The two of them filled the copper water bottles and got Xavier a new gun before heading north, hoping to break through the slime infested forest to get to the east region. Their little detour was uneventful, with them not spotting any imps or aquatic dwellers on the way. Xavier still had a single magazine in one of his shirt pockets, and Mickey still had his gun loaded from the previous day, and both of them hoped that it would be enough for what is to come. As they travelled through the forest filled with trees covered in blue leaves and grass, they spotted their first monsters in a while, a large brown slime, large enough to reach their knees appeared and above it's head were the letters, Evolved Earth Slime E-.
"I've never seen one of the brown ones before." Xavier said, looking at the slime as it moved closer towards them
"I heard these things can shoot this stone like projectile from their body, that could pierce clean through a person. I wonder if it's true." Mickey said casually and the slime suddenly stopped. A section of it's body suddenly twisted, like it was tightening, and suddenly they heard a loud bang sound. Xavier instinctively moved his head to the side, as he felt something graze his cheek, and they heard something hit the tree behind them. Blood dripped from Xavier's cheek, and looking behind them, they could see a a huge chunk of the tree missing.
"Fuck." Xavier said, and quickly backed away from the slime and Mickey took his shield off his back.
"Now I know why no one has been able to kill them until now. Do you have any ideas how to kill it?" Mickey asked, while looking at the creature wearily as it slowly advanced towards them
"Nope, and I'd love to figure it out, but we have somewhere to be right now." Xavier said, as he wiped the blood off his cheek and the wound stopped bleeding. Both men backed away from the slime and the slime slowly advanced towards them, but they were easily able to lose it.
"Ok, so maybe the imps aren't the scariest E- ranked monsters here." Mickey said and Xavier nodded his head in agreement. The two of them started jogging towards the east, and they noticed that they didn't see many prisoners here, not as many as they saw the last time they were here, but they could see a lot of blood stains and pools of red blood every so often, but no bodies. They also spotted many of the smaller slimes travelling in groups along with the evolved ones, but they avoided them.
"Do you think that the prisoners numbers are decreasing so fast, isn't because they are killing each other? Well, we know they are killing each other, but maybe not as much as we initially thought. Maybe the monsters are racking up more human kills than we thought." Xavier said as they ran through the forest
"I was thinking the same thing. The more evolved ones are roaming the forest along with the weaker ones, just like the Diabolic Imps and those evolved slimes. I wonder if it's the same with the wolves and goblins as well." Mickey said with a frown on his face and Xavier could more or less guess what they were thinking. They were not sure if E+ was the highest rank of monsters that existed on this isle, and Xavier knew for a fact that the ranks went as high as SSS, and he knew he was nowhere near strong enough to challenge a monster of that rank.
There was also the fact that monsters of the same rank didn't necessarily have the same strength, like the difference in strength between the Evolved Earth Slime E- and the Imp E-. The Evolved Earth Slimes were clearly harder to kill even if with their current attributes, and one interaction was enough to tell them this. This made the two of them worry even more about the boss they were about to face.
They soon left the northern region, and they sighed in relief as they could see yellow leaves. They made their way towards the"Goblin Cave", when they heard the sound of fighting. They looked at each other before heading towards the source of the sound, and they soon found it. A group of five prisoners fighting against two goblin warriors and six goblins. Not surprising to say, the prisoners we're losing. The goblin warriors coordinated the goblins and they fought against the prisoners skillfully, slowly splitting them apart and aiming for their weak spots, their ankles and behind their knees, decreasing their mobility.
"Let's help them." Mickey said and Xavier looked at him before shrugging
"Sure why not." Xavier said and both of them rushed into the battle. Mickey entered the fray, bashing a goblin warrior in the head, sending it flying a few meters away. Seeing the goblin warrior being sent flying so easily, the second one roared something and all the goblins rushed towards Mickey.
"You should really keep an eye on your surroundings." Xavier said, and the goblin warrior quickly spun around, swinging it's axe and forcing Xavier to duck under the blade. He stabbed the goblin warrior in the neck, before pulling out his dagger and kicking it away. He then threw his dagger into the neck of a goblin that was sneaking behind Mickey, stabbing it in the neck. Mickey slashed his sword, easily decapitating a goblin, and he bashed a another one with his shield. The first goblin warrior has already gotten to it's feet and was silently charging towards Mickey with his axe, but Xavier intercepted. He grabbed the monster's hand and sent a powerful knee strike to it's stomach, causing it to keel over before he grabbed he grabbed the axe from it's hand and decapitated it. He felt the weapon in his hand, before nodding his head and rushing towards the other goblins. Without the warriors, the goblins were easy to kill, and it took them a minute to finish them off.
"I-I know you two, you guys are the ones who fight the red devils to the West." One of the prisoners said
"Ok, why do you guys call them red devils? Their called imps." Xavier asked curiously, as he has been wondering this for a while, but before the prisoners could answer, Mickey stepped forward to ask something
"Do you guys hunt over here often?" He asked
"Y-yes." A female prisoner said
"Good, then can you tell me since when the goblin warriors started wandering this far out with a group of goblins?" He asked
"Since around two days ago I guess. It really caught us by surprise as well, but we had no choice but to continue hunting over here since it is the safest. The north has been infested with those evolved slimes that are practically unkillable....for most people." Another female prisoner said, and she between Mickey and Xavier before adding the last part. Xavier and Mickey thought for a second as they processed this information.
"I-I also heard that the evolved wolves, the Iron Fanged Wolf E-, were wandering closer to the Sanctuary as well. They were moving with packs of savage wolves, making it harder to hunt their as well." The third female prisoner said and Xavier nodded his head
"How long ago did you hear that?" Xavier asked
"Yesterday." She answered, and Xavier frowned
"I think I can see a pattern here." Xavier said
"And what would that be?" Mickey asked curiously
"The slimes were by far the easiest monsters to hunt right, to the point where people couldn't find enough of them. We killed a bunch of goblin warriors, scouts, archers and a bunch of goblins near the cave around four days ago. Then Maria went there and killed the goblin warriors again, along with a scout and an archer. We discovered the "Obsidian Ruins"two days ago and killed a lot of Diabolic Imps, and I also snuck into that tower thing, which I'm guessing is their home. Prisoner's started heading to the south and east once they realize they couldn't hunt West and North to pay the Warden's tax. And I'm guessing a few of them wandered really deep into the southern part of the forest. My guess is that they started sending out more monsters into the forest because we have been discovering their dungeons." Xavier said
"So you're saying that someone found the slime and wolf dungeon." Mickey said, considering the possibility
"It's possible, I mean, we can't be the only ones who have been discovering them with like three hundred prisoners here. And it would make sense for them to start sending out more troops since a dungeon is like the monsters' home. And what would you do if a threat enters your home?" Xavier asked
"Wipe them out, so they are sending out the more powerful monsters because the weaker ones are no longer strong enough to kill us. At least, enough to kill us in droves anymore." Mickey said and nodded his head as that sounded plausible
"Uhm." One of the prisoners said, looking at the two of them nervously
"Oh sorry, don't mind us." Xavier said and both of them walked away as they had somewhere to be. The prisoners sighed as they seemed to have forgotten about the monster stones, they knew they couldn't fight them if they decided to take them.
"Oh, you guys can keep the monster stones, we don't need them." Mickey said as he walked away, making them look at his back in gratitude.