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Chapter 171: Winter Eternal (3)

Raising a brow in confusion, Shinto soon narrowed his eyes over to the footsteps on the snowy grounds of the pinewood forest. He hadn't noticed since he was busy attempting to get warm through Raina's fire, however, now with a close look on it, he could note that humans had passed through here.

"What? Come again?" Frey uttered out with sight confusion as she busied herself in keeping warm. "...human footsteps? Isn't that just ours or something?"

"Where are you looking at, Shinto?" Raina questioned as her eyes turned to the direction of where the young man had fixed his eyes on. "...hmm, we haven't gone there yet haven't we?"

"No, we haven't," Shinto shook his head. "These footsteps seem to be coming from another person, or... two?" he uttered out unsurely. The footsteps that they were looking at were that of a mess, though still recognizableallowing for him to discern that the few trails of footprints were made of two different sizes.

"Huh... So... It's not ours?" Frey tilted her head. "Then maybe there's a village nearby!?"

"A village?" Shinto thought to himself. "I don't think these are signs of a village."

It was strange that he had found human footsteps around the area. Perhaps there was a village nearby that they could visit in hopes of buying warmer and better gear, but, Shinto doubted such thought.

To begin with, the area that they were in seemed to be unkempt from human civilization for a long time. With harsh environmental conditions and an over infestation of monstersthe area wasn't ideal for living purposes. Though, what would Shinto know? He only had been around in one place and not the other.

"If they're human footsteps, I reckon they might be bandits or adventurers rather than people of a village," Shinto stated. It wasn't uncommon to find others who are in an isolated area far away from civilization. After all, they wearn't the only humans on the continent. "But the question on this is... Are they good or bad?"

Just as how it wasn't uncommon to find others in an area far from society, especially one with harsh conditions, it wasn't uncommon to find those who associate themselves with evil in these parts. After all, unless they were on a quest or wanted to level up, the most common people that one would find in areas such as this would be people on the run or thieves who typically pick off wanderers who are lost or are weak.

"What, are you saying we might bump into them or something?" Ethaniel inquired. "This place is vast and our goal is to only find the slimes and leave. I doubt that we'd bump into other humans or players to care enough about them."

"Well, I was just playing thing's on the safe side," Shinto calmly stated. "If we do bump into someone else, I don't want to get into a battle that we may lose. Especially if we consider that since this is a pretty high levelled area, the people around here should be of similar levels."

"Mm... If we end up fighting, our numbers won't be enough to overwhelm them?" Frey sighed. "Man..."

"It can't be helped," Raina helplessly shook her head. "Even with our numbers, we struggle to even kill a single goblin before he calls for backup."

"Whoever the person is, let's just try our best to avoid them," Shinto nodded his head. "But..."

"...but?" Ethaniel further questioned.

"...this may or may not be the only lead that we have to find the slimes," Shinto uttered out in a helpless voice.

"Huh? What makes you so sure?" he raised his brow.

"I mean, this was the area that the slimes had went to, and... This is the only thing we found," Shinto reasoned, "Since these footprints seem to be quite recent, I can only assume that Reru and Rustly had gone this way."

"Y-You think the slimes can turn into humans?" Frey's eyes widened in shock. "Hey! You two! You never told me anything about this!"

"What bullshit!" Yer clicked his tongue. "We're slimes and that's that! We can't transform into a human that's impossible!"

"There haven't been any cases in regards to a slime having a human body," Erith shook his head. "We may not look like it since we're round balls, but we can do stuff typical humans do since we can manipulate our slime as much as we want without any hindrance. Why do you think we can wield weapons and wear custom-made clothes? It's just how our biology works I guess."

"O-Oh..." Frey blinked dumbfoundedly at Erith's explanation from Shinto's translation. She hadn't been as questioning in regards to how the body of a Slera worked, but it was fascinating to know. "Then, If not the work of the slimes and that actual humans had gone in this direction, why do you think Reru and Rustly went through here as well? I thought they wanted alone time..."

"I'm not sure, but... It's a gut feeling," Shinto stated. It could be that the humans had been following after the slimes which the latter didn't realize, or perhaps there was a case that happened which required the slimes to chase after the humans.

Either way, from the things he had seen within the area, the most plausible thing would be that everything led into a single direction as other directions in the area were mostly blocked off or lead to a monster's nest.

"Hmm... A gut feeling, huh?" nodding her head, Raina soon stood up from the ground. "Well... If that's the only lead, I guess we should be on our way before we end up losing it."

With the fire in the area extinguished, the group began making their way out of the small shade of the pine tree and soon followed after the trail of footprints stamped by humans.

...

"Hah... Hah..." With tired breaths rasping out against the cold atmosphere of the village, Crowelin tightly held onto her weapon and shield as she fought off against the sudden horde of monsters that appeared from the forest. "Why are these guys suddenly so powerful...?!"

"Urk... I don't know," Hikari uttered out in a tired tone. "These monsters are unlike the ones we've fought here... It's almost as if, they're on the level of mini-bosses in this area?"

"Mini-bosses?!" Crowelin cried out. "They're like... Five times the strength of the normal monsters here! How are we going to handle against a horde of them!?"

"To put it worse, it seems that they're the worst match up against us," Hikari clicked her tongue as she continuously chanted out her spells. However, every time she did soher spells were quickly dispersed away as if she never used them. "We're both spell-based classes and not technique-based..."

"Ugh... At least that slime is holding up himself," Crowelin frowned. "And... I can at least use some of my skills without getting interrupted every single time."

"Oh come on!" Reru cried out in anger. "Not only are you two useless, but you're also more useless than the incredible baggage I've got!" he clicked his tongue as his sword swung in an arc, hurriedly clashing blades against the blue-black goblins and wolves in front of him. "Why on earth are humans so... so... Helpless when they're needed most?!"

"Well sorry for being unlucky against monsters like these!" Crowelin replied in anguish, swiftly raising her hammer up to the sky and then down to the groundknocking back all the enemies around her. "How was I supposed to know these guys would appear!?"

"Kek..." The blue-black goblins standing by at the backlines began chanting out a spell of darkness as it quickly boomed through the fields. "Gragh Gragh!"

[ Skill has been abruptly cancelled. ]

"I'm sorry... I'm of no help," Hikari bit her lips upon the notification in front of her. "These guys at the back are nullifying my spells every single time... I need someone to handle them."

"What can I or even your friend do?" Reru clicked his tongue. "We're busy tying up these stupid wolves before they shred us all to pieces! And... They're overwhelming!"

"Awooo!!" The wolves howled as Reru's and Crowelin's strength began to decline.

[ Your strength and defences have been lowered by 20% for 5 seconds! ]

[ Healing has been disabled. ]

[ Resistance to the Ice and Dark element has been greatly decreased by 40% ]

"Ugh... I hate these debuffs..." Crowelin began being pushed back by the second as her strength continuously dropped down. Her passive regeneration skill which she had relied on to nullify against the amounts of damage she had received had stopped working, and thus her health fell rapidly as ever. Without Hikari's ability to heal, Crowelin couldn't keep up with the damage. "I'm gonna die again at this rate!"

This wasn't the first time they had encountered such tragedy. Through the times they had been in the snowy plains, the monsters that they've encountered were those on the level that Shinto and the group had fought. But, to their unfortunate luck, they had encountered a mini-boss which completely countered their entire class, thus causing their death.

Agreeing to avoid that boss at all cost, they made roundabout ways around the forest. Yet, to their dismaythe boss had appeared once again with an army of them.

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