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Chapter 172: Winter Eternal (4)

Moving through the snow paved path of the pinewood forest at a steady pace, Shinto and his group followed after the trail of footsteps, however upon reaching towards the end of the trail, the steps seemed to have led to the passing of a storm.

"Uh... This is..." Shinto uttered out as his brows raised upon the sight of the footprints cutting midway.

"Just great," Ethaniel finished Shinto's sentence. "The only apparent lead to finding those stupid slimes just stops at the worst point."

"...It's unfortunate that there was a snowstorm here of all places," Raina shook her head helplessly. "What do we do now? With how there's no more trail, do we just go around the area blindly in hopes of finding Reru and Rustly?"

"Man, why now of all times?!" Frey cried out. "Ugh. I just want out of this place now! Why must it be this cold?!"

"Sigh... Complaining won't help us at all," Shinto sighed as he took a step forward. "Let's just continue moving in this direction. The entire time these footprints led into one linear line."

"Where do you think these guys were even headed to?" With a pout, Frey questioned. "I only see pinewood trees, goblins, annoying winter, snow, snow and more snow as far as I can see!"

"Hmm, well honestly speaking..." Shinto thought to himself. "I've got no clue on where we're going. I figured we might end up in a much better environment or at least a cavern if we just keep following this trail, but... There really isn't anything I can see that's ahead of us. The same goes for the other directionsIt all just leads deeper into the plains..."

"Hah... Finding these slimes might be more hopeless than trying to fight against that horde we saw at the ruins," Ethaniel clicked his tongue. "Do the slimes even have the liberty to try and get this far away from us? It'd be more burdensome to go back than just taking time for themselves nearby the damn caverns..."

"What do I know about what's going on in their head?" Shinto shrugged. "We're too ahead to go back as well, so we might as well continue searching for the slimes before turning back."

"Well if you say so..." Raina nodded as she soon cautiously turned towards the east and west direction. Moments later, she turned over towards Ethaniel. "...hey, Ethan. How many spears do you have in your inventory?"

"Huh? Why this sudden question?" Ethaniel raised his brow. "...I've got 7 since we started following the footprints. If you want general then 28. All these stupid goblins dropped spears at a 100% rate it seems..."

"7? I see... How long did it take for us to defeat one again?"

"We've tried fighting off against three but two's our maximum," Ethaniel uttered out. "Going off of that... If all of us are at tip-top shape, then four minutes? Depends on how annoying their evasion is..."

"Right..." Raina noted.

"Hey, what's up with this question? Why are you suddenly asking this?" Shinto frowned. "Shouldn't you know this?"

"Ahaha... Um, well... I was contemplating on something..." Raina coughed slightly. "You see... I noticed that there seem to be a few goblins around the area and uh, they seem rather different from the rest."

"Huh?" Listening in on the conversation between the two, Shinto tilted his head. "How different?" The goblins that he had seen thus far were all the same. Blue, clothed in leaves and all were basically spear-wielders or at times your usual armless goblins that like to jump at you without resistance.

"These goblins seem to rather give off a different aura than the rest..." Raina muttered out. "In fact, all the monsters that we passed as of late gave a different aura than one's we encountered by the ruins and outskirts of the cavern."

"Different in terms of aura?" Frey blinked at Raina's statement. "The heck you mean? You can sense people's aura? Huh? Since when? Hey, wait... What's an aura?"

"Ugh, you..." Ethaniel frowned. "Whatever. Just learn as you go."

"..." Hearing Raina's statement, Shinto fell deep into thought. Unlike what Raina sensed, he and the group hadn't felt anything off whilst fighting the goblins that they encountered whilst following the trail. The atmosphere and common feeling they gave were those of typical goblins, thus he couldn't help but feel off. "Hmm, you say all the monsters that we passed were giving off a different aura? What about the ones we fought?"

"...they've also been giving off a weird feeling as well," Raina stated. "But... It's only now that it worries me unlike before, the density of the aura seems to be extremely high."

"...an extremely high-density aura?" Shinto muttered out as he glanced around the aura. Finally noting that the monsters that seemed few at first suddenly grew in numbers. "...tch, we're in trouble, huh?"

"...my bad, I should've told you guys about this earlier..." Raina bit her lip as she took out her staff. "...we can't possibly win this, right?"

"No, we can't win this at all. Their numbers are..." Moving his eyes over to the surrounding area, the number of monsters seem to be totalling up to seven and above from a glance. "...too much for us to handle."

"E-Eek! How did they grow so much in numbers?!" Frey's eyes widened in shock. "D-Do we run? Please tell me we've got to run..."

"What do you think, Frey?" Ethaniel sighed as his pace from waking earlier began moving at a much faster rate."If we can't even stand against two, then..."

"We run and try our best to get those goblins off of our radar," Shinto stated as he uttered out a chant. In the next moment, a fog of shadows soon appeared within the area.

"...kik?!" The eyes of blue goblins within the bushes widened their eyes at the sight of the group's enshrouding in shadow. In the next moment, the monsters began crying out a loud cry as they soon jumped into the shadow.

...

Rushing on the snow paved path of the forest after exiting out of the dark cloud, Shinto began to cautiously look around the area. Soon after, he noted that the goblins that he had seen blue earlier began turning into a blue-black sort of colour.

Their eyes turned grey as their entire body soon became a mix of blue and black. The clothing seemed to have changed as well, with them now wearing armour unlike the goblins from before. Within their hands, different sort of weapons was wielded, not just the spears.

"Hey... Hey, what gives with these goblins?!" Frey cried out as she turned around, noticing that the mobs were chasing at a rapid pace. "These guys seem like demons than goblins now!"

"Kikk!!" The goblins that stood at the back of the frontlines chanted out a spell. Quickly, a dark string shot forward from their staves as they grabbed hold of Frey's hand.

"Ack- Hey! Hey!" Upon the touch of the string with her skin, Frey hurriedly attempted to break free from the enemy's spell, however, the string was sturdy as ever, unable to be broken. "Help!"

"Ugh," Ethaniel clicked his tongue as he swung his sword over to the string, quickly cutting it in half. "Stop shouting and just start running!"

"These guys are fast," Shinto murmured to himself. The previous pace of a goblin wasn't enough to catch up to them if they were to run at full speed. However, in comparison, they were like cheetahs chasing after Frey. "...I hope this can slow them down."

Waving his staff towards the back of him, Shinto soon casted out the spell [ Sticky Ground ]successfully slowing down the pace of the goblins.

"Kikk!" The blue-black goblins smirked upon the feeling of goo below their feet as they soon cried out a roar. In the next moment, the cloaked goblin mages began to chant out another spell over towards the sticky field of goo.

"...?!" Shinto's eyes shook at the sudden sight of the slime disappearing moments after the chant. "These guys have cleanse?" frowning at the realization of the situation, Shinto soon averted his eyes over towards his skill list in hopes of finding something that he could use to prevent the goblins from catching up

However, to his dismay, Shinto's skill[ Sticky Ground ] was the only thing that could be used to slow down enemies. With his [ Shadow Field ] on cooldown, he couldn't hope to blind the enemies temporarily neither could he silence them the mages as his crowd control skills had already been used.

"...ugh. We can only hope to escape with our agility," with his options lacking, Shinto soon turned to scrutinize his status window. However, as he did soShinto was greeted by a familiar sight of notifications.

[ You have been cursed! ]

[ The curse of slowness prevails within you. ]

[ Movement speed has decreased by 60% ]

[ You have resisted. ]

"...curse of slowness?!" The shock continued to prevail. "Ugh. Damnit, we're not gonna make it," cursing internally as he turned towards his allies, he noted that his party members were slightly lagging behind Ethaniel and himself.

"Argh! What happened?!" Frey cried out the instant her steady pace began turning into that of a snail's. With the added effects of the environmental conditions in the atmosphere together with the cursethe group could no longer make a run for it.

"...ahh! I don't want to die!" Yer cried out. "Someone, anyone! Help!"