The Regressor Is The Villain

My feet stopped right then and there.

(This is weird, why can't I remember the shapes of irregular monsters? No, rather than that.... What irregular monster race?)

Goblins? Kobolds? Or some other monster?

The existence of irregular monsters is becoming increasingly confusing.

Seeing my feet that had stopped moving, everyone looked at me in confusion.

(If I didn't know the form of irregular monsters why did I prepare those 2 monster items?)

I remembered the 2 items that came from monsters, Calajin's venomous tail and Ros' gallbladder.

"Young master? Is the young master alright?"

"What?"

"Young master looks very pale right now..."

Ah! I remembered that we were moving towards the irregular monsters.

"Everyone! Stop moving!"

I shouted as loud as I could for everyone to hear.

Everyone instantly stopped moving and looked at me.

"Look, we're going straight back to the village."

"Eh?"

Everyone looked confused by my sudden decision.

"Don't complain and turn back immediately but you must be very quiet and stealthy."

While everyone looked confused, Signe immediately understood what I meant. She took out something from her bag, a very smelly plant.

"Please take 1 stem of this plant with you."

Signe distributed the plants to all the teams, although most of the teams were confused and didn't want to accept the plants because the smell was so bad but they were forced to accept it after I looked sharply at them.a

Signe and I led the way out while the other members followed behind.

"Young master-"

"Shush!"

Signe tried to say something but I covered her mouth.

Something was moving in front of us, something huge. Everyone else was starting to feel it too.

We hid ourselves into the bushes while monitoring what was in front of us.

As the creature got closer, we could finally see the shape of the creature.

The body was a sticky, transparent liquid, it had no spine, no face, every time it moved all the objects around it entered its body and began to melt.

"...Slime?"

Yes, an enormous slime.

In the world of monsters, slimes are one of those creatures that are still debated whether they belong to the category of monsters or other types of living creatures.

The reason they don't fall into the monster category is because they are not aggressive creatures that attack humans and they are in charge of cleaning up the carcasses of leftover monsters.

Even so Slime can be very dangerous because it can melt anything that enters its body, even living things like humans too. But because they move slowly and have a clear weakness, namely the core in their bodies, slimes are categorized as weak monsters, namely the E+ rank.

Even so, why do I feel the need to run away from these slimes?

"Hah! I thought a powerful monster would appear but it's just a slime!"

Erlan stood up and started talking sarcastically to me while looking at the slime in front of us.

"That fool!"

Seeing the appearance of a living creature, the slime began to move towards us.

"Looks like the young master is still a kid who never saw the outside world huh? Slimes like this are weak monsters, slimes that are only big can't beat me!"

Erlan then picked up his sword and began ordering the other members to attack as well.

"Everyone, get into position! Archers, go straight for the cores in its body! It's time we show our young master the outside world!"

"Mr. Erlan?"

"What's wrong?"

"No, it's just that I don't see the slime core..."

"What?"

We all simultaneously looked at the slime, and sure enough, there was no core at all visible from the slime's transparent body.

(What is this? Why don't slimes have cores? Wait, don't tell me-)

Instantly, the slime suddenly began to pull out something from its body, a kind of tentacle that moved at an unbelievably fast speed.

"What-"

Just as we were looking confused at what had just happened, one of the tentacles went straight through Erlan's head.

"...Eh?"

We all froze to see what was happening in front of us, the tentacles of the slime pierced Erlan's head and then pulled Erlan into the slime.

"..."

Inside the slime, Erlan's body began to writhe in pain. His body seemed to be boiled, skin, flesh, bones, and Tampa realized that Erlan's entire body had disappeared. It all happened in an instant.

"Kyakk!"

"Waahh!!"

"R-run!!!"

Seeing the incident, all the members panicked and started running away without any clear direction.

"T-wait! If you run like that, you'll be caught by those tentacles!"

As I frantically began to explain that, no one seemed to be listening to what I was saying. They kept running out of the bushes.

"Gukh!"

"Agkh!!!"

Some people were immediately caught and some were chased by the tentacles.

"T-help!"

"I don't want to die!!!"

"Kya!!!"

"Father! Mother!"

Seeing the chaos, I tried to stand up and cut off the tentacles but was stopped by Signe.

"Let go!"

"I won't, young master. What you're about to do right now is foolish. The young master should know that it's impossible to save them right now."

"..."

I then looked around me, there was only me and Signe left here.

"No!!! I don't want to die!!!"

"Someone! Help!"

I heard everyone's frightened and desperate voices, and I could only sit in silence unable to do anything.

(Why? Why did it become like this? Isn't it strange? Why didn't I know about this slime?)

Seeing my very pale face, Signe slapped me directly on the face.

"What are you doing?"

"I should have said that! Are you just going to sit here and wait for yourself to be killed?"

"Of course not! But how can we run away from that dangerous monster!"

Perhaps sensing everyone's fear and despair made me unable to think clearly and unable to stabilize my own emotions.

"It's not like you're alone, young master..."

"What do you know of me!"

"I know that you're not one to give up just from obstacles like this!"

"...I..."

I looked into Signe's eyes, eyes that did not look like they were in despair at all.

Seeing those eyes somehow started to make my heart become very calm and made me able to think clearly again.

"Sorry, I seem to be a little surprised by what happened."

"Looks like you're still in shock, young master said sorry."

"Noisy."

I flicked my finger towards Signe's forehead.

"Do you already have a plan?"

"Of course, we're going to fight that monster..."