After Croakatoa obediently shrank back into the corner and stopped talking, the people in the conch house finally got down to business.
"Since you mentioned the dry-skinned who attacked us, you must know something, right?" The frogman elder stared at Vela with bulging eyes.
"The humans who attacked you are bandits from the Society of the Secret Eye. They've discovered a relatively safe sea route, and so intend to take this tidal flat for their own use, turning it into a port for their smuggling activities in the Western Continent."
Since it wasn't anything important, Vela told the frogman the identity of the enemy to show her sincerity. "We are adventurers from a small town outside the Valley of the Tragic Dead, and coincidentally have some history with the Society of the Secret Eye, so we can help you fight against them."
"That's not how you dry-skinned do things."
The frogman elder didn't rush to agree or reject. He seemed to understand the nature of humans quite well, and didn't believe that Vela and the others would put their lives on the line just because of some 'history' and help them fight against their own kind.
Indeed, in this era where people didn't have much wisdom, humans who could see the big picture were few and far between. They only cared about their own immediate benefits, which was why many demi-humans had the impression that humans were a 'selfish and greedy' race.
After all, this was a world guided by the gods. Aside from the gods who were outside of the Three Realms and the Five Elements, the religious leaders at the top of the pyramid, as well as the royalty of the various kingdoms and empires, all of them didn't want the people below them to have any strange thoughts that would affect their rule. Naturally, they would work together to make the people ignorant, and further shut off the wisdom of the people.
This was why even though this world had supernatural powers such as magic, and had much better conditions for civilization compared to Earth, they were still stuck in this era of ignorance after so many years of development.
Just as Vela was thinking about how to convince them with words, Joe, who had been sitting cross-legged until his legs were a little numb, yelled in dissatisfaction. "Stop with the useless stuff, just tell us what we have to do to make you believe us! Do you want to die or not!"
"Hmph, cowardly dry-skinned like you want to die …" Croakatoa, who was hiding in a corner and using a conch spear to trim his feet, snorted.
Joe was displeased by the frogman's words. He jumped up abruptly, ignoring the seaweed tied to his hands, and snatched away Croakatoa's spear.
Croakatoa's face turned green in fear, afraid that Joe would hurt the Grand Elder, so it immediately stood in front of the Grand Elder.
In the end, Charle did not attack Croakatoa or the Grand Elder. Instead, he pierced his own chest with his spear, cursing as he spat out blood, "Isn't it just death? I'll die right here and now!"
After he finished speaking, he pulled out his spear, and blood immediately gushed out from the wound, splattering all over the ground. It looked extremely bloody, and the two frogmen next to him were stunned.
Not to mention the young Croakatoa, even the Great Elder, who had lived for a long time and had a lot of experience, was stunned. Since when did humans become such a fierce race?
They waited for a long time, only to find that Joe was still alive and kicking, and even the wound on his chest didn't seem that obvious anymore.
"F * ck, my HP is too high. I can't believe I didn't kill myself …" Charle realized the reason. Even though he had almost pierced through his heart, which would have been a fatal blow to an ordinary person, he was protected by the game system as a player. Even though it was a critical hit, he still had a lot of HP left.
Therefore, he could only curse as the two frogmen stared at him blankly. This time, his spear pierced through his throat. It was a gruesome scene.
"Damn it, I can finally die …"
With that, Charle passed away with a serene smile on his face.
At that moment, the entire conch house was shrouded in an eerie silence.
The players and the frogmen looked at each other.
"Pfft."
Gou Dan finally couldn't hold back his laughter, but he reacted quickly and pretended to look around at the scenery as if nothing had happened. It was a pity that there was nothing to see in the conch house.
Croakatoa looked at Gou Dan, thinking that he must have owed the dry-skinned man a lot of salted fish, or else he wouldn't be laughing after his comrade had died.
Although he suspected that the dry-skinned man had faked his death to trick them, Joe's chest and throat did have two large wounds that couldn't be faked. His heartbeat and breathing had also completely disappeared, so he should really be dead. But Croakatoa still felt that something was wrong …
"Alright, you've seen our sincerity."
Seeing how hard Gou Dan and the others were trying to hold back their laughter, Vela was afraid that they would be exposed, so she quickly said to the frogmen elder, "Let's talk about how we can work together."
"Uh, aren't you going to deal with your comrade's corpse first?" The frogmen elder asked, a little confused.
But he seemed to have already agreed to work with the players — after all, Joe had been so resolute, and he was afraid that if he hesitated for even a moment longer, more humans would die here. The frogmen were already having a hard time dealing with the enemies of the Society of the Secret Eye, and if they were to fight against these self-proclaimed adventurers who wouldn't even blink when they cut off their own eyes, the frogmen village would probably be wiped out in just a few days …
"Oh, about that …" Vela was also hesitant about how to deal with Joe's corpse.
She couldn't possibly say that the players' corpses would naturally disappear after a day had passed, could she?
"Why don't you remove the kelp and we'll drag him out?" Edward suggested.
Actually, it wouldn't be a problem for the frogmen to come in and drag the corpse away, but Edward wanted to test how willing the frogmen were to work with them, and also … he really couldn't hold back his laughter.
Croakatoa looked at the elder hesitantly, and the latter thought for a moment before slowly nodding.
And so, Croakatoa picked up the spear that Joe had used to kill himself, and cut the kelp that bound the players' wrists, loosening them.
Edward and the others obediently dragged Joe's corpse out of the conch room under Croakatoa's watchful eyes. Only Vela remained in the room, preparing to discuss the details of their cooperation with the elder.
The frogmen outside saw that Croakatoa was beside the players, so they didn't question what Edward and the others were doing.
When Croakatoa returned to the conch room, Edward and Gou Dan couldn't hold back their laughter anymore.
"Pfft, Joe, that idiot … I almost died from holding it in!"
"Don't joke around, at least he used his own life to pave the way for our cooperation … Hahaha, sorry, I can't continue, it's too funny …"
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