"Gentlen and ladies, I have news. There will be no fight against the hippos today. They have a herd wide unified water barrier, so unless we can overco a thousand of them at once, we won't be able to even get through it to harm them.
However, they no longer appear to be a major threat.
They tore up hundreds of square kilotres of grassland looking for water, but now that they're at the river, their innate magic is making the plants grow back faster than they're being eaten.
As long as they don't get it in their heads to start attacking at random, they shouldn't be a major threat.
However, I would write this territory off as theirs.
It doesn't look heavily populated, and I don't see any signs of nearby cities, but soone should warn the King that they're here, and they're not easily injured." "Like Lightning Cerro?" One of the dragons asked.
"If they could combine their lightning barriers into one huge barrier, yes."
The dragons shared concerned looks. That did not sound like a normal sort of ability, so they had to be so sort of defensive herd animal from the Immortal Realm.
Native to the Immortal Realm, that was.
"Wait, we have a potential beast ranger with us. Do you think..." One of the cooks asked.
"Only if they're Totem Rank or higher, because even the babies are Mythic.
Powerfully adorable. We had to physically remove Lotus from her chosen friend."
The cook sighed. An invulnerable hippo would have been a perfect companion animal, but it was too strong to be bonded, as the power difference would tear the ranger's mind apart.
That had been proven with so of the beast rangers in the first test group, when the university was doing the tests with lightning Cerro.
Prince Nathan laughed at Lotus and Button, who were still playing in the water.
"I can see how it would be hard to separate her from a baby hippo. I take it that they're not innately aggressive?"
"Not if they don't feel threatened, but they can also understand common. So, while they can't answer, they can pretty accurately gauge your intentions, and they're intelligent."
"That is wonderful news. They will control the other monsters, then. Which side of the cities are we on? You said they moved." Prince Nathan asked.
"Northwest of where we thought they were. I don't know the na of this river, but it's a good-sized one."
The Prince nodded. "Alright, I have a good idea. I will send a System ssage ho so they know not to co picking fights with the hippos. The green dragons will be very sad."
Karl smiled. "If they have animal affinity skills, there's no reason that the green dragons have to stay away. Lotus has a skill for it, and they didn't attack her. But they also didn't attack , and I have no formal skill for it.
I do have an affinity for beasts, but not a skill like Lotus has."
"Alright, I have notified the King that the situation is under control. I have also warned him about potential downfalls of breaking the balance, or about letting too many green dragons co to see them all at the sa ti."
"See, I knew that you would figure it out.
The question is: What do we do now?
The situation here isn't sothing that brute force can handle, and I suspect that the Immortals might have just dumped them on us, hoping that they caused more chaos than they did.
If they had turned towards the cities on their way to damper climates, they just might have caused mass casualties, but for now, they've caused a year or two of ruined crops."
The dragons silently considered the options, and decided that it really was the best possible outco. The hippos were powerful, but they weren't much of a nace if they were just going to take over a river valley.
If they spread, soone could find a way to deal with them later.
Definitely not an urgent issue.
"We could go to Gathiz? They've got a minor river monster issue, and Crocolisks, and a huge market, if you're looking to befriend the locals for the Darklight Host.
It's right on the border of Kharb and Zindab, southeast of here, about three hundred kilotres.
We could take a day or two to go fishing and clean up so of the Croc infestation, perhaps restock your items?
You have to be running low by now, right?" One of the Shadow Dragons
suggested.
Karl nodded. "Indeed. I made so, but I'm still low on supplies. We could use a few days to just make more gear. How is the power level in Gathiz?"
"It's a Mythic Rank fishing resort town. They have two aquatic dungeons that you need a boat to enter. Fortunately, the entrance is on the river, so it's fairly
obvious you'll need one."
[Fish? We can hunt fish.] Hawk suggested.
[That sounds tasty.] Tian agreed.
"Do you think that hippos like fish?" Lotus asked.
"I think that they mostly eat plants. But I'm not a hippo expert."
Ophelia wrapped her arms around the soaking wet Priestess, who had just
walked out of the lake.
"We're keeping you in here. No more harassing the baby hippos, you're stressing their mother out."
"But... so cute."
Karl realized that there was an actual reason that the Green Dragon didn't let her Priestesses move into the Ranger type classes, despite there being actual class options he had seen that blended Cleric and Ranger type skills. Bonding to one beast ant that you didn't get to cuddle all the others.
That would just never do for a Green Dragon Cleric.
Rae agreed. The first day that she had t Lotus, the little Priestess wanted to go play in the woods, a suicidally enthusiastic idea if she had been a regular Bloodbath Spider.
It was moderately surprising that there were any of them left alive, actually.
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