be curious why I'm not worried and that's because Lewis the warrior is with us.

Lewis is an uncommon warrior for he was born with an affinity for Shadow magic, where it's common for warriors to learn basic or maybe elemental affinities, one bonus Lewis has over other warriors though is he can do something they can't, but for weaklings like these he just needs to use basic warrior skills.

Lewis in the middle of our formation smirks before Snapping his finger under his shield, this sends out an aura of grey energy which latches onto the three monsters in mid-air who were after me and my other teammates, they go to attack us, but all can't swing at us for some reason.

 In their confusion us three who aren't affected by the taunting effect from Lewis, strike at the Anorith in front of us.

Their brittle shells don't save them and each of them are killed in various ways, one with a bolt, one beaten by a Wooden staff and the last by a bolt of lightning.

We wait for any more monsters, but I don't sense any so we're clear, I signal as much to the others but when we let our guard down something hits us.

From the remains of one of the monsters, a delicious aroma is smelt, the one that was hit with the lightning smells simply divine.

We all look at each other, and they look at me, I approach it and use one of my skills on it, [Detect poison], in my mind it comes back with a negative for poison, so I simply grab it and look it over to find the meat of the creature.

Upon inspection it becomes apparent its whole form is covered in Exoskeleton, so I remember the Analysis and simply break some of the brittle parts to get inside like a Shrimp, I get access to the meat where I do another [detect poison] which forms the same result.

I rip off one of its fins to find that each has a portion of meat inside it, so I hand my party one each and we start to consume the meat at the same time.

It tastes like Shrimp but with a slightly earthy and smoky aftertaste probably from the lightning, all in all, a great snack after that fucking Swamp.