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Chapter 161: Emergence (3)

"..."

Within the darkness of the shadows, a man slowly floated in the eternity of time with his eyes closed. Tired, exhausted and highly fatigue, this man had neither the will nor energy to move an inchletting only the flow of the atmosphere push him.

"..."

Though, even with the weary demeanour, his senses were still intact. Thus, even if he seemed to be in deep sleep, he could still hear the little voices by the distance that had been murmuring out for quite a while.

"Ugh... When will they wake up?" From among the distinct voices that he could hear, the young man had been subconsciously paying attention to a distinct voice that had been extremely loud the entire time. "It's already been six hours!"

"...I guess they overexerted themselves to the point of this?" Another voice replied, though soft-spoken. "We should wait a bit more. Though... I do wish I could understand what that slime was saying before he abruptly left."

"That's why I said to just take the necklace on Master's neck! The curse is gone right?"

"...ugh..." Slightly moving his body upon listening in on the voices, the young manShinto, slowly opened his eyes and, at that moment, the darkness around him dispersed as he entered into consciousness.

"...ah! Hey! Hey!" Upon opening his eyes, Shinto was greeted by the sight of two familiar faces and a slime that seemed to have gotten up close for him to recognize. From the middle of the group that showed that of a brown-haired woman, he noted that it was Frey. "This guy's finally awake!"

"The first of the bunch too, huh?" From the left side of Frey, the black-haired woman was Raina. "Well... I guess our confusion can finally be resolved."

"I waited for four hours for them to wake up! So finally, the wait is over!" Frey pouted.

"Well unlike you, I waited an hour extra..." Raina uttered out in helplessness. "Though, I'm still wondering why you went on to challenge the field again despite us nearly dying the first time..."

"W-Well... I thought that we were just unlucky to find that many wolves and goblins in the area... I figured if I took a different route..."

"...cough, Frey? Raina?" letting out a slight cough as he slowly got up from the cold hard ground, Shinto scanned the area as his head remained blurry. "You've logged into the game already, huh?"

"Huh? That's the first sentence you say after waking up!?" Frey cried out. "I expected more from you! It's been six hours!"

"...what do you even expect of me to say after waking up?" Shinto blankly stared at Frey. "Though... How did I even fall asleep? The last thing I remembered was" Muttering out his words, Shinto soon abruptly stood up as he frantically looked around the area. "Wait, where's Kon? The last thing that had happened was..."

...

With the countless sounds clanking among the elementals that had ice surrounding it, the monsters moved forward step by step as they began channelling out more energy than before as if tired of dragging on with the fight.

Ting...

Tang...

"Ugh... These guys sure are persistent..." Erith uttered out tiringly with his shield slowly breaking apart and his sword that his body was holding slightly shaking. "I don't think we can wait much longer for the Minister to get Ethaniel..."

"Just a little bit more longer," Shinto hushed out in an exhausted voice whilst having one of his eyes closed in rest. "It's only been around half a minute..."

"A-And that half a minute felt so long..." Kon whimpered. "W-We'll die... You'll die!"

"I-It's fine... I can respawn but for you two..." Shinto muttered out. "If thing's get from bad to worst, you might as well run and rendezvous with me later."

"I can't do that..." Kon cried. "N-None of us should die!"

"You'll be the first one down any second now, so we can't do that even if we were forced to..." Erith uttered out as he barely dodged the charged attack coming from the elementals. However, it seemed that the monsters were smart. Moments, after he had dodged the attack, another ray of magic, landed on Erith, thus bringing his health back into the red zone. "A-Ack...!"

"E-Erith!" Shinto cried out as he searched through his arsenal of abilities to use, but, to his dismay, all of them were on cooldown. "...u-ugh this is stupid..."

"M-Master...!"

"...huh?" Shinto turned his head over to the direction of Kon. However, his eyes slowly shut closed due to unbearable fatigue. Any second more, he might fall unconscious. "U-Ugh... T-This..." His body could no longer keep up. Shinto began falling down to the ground not being able to fight back the exhaustion any longer.

"No...! Watch out!" Rushing steps resounded through the room as a black fox swiftly pushed a young man out of the way with all his strength despite seeming small, and at that momenta block of blue glacial ice shot from the ground and struck at the fox. "A-Ack...!"

"K-Kon...!" The young man wanted to shout out his name, however, nothing came out of his mouth. Greeted by the sight of shadows surrounding the black fox, his eyes closed with a final notification in front of him.

[ The Shadow of the Fox has fallen! ]

[ The protection of the Shadow Diviner has left the Fox... ]

Though, unable to read through all the countless notifications, he entered into the realm of unconsciousness.

...

"was him being enveloped by shadows during the fight and before falling unconsciousness..." Shinto continued his sentence.

"Enveloped by shadows? Enveloped by shadows?!" Frey cried out. "D-Did he die?! Kon? WHAT?!"

"He..." Shinto muttered out with a sudden feeling of fear that stapled within his mind. 'Did he die?' was a constant question that appeared in his head. Whether permanent or not, he had to find out. Thus, his eyes turned faced towards his window screen, bracing for the worst.

[ The Shadow of the Fox has fallen! ]

[ The protection of the Shadow Diviner has left the Fox, thus he has returned back into the realm of shadows. During the period of vulnerability, if the shadow servant were to be put in harm's way when not under the status of 'Shadow Minion', they will die! ]

[ You will only be able to summon back the Shadow Fox after a set amount of time has passed. For the time being, you may summon a new shadow servant. ]

[ The skill 'Shadow Recreation' is shaking! ]

[ A new quest will soon generate... ]

"..." Reading through the notifications he had received, Shinto let out a sigh of relief. "...he just returned back home for the time being..."

For Shinto, he had forgotten that 'Kon' was a summoned minion from his Shadow Skills. This was because, unlike normal pets, Kon functioned more or less like an actual NPC, thusthe fact that he was summoned flew over his head as he stuck around for the entire time.

"R-Really?! So h-he's alive?" Frey's frown turned into a sudden smile. "Phew... Don't scare me like that!"

"Hey... It's not like I didn't get a shock too..." Shinto glared at Frey. "But... If all things should go well, he should be back in the next day since I've got a cooldown to summon."

"Well... It's at least good news that he's alive and kicking," Raina stated. "But, what about Reru and Rustly? They're not around here too... Did they...?"

"Ah... Them?" Shinto uttered out. "...they... uh, well... Left us behind during our exploration trip. So... We ended up in a tight spot."

"T-They left?" Raina blinked at the thought. "...which means, we're stuck here?"

"No... I doubt that they abandoned us for real," Shinto stated. "If they did... Well, that's another issue to handle. But, from what I saw, they seemed to have argued with one another. Though, I didn't understand a speck of word since Ethnaiel had the necklace."

"Huh... So we'll be playing the waiting game again?" Raina asked. "Waiting around this cavern is quite boring... And very... Scary."

"I would suggest going out but... No. Please don't," Shinto firmly stated as he suddenly felt shivers from his back. "...we're so underprepared for this place."

"I can tell... We might have experienced it first hand," Raina coughed. "Though, I don't think it's worst from yours. You guys did end up falling unconscious with casualties too..."

"Sigh. They were far too powerful for our level," Shinto shook his head helplessly. "I don't know what happened after I fell unconscious, but judging as to how Ethaniel is here... He might have handled the rest."

"Hmm... Ethaniel?" Frey questioned. "Isn't he like... The same level as us? How did he handle the rest if you're useless and Kon left? Wait... Maybe that other slime helped? Wow! Slimes are powerful!"

"Now that you mentioned it..." Shinto mumbled out in thought. Their previous goal was to have Ethaniel join in the battle to aid them in the fight. But, before he had arrived, there were many casualties. "Just how did Ethaniel win? Last time I checked... Erith was extremely low health with nearly broken equipment as well."