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Chapter 100: Sticky Situation (2)

Within the dark halls of the catacombs, a slime slipped on the stone-paved grounds as it dragged Raina through. With her hands tightly stuck to its body, she couldn't escape.

"Ack..." Unable to resist the force of the slime, she followed along with the monster's pacing, to prevent her arms from breaking due to excessive force.

"...what do I do?" she muttered herself. "This guy isn't attacking me at all and is just dragging me everywhere..."

"Gloop."

"Gloop?"

"Gloop!"

"...and, the slimes that are around me seems to be staring at me...?" she shivered at the thought. "Scary..."

The slime and Raina walked at a steady pace as they reached the end of the hallway, wherein, they were soon greeted by a large door, of what seemed to resembled that of the statue which sword was upright from earlier.

"...huh?" At the sight, her head tilted with a confused look. "Am I being taken to the boss room?"

"Gloop!" The slime jiggled slightly. "Gloop, gloop!" Soon after, it jiggled once again, as the door of the hallway opened. Momentarily, it began to move into the room, dragging Raina.

"Hooman?" Entering into the room, a deep voice resounded through.

...

While Slime was taking Raina, the rest of the party members hurried along the path as they made their way through. With their weapons in hand, they quickly struck at the slimes which aggressively approached them.

"Gloop!" The slime pounced over to Ethaniel in a frenzy, quickly knocking him back.

"Tsk..." Ethaniel gritted his teeth as he soon sent a bright flashing light over towards the enemy in front of him. Following up with that, Frey rushed over, quickly throwing a punch at it.

"...hey, is it just me or are the slimes just getting powerful every encounter?" Frey muttered out in worry. "it takes way more hits and attacks to kill them!"

"This is just the fourth encounter!" Kon cried out.

"But even if they're getting powerful over time, they seem to be getting less aggressive, per se?" Shinto calmly stated as he sent multiple shots of mana spark over towards the target.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Frey questioned as she turned the slime into grey-ash, finally ending the battle.

"What I mean is, for every encounter of the slime we had, they seem to have progressively gotten less aggressive," Shinto said, waving his staff over towards Ethaniel as he cast his skill: [Mark of Umbra].

"Wouldn't that be good for us then?" Ethaniel shrugged. "If they're gonna be pouncing at us every so often, we can hurry it up and catch up with Raina."

"Right, right!" Frey nodded her head. "But, where are they? They can't have made it that far, right?"

"We had been fighting for quite a while," Shinto turned to glance around the vicinity. "By the time we reach them, we might be at the end of the hall."

"Gloop?"

"Gloop..."

As they continued down the hallways, more slimes started to appear, however, the monsters only stared at them from the distance, not making any moves against them.

"Huh. You're right... they ARE getting less aggressive..." Frey pondered. "What the heck's going on?"

"Does it really matter?" Ethaniel raised his brow. "Just get a move on."

"Well, their behaviours weird! Aren't monsters like... bah! I kill you! Or something like that?" Frey tilted her head.

"Hmm, now that I think about it, it's weird," Shinto thought to himself. "From that first slime that took Raina, it showed some weird actions."

"Like how it didn't straight up attack us?" Kon added on.

"Yeah. It only started doing stuff against us when Raina used her skills..." he continued his line of thought. "Looking back on it, did it really attack Raina in anger?"

"What else could it be?" Ethaniel scoffed. "The slime called for other slimes for back-up while it dragged Raina away."

"W-Well... how do we even tell a slimes emotion?" Kon muttered out.

"By the way they move, maybe?" Frey answered.

"They can only jump up and down, pounce and shake," Ethaniel raised his brow. "How on earth do you tell an emotion just from that?"

"Like how they're happy, sad, angry? Movements of the body tell a lot actually!" Frey excitedly stated. "You can probably tell if someones lying just by the way they move."

"...but their slimes... not humans," Ethaniel blinked at the statement from Frey.

"Still a living thing!"

"Then, how did the slime acted for you?" Shinto turned to Frey as he asked.

"How did I thought it acted? Uh... I don't exactly remember..." Frey said. "Happy probably?"

"Happy??" Ethaniel questioned in a confused tone. "How does that look happy?"

"That was my impression of it!" Frey answered back. "It didn't look angry at all..."

"If it wasn't angry... then why did it go and take Raina like that?" Shinto mumbled out.

"Donno. My head's empty," Frey shrugged.

"Great help, Frey..." Ethaniel scoffed.

"I don't see you helping?" she pouted.

"I already gave you my stance didn't I?"

"Ahem... in any case, something's up," Shinto quickly intervened as he observed the slimes within the area. Noticing that they seemed to be conversing with one another.

"Gloop, gloop?" One slime jiggled its body.

"Gloop..." The other slime shivered.

"They're basically holding up a conversation in their own language, I think..." Shinto assumed. "Too bad we can't understand them. But... I feel as if they're talking about us?"

"Are they plotting to kill us?!" Kon cried out.

"I don't think so. But I could be wrong, everything's based on assumptions at this point," Shinto sighed.

"Arghh! Why can't everyone just speak the same language?!" Kon pouted.

Still making their way forward, the group quickly stopped at their footsteps as they noticed a small slime upfront, blocking their way. The moment their eyes locked onto the slime, the sounds from the monsters around them seem to grow louder, until they began to resound throughout the catacombs.

"Gloop...!!"

"G-Gloop..."

"Gloop!!!"

It seemed as if the slimes were crying out.

"H-Huh?" The group was confused at the sudden situation.

"G-Gloop, gloop..." The small slime pounced forward, approaching the party.