It was quite dark outside.

We had started eating dinner when it was already getting dim. And then the angry slimes had gone off hunting, so it was no surprise.

I wanted to start again once it was brighter… But as long as I wasn’t sure how long it would take for the magic stones to change, I could not just leave them here.

After all, the rage of the slimes might cool off by tomorrow.

Thankfully, the slimes were able to see in the dark, so they could continue to search the place.

‘Also, let me know if you see traces of humans anywhere. …There may be footprints in the snow.’

‘Okay!’

The slimes said as they continued to search for the hated Greedy Boars and the cursed stones.

Completed cursed stones affected a wide area and were easy to find. But you had to get very close to find the uncompleted ones.

However, there were a lot of slimes, so it wasn’t too hard.

Actually…

‘Over here!’

‘The food is so good!’

‘Yay! I’m going too!’

————————————————————

‘You have tamed a slime.’

————————————————————

The slimes kept converting other slimes, and so their number was growing.

I no longer knew how many slimes I had, but it was probably approaching 1,000 by now.

Well, having more of them was a good thing.

It meant I could cast a wider net.

I thought about this while I went around and purified the stones.

And then I suddenly got the idea to create a map.

Well, it wasn’t a map of the terrain.

It was just a simple map with the locations of the stones.

It didn’t have any other information on it like towns or cliffs.

However, maybe I would be able to learn something from it.

If there was any common point in the way they were laid out, I might be able to find a pattern for the way the culprit was moving.

—And so I continued to search for the next 5 hours.

Up until now, I was constantly getting reports of new stones, but they suddenly stopped.

And then…

‘It’s getting warmer!’

‘There’s no more snow over here!’

It seemed the slimes that were the furthest ahead had now left the region that was cold.

…Which meant there were probably no more magic stones up ahead.

If there were, they would have sucked up all the energy and made everything cold.

‘You can all come back now! Proud Wolf, help the slimes return!’

‘Understood!’

And so I had the slimes return and then I looked at the completed map.

We had gathered 108 stones in all.

All of the stones were contained in an area that was in the shape of a circle.

…So it seemed only natural to a.s.sumed that something would be in the center of it.

‘When you gather together, come to this point here!’

I said to the few slimes that were around me as I pointed to the map.

As my tamed slimes were able to communicate with each other, this was the same thing as telling all of them.

‘Okay!’

With the help of the Proud Wolf, the slimes started to tighten their net.

Up until now, the slimes were scattered quite far apart, but now they were close enough that they wouldn’t miss a marble on the ground.

And yet, they still did not find anything.

But my instincts were telling me that there must be something here.

There was something about the forest that seemed unnatural.

And it wasn’t just the snow that was here at the wrong season.

There was something different, some alteration that was done to the forest itself.

…Perhaps it was disguised too well.

Or could I just be wrong about it all?

‘What should we do?’

‘Should we wait?’

Waiting for something to happen was a valid option too.

But… We could wait for a whole year, and there was no guarantee that something would happen.

Just waiting seemed too pa.s.sive.

‘…I’ll have to use my trump card then.’