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Chapter 156: Pinewood Forest (3)

With their eyes narrowed over to the direction of the small noises by the distance, the group looked at one another, as if indecisive of a decision.

"Um... Master... D-Did you just say a monster's village?" Kon uttered out with a slightly shaky voice.

"...well, I'm not so sure?" Shinto tilted his head whilst still confirming his thoughts. "With the countless sounds by the distance, I can only reckon that it might be a camp or a village area where monsters lay rest in."

For Shinto, he doubted that there would be a village in the middle of a forest that seemed to be untouched by human civilization for a long time. Thus, with the discrete sounds nearby, the only reasonable conclusion that he could come up with was that there could be a monster village nearby. 

"A monster's village?" Reru questioned. "Good. Let's head there then and see if we can find anything that won't make you useless."

"Hah...?" Ethaniel dumbfoundedly glared at Reru. "What can a village made of monsters, which is the obvious goblins, give us? The only thing that's plausible is weapons... Which we seem to be cursed to only get spears."

"That's just your own terrible luck. Just go to a random mage and get a damn staff for Shinto," Reru stated nonchantly. "While you're at it, maybe another for the other human who learnt the arts. As for that brawler? Tough luck."

"You make it sound so easy..." Ethaniel sighed helplessly. "Out of all the goblins we encountered and killed, all the drops were that shitty spear."

"Like I said, it's your horrible luck," Reru scoffed. "Now, anyway, just get a move on before we freeze to death."

"Argh... Whatever," Ethaniel walked away as he headed over to the direction of the noises. "With the way you're doing things... Our cause of death might be something else."

"Like I'd let you die on my watch," Reru stated as he walked behind Ethaniel.

"So we're going to go to a territory where we'll be surrounded and possibly be overwhelmed?" Kon whimpered. "Isn't that... Asking for our deaths?"

"Well... We still do need to find something worthwhile in this trip," Shinto shrugged. "With Reru's strength, I guess we can survive barely or well, just enough to get back to the caverns in one piece."

"...gloop," As if hearing on the conversation between Shinto and Kon, Rustly uttered out words that they could not understand as he moved along the path.

"..." Looking at Rustly, Shinto tilted his head as he thought to himself. "...this guy hasn't spoken a word since we got here and the first thing he mumbles out is when the translator and Reru are gone..." shaking his head helplessly with no ways of knowing what could possibly help Rustly, he could only hope to ask the Sleras at a better time.

...

Leaving behind footprints as they stepped on the heavy snow through the pinewood forest, the group steadily made their way over to the discrete noises into the distance. Though, what greeted them was something that was not within their expectations.

"...well, this is still a community," Shinto uttered out as he scrutinized the front of him. Quickly noting the many monsters that were gathered in front of a broken-down ruin that seemed to be from ancient times. "With the number of monsters I'm seeing here... It should be enough to be a village."

"T-There's so much..." Kon shivered.

"Well, we found what we were looking for at least," Ethaniel shrugged. "A ruin."

"How nice... Here I was expecting a village so that you won't be useless for when we actually do come across a ruin," Reru sighed. "Well... When do my expectations hold up?"

"What, you're saying something like this, you can't handle?" Ethaniel scoffed.

"I can. But I prefer to sweep the floors when I'm not the one who's handling everything," Reru stated. "We have three pieces of baggage and someone who became useless. What do you expect me to do?"

"Tch... Then, let's head back and wait for Frey and Raina to come back?" Ethaniel questioned. "If you want us to level, we might as well level together with them."

"That sounds like a plan. At the very least, we know where the ruins are now," Reru seemed to be shrugging. "Though, if I just drag Rustly in and go pass all the monsters, it'll be a much faster process."

"No... I just want to stay here for a bit. I don't want to go back yet," Rustly muttered out. "Just let the humans train or something... While I just uh... Want to sleep."

"Jeez... Are you serious? You want to sleep here?" Reru clicked his tongue. "We have a much better bed in the catacombs, and you'd rather sleep here..."

"I've had a lot to think about and well, I just want time to myself," Rustly stated. "And... We're not in any rush to do anything else after all."

"Hey... Isn't that being selfish?" Ethaniel frowned. "You may not be in a rush to do anything... But that's just ignoring us. We have thing's to do after this."

"..." Rustly's eyes turned to Ethaniel as he averted his gaze away. "Two days. Just give me that amount of time," he stated as he waltzed away from the group.

"...what? HEY! Rustly! Come back here!" Reru cried out as he rushed over to Rustly, however, with his pace, Reru couldn't catch up to him. Though, yet, despite that, the two left the group alone.

"Huh? What? Don't just leave us here!" Ethaniel shouted out in anger as he was about to chase after Reru.

"...Ethan. I don't know what may have happened in that conversation, but... If you leave, we'll be in deep trouble..." Shinto muttered out.

"Huh, what?" Ethaniel abruptly turned to Shinto who was gradually stepping back from the bush that they were hiding in.

"...the conversation may or may not have alerted the countless monsters upfront," Shinto's voice slightly trembled as he prepared to begin dashing away.

"...?" Turning over to the direction of where Shinto had been staring at, chills went down his spine as his eyes shook. "...shit."

"Kek..."

"Grr..."

Ting...

Into the distance, monsters from wolves to elementals slowly made their way over to the bush where the group were at. Seconds by second, the distance between them closed.

"H-Hey, you two... What are you waiting for?!" Kon cried out. "Run!"

Moments after shouting out, Ethaniel and Shinto stepped back as they hurriedly turned around, quickly making a run for it. In reply to that, the pace of the monsters quickened, soon chasing after the prey.

"Hah... How do we lose that?!" Ethaniel cried out as their pace was beginning to be slowed by the elemental's hail effect. "We're going to die at this rate."

"We need to find somewhere for us to lose them," Shinto's brain quickly worked as he looked around in the area. Though they were in the forest, there wearn't any places to off-put them into going elsewhere. "If we do... I can use my field skill to redirect them somewhere else."

"Where can we do that?!" Ethaniel clicked his tongue as he hurriedly turned around and began unsheathing his sword. In the next moment, a flashing bright light shone down onto the pack of monsters that were in close approximate to them.

"Kek..." Although successfully hitting the wolves and elementals, the goblins swayed to the side, dodging the attack. Moments later, the goblins began throwing countless storms of arrows, spears, spells and the like to them.

"Ahh! They're going to rain down on us!" Kon exclaimed. "What do we do?! What do we do?!"

"Ugh... This is annoying. Did Reru had to leave us at such a time?!" Ethaniel frowned. "What was that about making sure we don't die on his watch?"

"We can think about this later. The hail's taking into full effect and I'm not sure we can even survive this..." Shinto said in a defeated tone as he noted that the atmosphere began to become extremely chilly. Not only that, the health of the group slowly pummelled into the yellow zone from all the attacks that they had taken.

"I don't want to randomly spawn elsewhere and get lost!" Ethaniel scruffled his head. "Can't you slow them down with your skills?!"

"I could, but with this amount of monsters... I doubt we'd even lose half of them," Shinto replied.

"Then what can we do?!"

"Ugh... I don't know..." Shinto struggled to think of anything whilst they continued running in the direction of where the cavern was. "There has to be something..."

With only pinewood trees in their vision, the options to run away and hide from the oncoming disaster was blocked. Neither could they outrun enemies nor could they fight off the horde.

"Well, think of something! You have all the escape related skills here!" Ethaniel urged Shinto.

"I'm trying!" Still frantically looking around to the countless trees, an idea soon popped up in his mind. "...how many useless things are there in your inventory? And... Are you good at throwing them?"

"Is that even a question?" Ethaniel inquired.

"Then... Let's do this."