Hero's Dagger

Chapter 6: Preparations For The First Wave

Venom Swamp

So yeah my week has been pretty good if you mean by me running around fighting monsters and avoiding people who want me dead because of the lies the king spread about me then yeah it's been pretty good. I haven't gotten any new daggers or powers lately mostly just increasing my level and the strengths of all my powers. I had heard a rumour that Naofumi had managed to find someone to join his party and help him level up. I thought that it was good for Naofumi to have some help however I did hear the person who joined his party was a little on the young side.

Right now I was in a place called the venom swamp. Why was I here well I had managed to take a job with the rogue's guild. You see I had previously tried to get a job with the heroes guild but they wouldn't take me due to the rumors about me and what I apparently do to vulnerable women. The rogue's guild didn't care about that their guild was founded by the first dagger hero. So that was a plus they said that for my first mission I could kill a phage viper that had been coming out of the swamp and killing traveling merchants.

The job seemed easy enough I don't think anything could be as hard as fighting the rock gozer. The venom swamp isn't as bad as the name sounds the only thing to watch out for is the snakes, spiders, scorpions and the other venomous creatures that call this place home. There wasn't as a lot of trees here the ones that were here were dead. Water was everywhere it would create large puddles on the pathways. There was a low fog in the swamp making it hard to see in front of me.

Thanks to the dagger I got from the rock gozer had gained the ability to feel the vibrations in the earth allowing me to see around me. It made traversing through the swamp easier then it would be without it.

Small Time Skip

After awhile of traveling through the swamp I came to a large clearing without any fog. I decided to take a small break before I went back into the fog looking for a giant snake monster. I had drank all the water in my canteen I had thought about drinking from the swamp but I knew better than that. Who knows what would jump out and bite me or how acidic the water was. Sometimes I wish I had water magic so I would never be able to run out of water.

I found a rock to sit down on after being in the crawling forest I made sure the rock wasn't a trap. I checked to see if it would come to life, if it had any creatures under it or around it and if it was safe to sit on. After I was reassured that the rock was safe I sat down on it.

While I was sitting I checked to see the time for when the first wave would appear. I didn't have much longer to get ready for the wave maybe about a week or so. I hoped I was strong enough to fight through it. Knowing that I was the only one out of the five heroes to not have anyone in my party was strange. I had wanted us to all be a team and since we couldn't I had hoped we all would have a team. I guess after what happened I began to trust people less.

While I was in thought I failed to notice the water falling on my shoulder. I wiped it off thinking nothing of it. That's when it hit me it wasn't raining and I wasn't under a tree. I slowly looked up and saw what was actually drooling on me. It was the phage viper. The viper had a long black body with yellowish green spines next to it's head and a green tail.