Liberty checked the entire village and went through the entire thing five times over, every single house was empty and almost all of them had been looted. There was no blood or even corpses, which implies they were taken at some point rather than killed.

  Something was wrong with the village, and it is clear that what caused the flooding in the first place wasn't just a bunch of rats that built dams that collected river water, otherwise, people wouldn't go missing.

  What would do something like this? And it wouldn't just be bandits, as they are rare near cities due to the Cleaners taking their presence very, very seriously.

  So that means whatever attacked this place must be a monster, 'or a group of monsters.'

  Liberty managed to find a patch of dry land that hasn't been influenced by the constant rain brought on by the steam coming from the city and noticed footprints. Who would have thought that her lesson with Siohel would come around this quickly?

  She didn't, but she's glad that it happened anyway, with the footprints serving as a clue, Liberty now had an idea of what came here and where they could be.

  'Webbed feet, long toes, and a thin ankle.' Unless there are goblins out there that liked to wear frog legs as shoes, the only suspects would be a water based group of creatures that are organized enough to raid and pillage an entire village. 'All while messing with the environment to weaken them beforehand.'

  It isn't a sign of intelligence technically but this kind of strategy is present in almost all creatures with a bit of sapience to them, so while they aren't on the same level as humans, they are definitely capable of thinking.

  'I need to be careful.' Liberty thought as she followed the tracks, which took her to the river side and it ended from there. 'The webbed feet were more than a clue that they were river based creatures honestly. But humans can't really breathe underwater?'

  She checked the river bank for blood and there's no sign of it, it can be argued however that it got washed away over time but that still doesn't explain why no gore was present in the houses.

  'Did they ritualistically kill their victims in the river or something?' What kind of creature even does that? 'This is getting concerning.'

  Liberty chose to believe that the villagers must still be alive so she held hope and continued searching, when no signs of human or monster presence came up, she stopped and thought things through.

  'So I'm a water-based species who lives in a river, which has running water. If I was them, where would I be?' Normally, it would be somewhere up stream but she did remember a detail related to the attack. 'The river water rose and that's why the villagers complained, and while I like to believe that the monsters used the stability as an opportunity to attack, I prefer to think that they're raising Dreggies as livestock.'

  Goblins have wolves so it isn't strange to think other intelligent monsters wouldn't have something similar.

  Which means that with their pets, they should have been able to flood the river and then use that as an opportunity to actually attack while the villagers are down and completely defenseless.

  And so, it means that the direction where the monsters came from technically would be where the water is running to. 'And it has slowed down.' Liberty noted as she looked at the flowing river. 'Something this big would have a lot of flowing water in it.'

  But the current isn't that strong, which is weird even without the context of the rats that knew how to build dams. She decided that this was enough proof and immediately headed for the direction of the following water.

  Liberty was, of course, very cautious when walking along the river bank, she kept an eye out for anything that might be suspicious as she continued down stream, the strange silence and slight fog that's forming over the water made things eerie.

  She huffed, the breath came out as mist. 'Does gathering water make things cold or something?' Liberty shuddered involuntarily. 'I really hate this.'

  The cold, not the context of her needing to hunt monsters. Or the fact that she's apparently searching for a bunch of intelligent fish that can walk on land right now. Actually, everything about this whole thing just feels wrong, like she was somehow walking into something she wouldn't be able to escape from.

  But she can escape it... No, she will.

  She will come out of this whole experience alive and be better off for it, she's gonna earn more Stappe and then win, simple as that.

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  Eventually, her nose catches the scent of something slimey, she found a crevice to hide in and waited. When nothing came, she got sent back out into the river to check what was going on, her feet carried her further down stream where she found some kind of slime clinging to the rocks.

  She touched it with her gloved hand and checked its consistency, 'River slime?' So that means that these things don't just raise rats as cattle, but also slime. 'Make sense they'd want to keep some of these, does it help them breathe while on land or something?'

  It would be interesting if they do, and there's a decent chance that this might actually be the case as well. She kept going, following the water even further, eventually getting her to hear some sort of sound.

  It is barely coherent and sounds like something that would come from someone's mouth while they're brushing their teeth. Having a primitive language wasn't all that strange for sapient creatures, though these ones seem to speak some kind of gibberish, Liberty didn't understand but made sense to their tiny minds.

  'It's also a sign that I'm close.' Also, these things just don't stop talking, they are very loud and very annoying. 'How do they stand each other? Seriously?'

  If she ever had to deal with this much talking on a daily basis, Liberty would genuinely lose her mind. It'd be even worse than when she was in captivity... Okay, maybe not that last part, but it is definitely annoying.

  She was frowning as she moved closer to the home of the monsters, and the noise just got worse with each step. 'Okay, I'm starting to think they aren't just having casual conversation with each other.'

  But what can they be doing that requires this much noise?..

  'A ritual?' Dread pools in Liberty's stomach and the thought crossed her mind.

  She stopped herself from rushing in and took a slow, deep breath that cooled her head for long enough to let her come up with something. It was stupid of her to try and stop a ritual when there're literally countless monsters waiting for her inside of it.

  Still, how does she fight an entire group of monsters?

  'I can run but before that...' Liberty decided to check what the ritual was about, she had some idea as to how it works on account that white magic consists of a lot of rituals anyway so there's a good chance that she might recognize what was being done here.

  She moves around the river while using the noise as the basis for where to go, soon enough, she's able to find a spot that's just perfect for her to spy in.

  There's a bit of elevation overlooking a good portion of the river and climbing that just so happens to have a perfectly good view of the monsters.

  And they are actual fish people: they're short, stocky with a bulging belly, their skin was leathery, similar to that of a shark, their coloration is a dark gray, and their limbs were long and thin, completely the opposite of their bodies. Interestingly enough, it's like they didn't build any kind of fat on their limbs.

  There are fish people who looked different from the rest, these ones are taller and thinner than the rest of their kin, they have strange markings on their bodies that hinted they're some kind of shaman and the staff they're carrying is an even bigger proof of this.

  All the other fish people surrounded them in a wide circle, chanting in a language Liberty didn't understand but now she knows they were repeating the same words over and over again.

  Next to the shaman is a giant rock with several bowls surrounding it, and tied to that rock were... Humans. Most were unconscious, the few that were awake had their eyes glazed over, like they had given up in life or were utterly broken by what these things did to them while captured.

  Liberty's heart clenched, she wanted to help them. Really help them. But a bigger part of her, the rational part, told her to run away and prepare, that she cannot fight this many monsters all at once.

  She didn't listen to this caution and got ready to attack.

  ... Well, not yet. But soon.

  First she needed to poison all of these things. No harm should come to other humans if she does this as one, the river is going down stream so it can't go back up to Valdrosen and two, there's no local village or town in this part of the river.

  Doing this is the best option she has in beating the fish people and rescuing the humans, which really should be her priority here.

  Liberty left to mix the poison after she mapped out the surrounding area. The poison she's making is technically very simple and yet is effective for things like fresh water fish, and the best part is, it's basically everywhere.

  Chlorine was discovered by some lucky alchemist in the past and after realizing that it can be used to clean stuff, was sold as a toothpaste and shampoo a good while. And when people connected chlorine to a sudden surge of corpses, its production stopped... For a good while.

  The rich also like to clean, and so, with how effective chlorine is, they decided that it shouldn't be taken off the market and so, after only a week of being banned, chlorine was back in circulation again.

  But enough about the backstory of this thing, the important thing is that this thing is poisonous to fish.

  'With the amount that I have though, it wouldn't be that effective.' So she needs to find the place where these things eat or drink, and hope for the best. 'They should be able to notice the scent but maybe if I find a way to hide it...'

  Liberty went into the camp knowing that all of the monsters are currently too busy with the ritual, she went around searching for anything that might be useful and eventually found a giant pile of rotting meat, fish, and vegetables. With how unhygienic this whole thing is, Liberty was considering just waiting things out.

  'Seriously, it's a literal miracle why none of the fish people are sick.' Maybe they had tougher biology than humans or maybe their stomach acid was strong enough to ignore rot, like how vultures have the same adaptation. Or something similar.

  Liberty didn't care how they worked either way, she was gonna introduce poison to their food pile and the smell should be able to hide the tough, almost painful scent from chlorine.

  She popped the cap and poured it into the food pile, then, with great reluctance and a lot of gagging, she started mixing it with her hand. Liberty was sure that if she had a mirror, her face would be the color green.

  'Why are some parts of this thing so soft?' It's taking everything not to leave and abandon her mission, she wanted to tell the guild about the monsters so that they can take care of it. 'Mobilizing an army would be more effective here damn it!'

  But she can't just abandon those people.