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Chapter 170: Winter Eternal (2)

On the snowy paved path of Bareth's Tundra Zone, Shinto, as well as the rest of his group, made their way forward in a cautioned manner through the pinewood forest, slowly heading towards the ruins that Shinto, Kon and Ethaniel had found before the horde of monsters started chasing after them.

"B-Brr... It's cold... More colder than yesterday's area check," Frey shivered whilst she walked. Moments after, she hurriedly turned to Raina. "Raina! C-Can you like... Use your flame and warm me up please?"

"Using my spells to warm us up?" Raina tilted her head whilst she slightly shivered as well. "I could do that, but... In case of emergencies like a monster attack... I'd rather save my skills for them."

"B-But, we'll probably be frozen to death before a monster comes to sweep the floors with us!" Frey cried out. "We can't have even a teensy bit of fire?"

"I'm afraid not..." Raina shook her head helplessly.

"Aww..." Frey pouted.

"Just suffer the snow for a bit before Raina uses her fire skills to keep us warm," Shinto sighed whilst showing the same signs of shivering like the rest of the group. "I-In any case... We're where our short exploration stopped and where we parted ways from the two slimes."

It had only been thirty minutes since they left the cavern and, during those thirty minutes, their progress through the pinewood forest wasn't that great in comparison to both group's previous exploration outing.

Unlike before where they could walk at a steady pace due to them having not yet exposed to the cruel environments of the tundra plains, now the group remained vigilant and decided to discretely move to prevent monsters from noticingwhich worked up until a certain point where they reached the area where the countless monsters gathered in front of a ruin.

"Ugh... These guys are back at it again?" Ethaniel clicked his tongue as he observed the front of him from the bushes. Just like before, there were many sorts of monsters standing by at the front of the ruins. "...why do I feel like there are more monsters than before?"

"Well from what I can see... There actually are more monsters than before," Shinto frowned. Among the mobs aimlessly walking around in front of the ruins, there were a few which they had never seen before.

One was that of a golem with icy stone surrounding it to the brim. Another was an imperceptible figure that directly sat by at the front doors of the ruin, lonesomely staring out into the crowd of monsters.

"Man... Whatever is in that ruin sure is really attractive for all those monsters to gather up in one spot, right?" Frey uttered out whilst rubbing her hands together in hopes of keeping warm. However, even with the worn-out gloves that she was wearing, she couldn't stop the cold from getting to her. "W-We're not going in, are we? There's... One, two... Too many mobs for us to handle-"

"Shh. If you say any more with your loud voice, you might as well start running and be bait for all of us to safely head into the ruins," Ethaniel covered the mouth of Frey instantly before she could raise her voice.

"Mmm! Ethaniel! Your hands are cold!" Frey muttered out in an angered hushed voice against. "You're making me unable to feel anything... Ahh! I hate the winter!"

"Look, you're not the only one that isn't cold here," Ethaniel glared at Frey as he released his hand from Frey's mouth. "Can't you see the slimes shivering more than any of us?"

"H-Huh? W-What do you mean?!" Yer uttered out. "I-I'm not shivering, you are!"

"Unlike the minister who has at least some warm clothing... I'm just here thinking I'd be turned into frozen waste at any time because all my armour's been broken..." Erith sighed through his teeth. "Hah... None of my training ever prepared me for this..."

"All the more reasons not to go into the ruin," Raina stated. "Perhaps we should reconsider going further from here. I mean... We're weak as it is to fight normal monsters, but to tackle on a dungeon at this rate?"

"No... We're ignoring the ruins," Shinto calmly stated whilst analyzing the structure of the building and the monsters around it. "Just like you said, we're weak as it is, so tackling on the dungeon would be asking for a death wish."

"If that's so... Then why are we here then?" Frey tilted her head. "I thought we were going to go into the ruins... But if not, can we leave quickly? This place is colder than anywhere else!"

"This place was the last place we saw Reru and Rustly, so in hopes of finding them,  I was hoping we'd find some clues," Shinto nodded his head. "For example, footsteps."

"Footsteps? In these open plains? I doubt we'll be able to find anything though..." Raina thought to herself. "Do slimes even leave a mark on the ground? I only see small traces that were left behind by Minister Yer or Erith while we were walking here. I doubt that even after all these hours, the traces would remain."

"Right... That could be a problem," Shinto sighed. "It's only our footsteps that remained even after all these hours. But the traces of Reru and Rustly have disappeared..."

"Then what do we do?" Frey questioned. "If it's like this... We suffered through the stupid snow for nothing!"

"Ugh... Frey, your voice," Ethaniel furrowed his brow as he cautiously looked through the bush and out into the ruins. Thankfully, none of the monsters seemed to have noticed. "Ahem... Anyhow, I guess if it comes to the first, we can just level up whilst waiting for god knows how long for the two slimes to come back."

"Sigh... I guess that's plan B then," Shinto shook his head helplessly. "But, for now... Let's just head in the direction of where the slimes went, and then we'll decide from there whether or not it's a futile thing to chase after them. Who knows? They might be near."

"Hmm... Actually, this begs the question. Since it's turning morning now and that the slimes were out in wild for this long... How did they survive overnight with all the cold air?" Raina asked in a questioning tone whilst turning to the two shivering slimes. "If they're just like them... I don't think they'll be able to survive in these conditions..."

"Maybe they found shelter or something?" Frey questioned. "But anyway... Can we please leave this place now? I don't think I can stand the cold any longer... Raina, please use your fire!!"

"Over there, that's the direction where Reru and Rustly went if I recall," Shinto pointed over to the west side of the forest. "We'll head there now and then have Raina warm us up."

...

Under the pinewood tree, the group slowly sat by on the cold snowy grounds of the plains as they rested with the help of Raina's fire attribute spells which kept them warm enough to prevent any unnecessary deaths from the cold atmosphere.

"Ahh! Even with your fire, it's still so cold!" Frey cried out. "Are there any more warmer things that can make this campfire ablaze?"

"If I give more heat to the branches, I think we'll have a field day with the monsters since it might attract them over here..." Raina uttered out. "So... This is the best I can do."

"Aww really?! Mmm... This isn't enough to keep me warm..." Frey grumbled. "Why does this place have to be so cold..."

"What can we do?" Shinto sighed. "We don't have any warm clothes nor items that increase our cold resistance so we'll have to be satisfied with this if we want to stay out in the fields for much longer."

"Man... Why is our equipment so horrible? I thought we'd be doing good if we just continue getting equipment from monsters and all..." Frey frowned. "But what's up with all these spears?! How many spears are we going to get?!"

"Eh... The goblins have nothing better to drop I guess," Ethaniel shrugged. "But, because of these stupid drops, I ended up getting some skill for it..." he frowned as he turned to his skill list, noting the newly acquired skill he had gotten from the time he had thrown all of his swords and spears.

[ Equipment Thrower ] [ 90 MP / 1 Sword/Spear Type Equipment ] [ Cooldown: 15 Seconds ]

Clenching onto the equipment in one's hand, the user throws it out into a targeted direction, dealing 240% damage equal to the damage that the equipment deals through a normal basic attack.

*Upon usage, you will lose ownership of the item almost immediately and will not be protected under the system's domain of temporal player item protection.

...

"Tch... I can't believe I unlocked such a skill under that kind of circumstance," Ethaniel sighed. He wasn't the type to willingly throw away equipment just because he had no uses for it, especially if it was a sword. He could easily sell them off the market if it was necessary or that he could use it for other means when the opportunity comes.

"Hey, a skill's a skill," Shinto laughed. "At least you'll have use for the spears that the goblins drop," stating out his reasoning, he soon stood up from the ground. "In any case... Breaks over. Let's get a move on and... Huh?" abruptly stopping at his sentence, he soon raised his brow. "Footsteps? Wait... Are these human footsteps?"