They quietly explore the forest side by side, their gazes scanning their surroundings, their hearing heightened to hear any possible encounters. They walked for several minutes inside the forest. Breaking what seemed to be an eternal silence, Abigail spoke up, her manner feigning fear and hurt.
"You murdered that slime" She said in a mocked remorseful tone. Saki narrowed her eyes, forming an exasperated look on her face. "Oh, don't you start" She replied. "You're a barbarian, Saki Nisshin!" She said in an exaggerated tone. Saki's eye twitched in annoyance. "I perceived you as a peaceful folk! Only to deceive me and let your guise fall in a predicament!" Abigail continued, knowing she was getting on Saki's nerves.
"Saki Nisshin! You are a barbarian in nature! Born with a natural thirst for blood! A bloodlust! You aim to soak your blades with the blood of the innocent!" She clasped her hands together. "You have deceived me, me who believed in you, you animal! Truly a deceitful barbarian, you are!" She leans toward Saki's face for a second as she speaks. Saki clicks her tongue in annoyance. "Shut up. I'm telling you" Her voice was tinged with underlying threat.
"You lived among the innocent folk! Oh, how cunning you must be! You deceived every folk around you to see you as their trusted acquaintance! Oh, to walk the very earth of the innocent folks! You truly are-" As she turns back to Saki, she stops mid-sentence, her mouth left open. Saki's glare was intense, full of not even irritation, but a fed-up anger. Her brows furrowed in a way she had never seen before, her eyes burning through her own soul. Abigail closed her mouth and looked back up ahead, a sweat running down her cheek.
"Scary..." She thought as her mouth twitched in fear, her eyes instinctively avoiding Saki's direction. Even as she averted her gaze, she felt her glare burning through her head. "Th-this way, Saki! I know a spot here somewhere where there are slimes!" She said in a shaky voice as she rushed ahead to escape Saki's glare.
Later, they haven't found a single monster. "We must have gone so far into the forest. I didn't know finding monsters is this rare, hey Abby" "Eep!" As Saki calls out, Abigail's body jolts and lets out a yelp. "Wh-what? Why were you so surprised?" Saki asked. "N-nothing..." Abigail took a deep breath and then cleared her throat. "Well, you see. The four nations' efforts in clearing this continent of monsters and their nests are on a different level. They were certain to make this continent habitable, and that meant performing continent-wide joint operations of campaigns" She explained.
"Joint operations? So they teamed their armies up together to clear this continent of monsters for people to migrate into? That's nuts" Saki imagined scattered operations happening in an inhabitable Karagi continent years back. "It would be a hassle to be constantly attacked by monsters, so they made sure to reduce their numbers to a specific estimation. That way, they wouldn't be extinct or perform large-scale attacks. With the upcoming implementation of adventurer guilds and its ranking system, monsters would be crucial to that system" Abigail continued.
As Saki absorbed that information, they encountered a lone slime. "Sha...!" It hissed at Saki, making her jump slightly. "A-a slime! Here we go!" She unsheathed her sword and went into battle. Just like before, the slime performs a normal attack. It jumped and threw itself at Saki with incredible force, but Saki stepped aside. "Haah...!" Saki raised her sword and swung down, dealing 12 damage. "Another one!" She quickly pulls her sword and thrusts its tip back into the slime, dealing 15 damage. The slime bursts, leaving her sword in the air.
"Hah!" Saki cheers as she swings her sword to the side to clean her blade before sheathing it, the feeling ever so great for her. "Thanks to that combo, slaying slimes has become easier now!" She then turned to her interface. 'Saki defeated Slime!' 'Saki earned 20 exp!' She read that gained exp again. "Twenty experience... I got twenty-five earlier, so that makes it forty-five... What am I leveling up to?" She muttered. She looked at Abigail for a second, her lips parting but let out no words. She quickly realized that she would not be giving answers if she asked, so she just brushed off the idea.
"Yes? What is it?" Abigail noticed her holding back. Saki just waved her hand dismissively and walked ahead. "W-wait, what were you going to say?" Abigail followed her behind. "Hey..." She kept asking her over and over again for some time later.
They continued to walk through the forest. It was as if they were going into loops, the trees and its alignment looked all the same, and the shrubs were hard to distinguish. To their relief, they heard the sound of running water. Saki perks up after finally hearing something new. "That sounds like a river! Come on!" She runs up ahead and Abigail runs as well to catch up to her.
After making it to the river, they saw multiple slimes near the waters. "Slimes! There are three of them... Can I take them on?" She asked Abigail. She knew better than to be overconfident, but the fact that she could eliminate slimes effectively now amps the odds of her winning against three slimes. "If you can execute your combo three times, sure. It could tire you out though. Even just watching you swing your sword around makes me breathless, you know" Abigail replied.
"Well, I've been practicing swinging a sword, so I'm kind of used to it now. But swinging from above my head and pulling out and piercing it again and repeating it two more times is indeed tiring" Even if she refuses to admit it, such extensive use of her energy that way would seriously tire her out and put her at a disadvantage, despite her self-training. "Well, as long as you don't get hit by them, why not take the risk? Also, you've also become somewhat of a novice in stepping to the side of your enemy" Abigail replied.
"Just call it dodging, seriously" Saki shook her head and began walking to the slimes. Abigail followed warily behind. Their footsteps weren't subtle, and the slimes quickly noticed their presence and hopped towards them. "They're coming! Be careful!" Abigail steps away as Saki pulls out her sword with a grin. "Alright... Let's do this carefully..." She watched the three slimes carefully, waiting for one of them to jump and attack.
She kept her grip on her sword tight, her gaze drifting from one slime to another. As soon as her interface displays a text, she readies her feet. Slime A on the left jumps and slams itself against Saki, but Saki steps aside and readies her attack. "Here we go!" Saki raised her sword above and swung down, dealing 14 damage to Slime A. Saki pulled out her sword and attempted to drive the tip of her sword into Slime A, but Slime B jumped up and attacked her.
Saki froze as she got caught mid-attack, she watched Slime B rise to the air and slam against her. "Gah...!" Saki let out a gasp as the slime hit her shoulder like being thrown a rock, taking 10 damage. She stumbled to her side and struggled to recover. Taking advantage, Slime C jumps in the air and slams itself against Saki. "Ahh...!" Its strike hits critically, dealing 15 damage.
Saki falls to the ground with labored breath. "Saki! Get up quick!" Abigail yells. Saki received a total of 25 damage, with a max hp of 50, her sustained damage leaves her with only 25 hp left. She felt heavy as she sustained large damage, but forced herself to stand. Digging her sword into the ground, she stood up with shaking limbs. Making a glance at her interface, she reads 'Saki' '25/50'. She lost quite a number and needed to be careful, she thought.
"Saki! Your enemies won't just sit and watch you kill their allies! You need to watch over them too!" Abigail yells. "How am I supposed to do this?" Saki asked herself. Doing her usual slime-attacking combo was no use, just like what happened, the other slimes would attack as soon as she attempted to attack again by thrusting her sword at the same slime. She thinks deeply and comes up with an idea.