In this chapter, an angry mob is going to kick Trode out of town. It appears that they don't take too kindly to strangers...especially strangers that are basically trolls. Also, it turns out a citizen of Farebury has been murdered. Oh dear...not too pretty, is it?

Suffice to say, King Trode is not going to visit towns anytime soon. He didn't want people staring at him in the face.

Afterwards, a certain citizen of Farebury is going to ask them for help. Of course, they're going to have to go inside a dungeon in order to do it. Fortunately, since it's only the first dungeon it shouldn't be too much of a hassle...at least by comparison. Dragon Quest VIII isn't the easiest game in the world.

Chapter 2: Get The Crystal Ball

Stopping by the pub, Draco noticed that there appeared to be a fortune teller at the tavern. Personally he was a bit curious what he was doing in a place like this. Perhaps fortune telling had gotten stressful for him so he decided to have a few drinks?

Apparently, Yangus was enjoying the company of the bunny girls...though admittedly he looked like more a thug than a dreamboat. Yangus had told him that he was part of Pickham, after all. Pickham was full of outlaws, after all. Even some of the monsters outside had gotten into it, it seemed. They were wearing hoods over their faces like they were executioners or something.

Immediately, Draco decided to talk to the fortune teller. Apparently, his name was Kalderasha. He got the feeling that he was rather popular around Farebury. Of course, up until now the NPCs he had been encountering didn't even have names. It must be a hard life being a generic NPC. At least the shopkeepers were rather useful for him. He wasn't going to get very far without getting better equipment.

"I can't believe it...Master Rylus is dead...he just died last night..." noted Kalderasha. Apparently, somebody had tossed a fireball at his house and now he was dead. Completely and utterly dead. They couldn't even salvage his body so that they could resurrect him at the church. It was rather unfortunate.

"I know..." nodded the bartender. He heard that Master Rylus was so powerful too. Not as powerful as his former pupil, it seemed.

At this point, Draco realized that it may be in their best interest to try to get that staff away from Dhoulmagus. Just what kind of staff was it? King Trode hadn't really given him many details.

Draco sighed. King Trode was hoping to ask Master Rylus where he might have gone. Speaking of which, where was he now? He had kind of lost track of him.

"You sure you don't want to go back in the fortune teller business?" asked the bartender.

"Even with my powers, I couldn't save my poor Valentina's parents..." stated Kalderasha. It was one great failure for him.

Curious, Draco noticed that the sun had gone down outside the window. Time sure went by fast these days. Perhaps it would be best if he didn't go outside at night where all the ferocious monsters were.

Suddenly, a citizen entered the tavern. Judging from the expression on his face and the paleness of his skin, he was completely terrified out of his wits.

"What's the matter?" asked Draco. It looked like had seen a ghost...for some strange reason they liked to wear wizard hats.

"There's a monster in town!" exclaimed the man.

"What?!" exclaimed Yangus. For some strange reason they never seemed to get past the enormous gate.

Perhaps they needed to restock on holy water so that they could keep the monsters away.

Immediately, Draco and Yangus went outside to investigate. It was a good thing that they still had their weapons and armor.

But as it turned out, it was only King Trode. An angry mob had gathered outside and were throwing rotten tomatoes at him.

"Get out of here!" exclaimed a peasant. Unfortunately, monsters were not welcome in Farebury...even if they did use to be human.

"How dare you!" bellowed King Trode. That was no way to treat a king.

"I did warn him that treating people beneath him wasn't such a good idea..." acknowledged Draco.

Fortunately, it appeared that Medea was trying to protect her unfortunate father.

"That's it, I'm out of here!" exclaimed King Trode, leaving through the gate. It appeared that it wasn't such a good idea to go out in public in his current condition. At least Medea had things easier.

Immediately, Draco and Yangus went to follow him.

"Well, there's no way I'm going back in there..." stated the king. It appeared that the townsfolk didn't like him much...perhaps he had been raising their taxes and now they were upset about it.

Medea nodded. She worried about her father sometimes...especially now he had fallen victim to a particularly powerful polymorph spell.

"Excuse me..." said a voice.

"Huh?" asked Draco.

Curious, Draco looked around, and gasped in horror. There was Yangus, picking his nose!

No wait...that wasn't what he was looking for.

Immediately, he turned around to where the voice was.

Apparently, he had attracted the attention of a teenage girl.

"Can you help me? I dreamt about you..." said Valentina.

Curious, Draco wondered if he happened to have a fangirl.

"You dreamt about me?" asked Draco.

"Yes...I heard that you could make wishes come true..." stated Valentina.

"OK...now I think you're being a bit lecherous..." noted the hero.

"Not like that! I was just wondering if you could get a crystal ball for me...my father threw it away, and I would really appreciate it if you brought it back. That way my father could start making more accurate predictions..." explained the girl.

"What do you think?" stated Draco.

"Yes! We should help her! Though admittedly I do want to get back to hunting down Dhoulmagus..." acknowledged Trode.

"I suppose that makes sense..." answered the hero. Perhaps Kalderasha could help track him down if they got his crystal ball back.

Fortunately, Valentina allowed them to rest at her house. From there it was a simple matter of searching for the Waterfall Cave.

Of course, since they were outside of town...it was only a matter of time before they started having random encounters.

"Finally...I was sick of being level one..." noted Draco.

Sure enough, several slimes showed up. But they were not alone.

As it turned out, there was also a Candy Cat...who unfortunately did not want to share his candy.

"It's mine!" exclaimed the Candy Cat.

Draco sighed. He was hoping for candy too.

After that random encounter, they noticed that there appeared to be a hut out in the distance.

Unfortunately, that meant encountering more monsters. Draco screamed as a Lips tried to make out with him.

"I already have a girlfriend!" bellowed Draco.

"Aww..." complained the Lips. There just weren't many single adventurers these day.

This was then followed by a Satyr forcing him to listen to horrible music.

"Make it stop!" demanded Yangus as he covered his ears. This was painful.

"I make Justin Bieber look awesome!" exclaimed the Satyr.

And for some strange reason a Capsichum attacking them as well. He was starting to realize why King Trode wanted him to eat his vegetables.

"Eat us!" exclaimed the Capsichum twins.

"But I'm a carnivore..." complained Yangus.

Last but not least, they encountered a Bunicorn. Who would have thought that bunny rabbits would be after them? Well, whatever got them experience and gold, he supposed.

"Am I am a bunny or a unicorn?" asked the Bunicorn.

"I'm not sure..." answered Draco. Strangely, they appeared to be carnivorous.

"Are you alright, Draco?" asked King Trode.

"Yeah...so far the monsters have been easy peasy...I get the feeling that things aren't going to be always like this though..." noted the hero. Chances are things were going to get harder.

Eventually, they managed to reach the hut. They had no idea who would want to live out in the middle of the wilderness like this.

Shrugging, they decided to knock on the door.

"Hello?" asked Draco.

Sure enough, there appeared to be someone residing in that hut.

"Can I help you?" inquired the man.

Curious, Draco and Yangus decided to talk to him.

"As you may know, I happen to sell cheese..." stated the man.

On the mention of cheese, Draco's pet mouse Munchie flared up. He simply loved cheese.

"If you get my tool bag...I'll give you some..." stated the man.

Draco nodded. That seemed like a fair trade.

However, he had no idea where the man's tool bag could possibly be.

"I'd suggest you try looking for a red tree...I believe that was where I had it last..." explained the man.

Hopefully he would take better care of his belongings once he reclaimed the bag.

Fortunately, the red tree wasn't too far from where they were standing, and they were able to get the tool bag.

On the way there, they also noticed that there were two guards in front of Alexandria. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let them in.

"Lousy NPC roadblock..." muttered Draco. Apparently he was just going to have to try again later.

Curious, they noticed that the sun was going down. Unfortunately, that meant that the monsters were going to become stronger.

Sure enough, there appeared to be Drackies out in the sky.

"I want to suck your blood!" exclaimed a Dracky.

"Get your own blood." retorted Draco.

Eventually, Draco returned to the hut to get some cheese.

Unsurprisingly, Munchie was absolutely ecstatic. Just for the record, he had already fed him today...but of course, he still wanted more. He had a surprisingly big appetite for his size.

Immediately, the man in the hut gave a bag of cheese to Draco. Perhaps he should give some to Munchie later to see what would happen.

Oddly enough, he seemed to recall Munchie breathing fire once. Was the cheese he was eating spicy? It might be best if he tried experimenting.

After saying farewell to the man in the hut, Draco wondered if maybe it was time to enter the Waterfall Cavern already. Valentina probably wouldn't be too happy with them if they took too long.

Fortunately, it appeared that the Waterfall Cave wasn't too far from Farebury. It would probably be a hassle otherwise with all the random encounters and all.

On the way there, they encountered what appeared to be a Hacksaurus.

Immediately, Yangus went to fight him...

...but he was sent flying when the Hacksaurus let out a sneeze.

"I think taking him on is out of the question..." remarked Draco. Perhaps they should try again later. Maybe if they were lucky they would end up getting more party members on their journey. That was how RPGs typically worked.

Shrugging, Draco decided to enter the cavern along with Yangus.

"Gee, it's kind of dark..." noted Yangus.

"Spooky..." remarked Draco.

"You bring a light, guv?" asked the bandit. He didn't know how he was going to see in a dark cavern like this, let alone find the crystal ball that Kalderasha had thrown away.

"As a matter of fact, I did. I brought a torch." answered the adventurer. Fortunately, Munchie was nice and had helped him light the torch. He was rather lucky to have a pet mouse like Munchie.

Something told him that would come in handy for when he needed to explore dungeons later. He probably would be doing that a lot.

Unfortunately, the Drackies in the cave didn't seem to like light too much...hence the reason they only came out in night. They immediately began to swarm him.

"Stop it!" demanded Draco.

Fortunately, it appeared that they were the weakest monsters inside the cave...as the bubble slimes they encountered later could attest.

"Where did I put the squelch spell in my spell book?" asked the boy. It appeared that there was going to be more than one slime that they were going to encounter in their enormous adventure.

"I dunno, guv..." answered Yangus. It would be really handy right about now. Why were these slimes so bubbly, anyway? They were a lot different from the slimes outside the cavern...at least during the daytime, anyway.

Shortly afterwards...they encountered a Firespirit, who Yangus ended up being burned by.

"Ouch! Hot hot hot!" exclaimed Yangus. He was even hotter than the bunny girls that he had encountered at the Farebury tavern.

Fortunately, Draco gave him a healing spell.

Afterwards, they encountered a mischevious mole...who was throwing stones at him.

"Do I have to give you a spanking?" asked Draco.

The mischievous mole frowned.

Shortly afterward, they encountered a bird. What exactly was a bird doing in a cave? Let alone a mechanical one.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" exclaimed the mecha mynah.

"Who goes around building mechanical chickens?" asked Draco.

Yangus shrugged.

A few seconds later, they encountered a dancing devil.

"This monster doesn't seem dangerous...he just wants us to dance..." stated Draco.

"I've got the beat!" exclaimed Yangus, who was dancing.

Suddenly, one of the monsters made off with his shoe.

"My shoe!" bellowed Draco.

"Hahaha!" laughed the skipper as he attempted to make off with his boot.

"How did Kalderasha make it to the waterfall, anyway?" asked the hero as he reclaimed his shoe. Perhaps they weren't interested in attacking fortune tellers?

Suddenly, they noticed a hammerhood standing right in front of the entrance.

"You're going to have to face me if you want to go any further." stated the hammerhood.

"Alright then..." answered Draco.

"Actually, that was just a test..." said the hammer-wielding monster, moving out of the way.

Shrugging, Draco decided to move through.

Eventually, a waterfall was in sight, as well as the crystal ball.

However, for some strange reason, Draco got the feeling that it was guarded.

Perhaps it would be best if he proceeded with caution.

Slowly, he began to make his way towards the crystal ball.

I hoped you like this chapter...so far people seem to be enjoying it. Of course, at the time of writing this I only had one reviewer. Oh well.

Maybe I'll get more of them later. I do tend to write a lot of stories, in case you haven't noticed already. I've written forty of them all in fact. I think I've left my mark on at this point. Heh heh.

Basically I've been a real busy bee.

In the next chapter, well...we're going to be introduced to the first boss of the game. And yes, he can be difficult for first-time players...though personally I didn't find him too hard. I personally find the final bosses of Dragon Quest to always be the hardest. I in particular needed to work on my vocations for Mortamor...though it was rather easy once I got the job done...or rather jobs.